Employee Relations Advisor

Venesky-Brown’s client, a public sector organisation in Croydon, is currently looking to recruit an Employee Relations Case Advisor for an initial 4 month contract on a rate of £17.65 - £19.01/hour PAYE. This role will be based onsite. Responsibilities:- To provide first line advice and guidance to managers on managing short term and long term sickness absence in accordance with the Trust’s Sickness and Attendance Management Policy, following the process through from beginning to end, including holding and supporting managers with termination hearings.- To communicate complex/ sensitive information relating to ill health retirement and redeployment processes (both permanent and temporary redeployment.) To support management and employees with these processes recognising the sensitive and complex nature of cases that often result in these actions.- Complete detailed and accurate ill health retirement applications as per Occupational Health recommendations working in partnership with the individual, manager and national pension’s agency.- To assist managers to reduce sickness absence through active management; supporting and advising Managers in conducting all short and long term sickness review meetings for designated directorate, including offering advice and support on complex and sensitive cases. - To support managers with stage 2 short term sickness review meetings within designated directorate. Supporting with stage 2 appeals as and when required, overseen by the ER Manager as needed.- To lead on all stage 3 short term absence and final review long term absence cases, supporting managers chairing the cases to review stage 3 hearing reports for sickness cases whilst supporting the individuals in a compassionate and dignified way during what is often a difficult period of time for them. Providing management with guidance at the stage 3 hearing overseen by the ER Manager as needed.- Supporting the Senior ER Advisors and ER Manager to collate any case material needed for appeals raised against stage three hearings, and attend to support the manager during these hearings.- Communicate complex information/processes including redeployment, ill health retirement, and procedure for stage 3 sickness hearing to managers and employees.- Liaise with Occupational Health for guidance and support on complex sickness cases. Participate in regular Occupational Health case conferences for complex cases, to ensure effective management and resolution.- To use ESR sickness data when managing short and long term sickness cases, to be able to provide information to staff and managers when approaching half or nil pay- To monitor and ensure long term sickness absence cases which go beyond 12 months absence pay is reinstated at half pay. This involves notifying and reporting the action to the relevant manager and ensuring pay is reinstated at the correct period of time in line with agenda for change terms and conditions, whilst escalating the financial impact and reasons for the reinstatement to the senior directorate lead - Support managers and individuals with any management of roll over statutory annual leave.- To identify potential hot spot areas of concern across the directorates and work in partnership with the HR Business Partnering team, Occupational Health and Staff Health and Wellbeing leads to identify and implement interventions that may be appropriate to address local issues in a multidisciplinary team way.- Interpret and advise managers on Trust policies to ensure compliance, whilst offering general HR advice to all Trust staff.- To take a leading HR role on Flexible Working applications and appeals, supporting managers to review the particular impacts any flexible working application may have to both the individual and the service. Ensure advice is provided to enable Managers to make appropriate decisions when considering refusal of applications. Regularly run reports from ESR on the number of flexible working requests that are being made and identify areas where there are outliers, contacting the relevant senior lead to identify reasons behind the data that is being reported. Support new managers with any flexible working request process- To take a leading role on any case that relates to fixed term contracts where they are due to expire and are not to be renewed supporting managers to hold the relevant hearings prior to the end of the contract period in line with employment law legislation- To produce own and support the process of collation of packs for formal sickness and Flexible working Hearings and distribute to the Panel, Management and staff accordingly in a timely manner when required.- To support with taking and transcribing notes / minutes of formal Employee Relations Meetings and Hearings (including, Sickness, Disciplinary, Grievance, Capability etc.) - Update the ESR case management systems and trackers to ensure that ER cases are accessible and up to date for accurate reporting.- Provide advice and first level support to managers and staff on aspects of employee relations including DBS, Professional Registration, conduct issues and other matters, whilst keeping the relevant Senior ER Advisor updated, escalating to the ER Manager or Head of Strategic ER where necessary. Support with any investigations and hearings that may arise from these cases as directed by the ER Manager.- Support the development and delivery of the Employee Relations procedures, promoting innovation and operational excellence - To participate in the authoring, updating and revision of HR Policies, guidance and document templates, leading on the content and supporting managers guidance that goes with such a critical role, working in partnership with the trade unions to ensure swift adoption Trust wide.- To provide efficient HR and employee relation support to the Senior ER Advisor(s) and HR Business Partner(s) in a proactive way be that via support taking minutes at meeting, collating hearing and tribunal packs or providing general support to the ER Administrators as they respond to general HR queries via the team’s shared inbox.- Directing staff and managers to appropriate policies and template letters; ensuring these are implemented- Support the ER Administrators with the collation of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for information, liaising with directorate managers as required to ensure information provided is accurate and in a timely manner, recognising the sensitive and confidential nature of information held by the HR team- Dealing with general enquiries and recording and relaying accurate messages. Ensure all correspondence is accurate, and ensure incoming post, queries, and complaints are dealt with in a timely manner (for the HR and ER team) supporting the ER Administrators as needed- To be confident running reports and analysing complex and highly sensitive data relating to individuals employment, spotting trends and patterns to identify potential interventions and improvements needed. This involves presenting that information to senior leaders across the organisation, including senior directorate leadership teams.- To assist Senior ER Advisors and HR Business Partnering team to deliver training sessions for Managers on all HR policies such as Managing Sickness Absence and Performance Management.- To provide one to one support to managers relating to procedures and policies Finance/ Payroll- Submit monthly reports to the payroll liaison team with details of open-ended long-term sickness cases, in order to help minimise any incorrect overpayments. Monitoring the return to half pay of long term (over 12 months absent) employees. Work with managers to ensure accurate reporting of information onto the e-rostering- To actively participate in and contribute to annual personal development reviews (PDR). - To act as a first point of contact for all callers and visitors to the designated directorate HR Team, where appropriate provide information to resolve their enquiries. Directing callers to the appropriate member of the HR and OD directorate as necessary.Essential Skills:- CIPD or working towards- Knowledge of employment law relating to employee relations - Knowledge of the Equality Act (2010) - Knowledge of the Data Protection Act (1998) - Understanding the need for confidentiality in this role - Understanding the challenges facing the NHS- Office administration experience including the production of confidential, official/legal documents or processes related to employment - Experience of taking and transcribing notes / minutes of formal meetings- Experience of handling difficult or sensitive situations - Experience of using a HR or Payroll system- Experience of supporting HR cases or managing queries in a highly complex, unionised organisation - Experience of providing advice and recommendations to Managers and staff on employee relations issuesDesirable Skills:- CIPD/Part Qualified- Knowledge of NHS Employers - NHS employment standards - Knowledge of Agenda for Change terms and conditions- Knowledge of the Trust’s HR Policies and procedures- Experience of previous or current HR role in the NHS or public sector - Experience of NHS Jobs / recruitment systems / ESR - Experience of e-DBS - Experience of ESRIf you would like to hear more about this opportunity please get in touch.