About this role
Job summary
Are you an experienced HR professional who is passionate about supporting people, developing teams and making a positive difference across healthcare services?
We are looking for an HR Manager to join our Employee Relations team and play a key role in delivering an outstanding people service across Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a team of HR Advisors and HR Officers, providing expert employee relations advice while helping managers create positive, inclusive and high-performing workplaces.
You'll be a trusted partner to leaders across the organisation, supporting complex employee relations matters, driving service improvements and helping us achieve our workforce ambitions. Alongside managing your own casework, you will coach and develop others, ensuring our advice is consistent, compassionate and legally compliant.
If you have strong employee relations expertise, excellent communication skills and a commitment to delivering high-quality people services, we'd love to hear from you. In return, you'll join a supportive and forward-thinking workforce team where your expertise will help shape the experience of colleagues delivering excellent care at the heart of the community.
Main duties of the job
As HR Manager, you will provide day-to-day leadership to our Employee Relations team, ensuring managers and staff receive professional, responsive and solutions-focused HR support. You'll oversee team caseloads, provide coaching and guidance, and act as an escalation point for complex and sensitive employee relations matters.
You will manage a portfolio of complex cases across areas such as attendance management, capability, disciplinary, grievance and organisational change, ensuring fair and consistent outcomes that reflect employment legislation, NHS terms and conditions and Trust policies.
We're looking for someone with significant experience in employee relations, strong leadership skills and the ability to build effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. You'll be confident influencing decision-making, analysing workforce information, identifying risk and supporting managers to develop their people management capability.
Most importantly, you'll share our commitment to compassionate leadership, inclusion and continuous improvement, helping us deliver a high-quality workforce service that supports colleagues to provide excellent care for our communities.
About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement Excellent training, development, and research opportunities Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values - Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence - guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job description Job responsibilities
The HR Manager is responsible for the operational management of the Employee Relations Advisory team, ensuring the delivery of a professional, customer-focused and high-quality employee relations service across the Trust.
Reporting to the Operational Manager for HR, the postholder will provide day-to-day leadership, supervision and development of HR Advisors and HR Officers, supporting a culture of learning, continuous improvement and service excellence. They will allocate and monitor workloads, oversee case management standards and ensure consistent, legally compliant advice is delivered across the organisation.
The postholder will personally manage a portfolio of complex and sensitive employee relations cases, providing specialist guidance on disciplinary, grievance, capability, attendance management, organisational change and performance management matters. They will act as an experienced practitioner and escalation point, supporting managers to achieve fair, proportionate and timely resolutions.
Working closely with HR Business Partners, Workforce colleagues, Trade Union representatives and operational leaders, the HR Manager will build strong professional relationships and provide expert advice that supports positive employee experiences and organisational objectives.
Key responsibilities include:
Leading, coaching and developing members of the Employee Relations team. Managing complex employee relations casework and undertaking investigations where required. Supporting formal hearings and appeals as HR advisor or panel member. Monitoring team performance, case management activity and service standards. Using workforce information and management data to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement. Supporting organisational change programmes and workforce transformation initiatives. Delivering training, coaching and management development activities to improve people management capability across the Trust. Supporting the implementation, review and development of workforce policies and procedures. Contributing to workforce governance, audit and compliance activity. Supporting Employment Tribunal preparation through the collation of documentation, evidence and case records. Providing advice on NHS terms and conditions, job evaluation and organisational design matters. Identifying and escalating workforce risks and contributing to service improvement plans. The postholder will act as a role model for the Trust's values, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, compassionate leadership and a culture where colleagues feel valued, supported and empowered to deliver excellent care at the heart of the community.
Person Specification
Qualifications and/or professional registration Essential
Educated to degree level or equivalent experience Associate or Chartered CIPD membership or working towards CIPD Level 7 Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
MHPS (Maintaining High Professional Standards) Training Agenda for Change Job Evaluation training Management or leadership qualification
Experience Essential
Significant experience of managing complex employee relations cases Experience of providing HR advice within a large complex organisation Experience of supervising or managing staff Experience of advising on attendance management, disciplinary, grievance and capability processes Experience of supporting organisational change programmes Experience of coaching and developing managers Experience of using workforce information and data to support service delivery Experience working in the NHS or comparable public sector organisation
Desirable
Experience of supporting Employment Tribunal preparation Experience of Job Evaluation and Job Matching processes Experience of policy review and development Experience of delivering management development sessions
Other requirement Essential
Ability to travel to services across the Trust
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Employer details Employer name Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Address Brighton General Hospital
Elm Grove
Brighton
BN2 3EW
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/ (Opens in a new tab)