Employee Relations Business Partner - Specified Purpose Contract

Help design, deliver and, when required, lead the ROI’s employee relations, colleague
listening and business change strategies and plans

Develop and maintain effective working relationships with Unions (by
leading or supporting, as appropriate, with the communication, consultation, or
negotiation between parties) to create a proactive partnership with each union which,
at its heart, jointly delivers business benefit and positive colleague engagement.

Work closely with key stakeholders, to develop and deliver toolkits, training
interventions and upskilling strategies which raise line manager ER capability and
confidence to ensure policies are applied correctly; colleague experience is enhanced;
business change is implemented appropriately; and trade union partners are properly
engaged.

Provide expert employee relations advice and input into business change
programmes. This includes partnering with ROI People Partners and M&S UK CoE’s
as necessary to ensure the effective delivery and end- to-end management of
operational or transformational change which can include, when required, assisting
or leading trade union negotiations/consultation.

Develop and simplify ROI people policies and processes to ensure they are legal,
competitive, practical, meet future business needs, and enhance the M&S brand and
colleague experience. This includes ensuring that ROI policies and processes are
communicated effectively, and their delivery is supported, when required, with
appropriate training.

Partner with subject matter experts to ensure any policy related system change
requirements and dependencies are fully understood, resource-effective, will be
supported by robust user acceptance testing and, if necessary, launched with user
training to ensure successful deployment.

Monitor and interpret changes to ROI employment legislation and undertake external
benchmarking to ensure M&S remains compliant and a best practice and innovative
employer.

Lead (from design to post implementation review) projects as required and act as
the ROI’s subject matter expert by providing guidance and support to HR colleagues,
line managers, and colleagues on policy, employee relations and colleague
engagement and listening matters.

Manage and provide expertise to line managers on how complex casework should
be handled and progressed (working with Legal and other specialists) to the case’s
successful conclusion.

Foster a culture of continuous improvement, by seeking feedback, designing and
developing metrics and incorporating insights and learning to refine policies and
processes and to measure their effectiveness.

Create and maintain effective working relationships with M&S’s UK Policy and ER
specialists (and other UK CoEs) to ensure ROI and UK policy and people strategies
are (when appropriate) congruent and jointly promote the M&S brand whilst
minimising any ER risks or issues across the company’s island of Ireland operation.