At Nationwide, having a clear focus on our performance and people is critical to successfully delivering our strategic drivers and creating the best service for our customers. Our HR Case Management team have always played a pivotal role in providing both specialist employee relations advice to managers, and end to end support regarding performance management, misconduct, sickness absence, whistleblowing and resolving all workplace disputes.
Further investment has been secured to support our evolved operating model, increasing our agility and capacity to coach managers, whilst continuing to provide the trusted, specialist advice in difficult situations that we are valued for.
As a Senior Employee Relations Specialist on a 12 month Fixed Term Contract basis, you’ll be a pivotal part of embedding Nationwide’s new performance management framework, working as part of a specialist HR team supporting business leaders with the most complex people management employee relations cases through to resolution, building trusted relationships with key business functions.
At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.
For this job you'll be located at our nearest regional hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events in one of our office sites. This is anticipated to be every 6 to 8 weeks in Swindon plus ad hoc travel to attend other appointments (a hearing as an example).
If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.
What you’ll be doing
You’ll be part of a well-valued and supportive team, acting as a trusted advisor to business leaders at all levels, building strong relationships and managing a complex Employee Relations caseload.
You’ll operate at pace, with pragmatism, accuracy and a commercial lens, delivering quality, consistent and risk-based end-to-end people management advice and solutions. As well as providing hands on support for complex investigations, whistleblowing cases, formal hearings, meetings and appeals.
In addition, you will ensure we get leaders the right support for their needs, working across the team to embed an evolved operating model, minimising handoffs and encouraging end to end ownership. You’ll provide expert coaching, tailored training and ER surgeries to line managers facilitating the practical implementation of Nationwide’s people policies and procedures.
About you
* Demonstrable experience in complex Employee Relations case management, preferably in a fast-paced regulated, financial services or unionised environment
* A strong relationship builder with the ability and passion to influence, partner and coach managers on challenging people management issues
* A sound knowledge of employment law and ACAS guidelines and applying this with a commercial lens in a workplace setting
* Excellent communication skills both written and verbal, with experience in report writing
* Excellent attention to detail with the ability to balance workloads from different sources, and prioritise cases appropriately, managing stakeholder expectations
* Experience of identifying trends, process improvements and proposing suitable solutions
Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.
* Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
* Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
* Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.
We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.
The extras you’ll get
There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:
* A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
* Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
* Life assurance worth 8x your salary
* A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
* Wellhub – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
* Access to an annual performance related bonus
* Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
* 25 days holiday, pro rata
What makes us different
Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.
As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.
When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.
What to do next
If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up to date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.
We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.