Employee Relations Team Manager

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Job reference 338799

Competitive salary plus 15% annual bonus potential, £4000 car allowance or £3,500 cash equivalent, 26 days annual leave (rising with service) plus bank holidays, and a company pension scheme with highly competitive contribution rates

Location: London or South-East

Travel: Ability to travel to and within the geographical area is required.

Full time, permanent

At Royal Mail, we keep the country connected. Behind that promise is a strong, fair and trusted workplace. We're now looking for an Employee Relations Team Manager to play a pivotal role in shaping how we manage complex and sensitive employee relations matters across the business. This is a leadership role offering real influence, autonomy and the opportunity to make a lasting impact.

About the role

As Employee Relations Team Manager, you'll lead and strategically guide a high-performing team of ER Case Managers, overseeing a broad portfolio of complex, high-risk and often precedent-setting cases. These include conduct and grievance appeals (up to and including dismissal for gross misconduct), whistleblowing and raising concerns investigations, employment tribunal claims, and CEO / Executive Committee-level complaints.

You'll operate with a high degree of autonomy, acting as a key decision-maker on employment tribunal strategy and settlement, while ensuring our approach is legally robust, commercially sound and aligned to Royal Mail values.

Just as importantly, you'll spot trends, tackle root causes and drive organisational learning -helping us build stronger leadership capability and reduce people risk across the business.

What you'll be responsible for

• Leading, motivating and developing a team of circa 13 ER professionals, setting clear expectations and building capability for the future.
• Driving a high-performing culture through coaching and development
• Providing strategic oversight of complex, sensitive and high-risk ER cases, ensuring consistent, high-quality decision-making and governance.
• Acting as an autonomous decision-maker on employment tribunal claims, including instructing external lawyers, attending judicial mediation and agreeing settlements within delegated authority.
• Building trusted relationships with senior leaders, HR Directors, Legal and Compliance teams, and external partners.
• Identifying ER risks, analysing case data and trends, and translating insight into practical improvements and policy recommendations.
• Horizon-scanning employment law and best practice, embedding learning into team standards and wider people strategy.
• Ensuring legal compliance while protecting Royal Mail from reputational and financial risk.

What we're looking for

You'll be an experienced ER leader who is confident operating at senior level and comfortable making high-impact decisions in complex, high-risk environments.

You'll bring:

• Significant experience of leading and developing ER or HR teams.
• Previous experience managing employment tribunals and working closely with legal teams.
• Deep expertise in employee relations and employment law.
• The credibility and confidence to influence, challenge and advise senior stakeholders.
• Strong judgement, resilience and discretion when handling highly sensitive matters.
• Experience working within a large, complex organisation (desirable).
• Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to turn data and insight into clear, strategic action.
• The ability to navigate ambiguity and provide calm, decisive leadership.

Extra Benefits

• Family friendly support - enhanced maternity pay, paternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave
• Supportive and generous company sick pay
• Funded Dental - As a manager you are eligible to a level of employer funded dental insurance*
• Health Assessment - As a manager you are eligible to an employer funded health assessment every 2 years*
• Benefits Account - You will have access to your personal benefits account on our 'My Bundle+' platform. There are more than 800 retail offers to help you save on things like groceries, days out, holidays and your household bills as well as employer provided and voluntary benefits to suit your lifestyle.
• Your Wellbeing - you and your family have 24/7 access to services and tools to help you get the most out of life. From your physical and mental health to financial and social support and advice. It's free, and it's for everyone.

*Available only to permanent employees

Next Steps

The next stage of the selection process will be a virtual interview consisting of competency based and role specific questions. We plan to hold interviews from 29th May.

Trust is the foundation of Royal Mail. We aim to be transparent about the qualities we seek and what a career with us entails, building trust from the start of your journey with us. Your interview is the first step, and we want you to shine. To help you prepare, we'll provide your interview questions in advance, so you can have your best examples ready. At Royal Mail Group, we value trust and our people.

We understand that candidates may not meet all the criteria for the role. If your experience is different, but you have relevant skills we'd love to hear from you.

Royal Mail Group is committed to inclusion and representing the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from all individuals. As a proud Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, we especially encourage applications from the Armed Forces community, including cadet instructors and spouses/partners.

We are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to support you during the hiring process, please discuss these with your recruiter when contacted.

We are Forces family friendly and a Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant. We welcome applications from ex-Armed Forces personnel, reservists, veterans, cadet instructors and military spouses/partners.

For more information on Royal Mail Group and our values please click here: https://www.internationaldistributionsservices.com/en/about-us/

Closing Date: Tuesday 19th May 2026. Please note, this advert may close early if the appropriate number of applications has been reached.

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