Head of Employee Relations - London, United Kingdom - Southeastern Railway

Southeastern Railway
Southeastern Railway
Verified Company
London, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago

Tom O´Connor

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Tom O´Connor

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Description
Job Introduction

What is the job about?
Change, change and change. And some more change. You will be part of the team that delivers the industry changes at Southeastern.


You'll also:

support the implementation of rolling stock (trains to you and me), influence the internal communication and engagement strategy, assist in developing management capability and employee involvement and ensure that case management becomes employee focussed, agile and timely.


Where will I work?
You'll get to manage your own time.

You can spend your time at home, in the office or in an internet café if it suits your style.

You'll need to travel across Kent on a fairly regular basis and you'll need to get out and about to speak to frontline colleagues, managers and union representatives.


If you want. It could even be part-time.

Hear more about the views of our people.
Main Responsibilities


Purpose:

To drive change and improvements in working practices through effective trades union and employee engagement.

To understand, influence and suggest ways of improving business processes and employee involvement to make Southeastern a better place to work.

Responsible for maintaining a positive relationship with employees and the trades unions whilst ensuring the consultation/negotiation of all change programmes, HR policies and procedures are undertaken in accordance with the procedural agreements.

Overseeing case management to ensure effective resolution for employees and the business.


Accountabilities:


  • Identify employee relations implications of the short / long term company plans highlighting perceived problem areas. Develop an employee relations strategy to meet the company's objectives whilst mitigating risk.
  • Take the lead role in all planning all significant staff restructuring initiatives, maximising the benefits for the company whilst ensuring that effective communications takes place at all levels.
  • Assist in the development of the individual case management strategy by ensuring that high profile cases are managed, other cases are resolved quickly and lessons are learnt.
  • Organise and chair regular Company Council meetings ensuring that all issues are addressed in a timely manner.
  • Support the business leads by either chairing or actively facilitating negotiations and consultations with the Trade Unions and Company Councils on Company wide issues including annual pay and conditions reviews.
  • Act as the point of contact for Trades Unions, responding to items of correspondence in a timely manner and progressing all issues with relevant directorates.

Is it for me?
You can view this role through an old fashioned and traditional lens.

You could also read the newspaper headlines and draw the conclusion that this is all about managing agreements, managing a dispute and changing terms and conditions.


Of course, there will be elements of this and you will need to be comfortable with looking at the detail and understanding what proposals mean for the business and people.

But what the role is really about is about being central to delivering change. Expertise in industrial relations and policies will not be enough.

Your key focus will be on influencing people at all levels of the organisation, the trades unions and industry partners.


It is an exciting opportunity to ensure that business improvements are delivered for customers in a way that engage staff.

You don't have to be an extrovert but you need to be confident and persuasive - you need to get involved early on and ensure colleagues and the unions are considered as part of change.

If your preference is to sit on the side-lines draft papers and respond when asked a specific technical question then this role is not for you.


Do I need railway experience?
It would be helpful but is not essential. However, you will need experience of working with trades unions on collective issues and change.

If you've focussed on individual cases and assisted in restructuring to date then that probably won't be enough on its own.

Transferrable skills obtained from experience in logistics, airlines, buses, NHS, Royal Mail, BT, water, power, retail, construction or similar would be an advantage.


Skills, experience and knowledge

  • Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to perform effectively in a consultancy role, as well as to influence decisionmakers.
  • Strong negotiation skills.
  • Resilient and able to operate under pressure and deal with difficult situations.
  • Good planning and organisational skills.
  • Problem Solving
  • Identifies potential difficulties and causes, generating workable solutions and making rational judgements.
About The Company

The standard blurb


Southeastern is one of the busiest commuter rail companies in the UK running more than 2,000 trains, and carrying nearly 600,000* passengers every day between London, Kent and East Sussex.

Just over 4,500 employees - mostly from the communities that we ser
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