Employee Relations Business Partner - Specified Purpose Contract

JobID: 128137

Category: Human Resources

JobSchedule: Full time

Posted Date: 2026-09-11T13:52:34+00:00

JobShift:

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• 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.

• Work effectively with the rest of the Ireland People Team, by contributing ideas and

expertise and acting as a fully participative team member to assist colleagues in the

delivery of all elements of the People Plan and to be a high-performance team.