What is the opportunity?
Group Employee Relations plays a key role in delivering the Bank's People Strategy, we support the organisation through change while ensuring colleagues are treated fairly, consistently and with respect. As an Employee Relations Manager, you will provide expert guidance on complex people matters, helping managers and stakeholders navigate challenges and achieve positive outcomes. This is an opportunity to combine your employment law expertise, coaching skills and commercial awareness to influence decision-making, minimise risk and support a positive colleague experience across the Bank.
Please note there is an expectation to attend the Bristol office two days per week.
In this role, you will:
- Manage a portfolio of complex employee relations cases, providing practical advice and solutions to managers, People Services Business Partners and other stakeholders.
- Support and guide managers in handling a range of employee relations matters, including performance concerns, disciplinary processes, grievances, dignity at work issues and employment-related legal cases.
- Act as an escalation point for high-risk or sensitive cases, helping to ensure fair, consistent and legally compliant outcomes.
- Lead and contribute to employee relations initiatives and cross-functional programmes, working closely with colleagues across Human Resources, Legal and other business areas.
- Deliver learning sessions and coaching to managers across the UK, building confidence and capability in managing employee relations matters effectively.
What will make you stand out?
You will be an experienced Human Resources professional with a solid understanding of employee relations and employment law across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You are comfortable managing complex and sensitive situations, balancing empathy with sound judgement to achieve fair and practical outcomes.
Strong relationship-building and influencing skills will help you work effectively with partners at all levels, while your commercial awareness enables you to align people decisions with wider strategic objectives. You will enjoy mentoring and supporting managers, helping them build confidence in handling employee relations matters.
Experience with the following will help you stand out.
- Handling complex employee relations case portfolios across large organisations.
- Supporting employment tribunal preparation and case management.
- Identifying employee relations trends and developing proactive solutions to address them.
Essential qualifications
Degree or equivalent experience in Human Resources, Business or another relevant field.
More about the team
The Group Employee Relations team supports the Bank's strategic priorities by fostering constructive and sustainable relationships across the organisation. The team works closely with managers, employee representatives, Legal and Human Resources colleagues to provide expert guidance on a wide range of people matters.
You will join a knowledgeable and supportive team focused on ensuring colleagues are treated fairly, consistently and with dignity and respect. The team plays an important role in managing risk, supporting organisational change and helping leaders make informed people decisions. Working in a collaborative environment, you will have the opportunity to contribute to key initiatives while continuing to build your own expertise and professional network.
This is a hybrid role, based primarily in Temple Quay, Bristol. We typically ask colleagues to spend a minimum of 8 days per month working in-person to support collaboration and connection. Specific arrangements will be confirmed by your recruiter to ensure they meet the needs of the role and team.
#li-hybrid #ij-hybrid
Why work with us
The Bank of Ireland company culture prioritises work?'life balance with a commitment to hybrid working, along with 24 days annual leave and excellent pension contributions.
Family can mean different things to different people; we offer 6 months paid maternity leave, an innovative fertility and surrogacy policy along with working parent and carer supports.
Your health and wellbeing is important to us; we offer a substantial health insurance contribution, Employee Assistance Programme, WebDoctor and financial wellbeing coaches.
We also encourage and support colleagues to pursue educational and professional qualifications to grow and enhance your career.
We're on a continuous journey to build an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, lived experience, abilities and perspectives. We provide reasonable accommodations at every stage of our recruitment process for disabilities, neurodivergence or medical conditions. If you require an accommodation please complete this form and one of our recruitment team members will be in touch via email.
Any information provided will be treated as confidential within the recruitment team and used only for the purpose of determining and providing appropriate accommodations for the application and recruitment process.
Where Agency assistance is required Bank of Ireland Recruitment Team will engage directly with suppliers. Unsolicited CVs / profiles supplied to Bank of Ireland by Recruitment Agencies will not be accepted for this role.
