Employee Relations Business Partner - Specified Purpose Contract

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.