Why join us

As our Employee Relations (ER) Specialist, you will have the opportunity to work in a collaborative and inclusive environment, providing expert advice and solutions on complex cases. Your role will contribute to maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace culture while upholding our commercial responsibilities. As an integral member of our team, you will have the opportunity to build strong relationships with senior leaders and HR teams, working together to drive impactful change and continuous improvement.

What you'll do

You'll collaborate with our People Partnering team, offering strategic expertise in Employee Relations, providing advice and solutions for complex, high-risk, or high-profile cases, ensuring that they are resolved in accordance with legal requirements and our valued behaviours. Building trusted relationships with senior leaders and HR teams, you will assess risk and make bold decisions that align with our ER strategy. You will collaborate with stakeholders to develop ER plans, address risk areas, and drive improvements, using data to provide meaningful insights and recommendations.

In addition, you will lead litigation cases, ensuring effective risk assessment and negotiation, while maintaining case confidentiality. Your expertise will extend to coaching leaders on employee relations matters, enhancing line manager capability, and actively contributing to the continuous improvement of our ER services. Ultimately, your success will be measured by the resolution of complex cases, effective management of litigation, adherence to policies and procedures, and the development of a strong ER environment.

Who you are

You will be a HR Generalist or Business Partner with a deep knowledge of all aspects of employee relations coupled with a strong understanding of employment law and occupational health which means you play a key role in providing expert advice and solutions. Your ability to assess risk, make bold and commercial decisions, and apply them within policies and procedures contributes to the delivery of expert ER advice that aligns with our ER strategy. With excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, you build strong relationships and effectively collaborate with senior stakeholders, and teams across the business to provide insights, drive ER improvements, and support business change activities. Your ability to prioritise complex case management, maintain case confidentiality, and lead litigation cases ensures effective resolution with minimal disruptions. With your strong commercial acumen and understanding of our business areas, you provide tailored support, drive continuous improvement, and deliver results that balance risk and commercial necessity in line with our ER objectives and values.

What you need to know and show

Essentials

• Strong expertise in all aspects of HR and employee relations, employment law and occupational health
• Ability to confidently assess risk in cases and make bold and commercial decisions that align with our ER strategy and valued behaviours
• Expertly apply decisions within our policies and procedures and knowing when we can push boundaries for the right ER outcome
• Proven stakeholder management skills and relationship building
• Deep expertise and knowledge of employment matters
• Excellent judgement, which uses a combination of experience and sound technical expertise
• Excellent verbal and written communications with the ability to break down complex information and communicate simply across a range of stakeholders
• Ability to create and execute an ER plan to make improvements on the ER performance of your business area/geographical patch and engage stakeholders in how, collaboratively, we achieve the required improvements
• Action-orientated with high energy, pace, agility, and pragmatism driven to deliver advice that is efficient, professional, and credible
• Strong commercial skills, balancing an environment of risk with commercial necessity
• Confident in using data to bring to life meaningful insight for our stakeholders, allowing us to drive the right focus for different ER outcomes

Desirables

• How to get the best out of HR and ER technologies
• Mediation skills and techniques used to support informal resolutions

Qualifications

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).

Responsibilities

Our people are at the heart of our business, and we are looking for those that are just as passionate about that as we are. Join our People team, and come with us on a journey as we transform the way we do HR. Our team is made up of business partners working with leaders to get the most out of their teams, specialist knowledge in our centres of expertise, and colleague-centric, efficient people services. Our work ranges from making sure that our 150,000+ colleagues are paid on time to attracting brilliant talent to drive our strategy, to unlocking the skills and capability of our colleagues. This is a fast-moving business, and we make sure our policies and rewards keep up with that too. We know flexibility is important and helps you be more productive so there's more choice than ever about where and when you work. When it comes to your development, we'll support your growth in your own unique way. When you join us, you’ll be joining a team that knows just what it means to be happy and engaged, and who makes a real impact across our business.