Head of Employee Relations and Culture

We’re looking for an experienced and resilient Head of Employee Relations and Culture to join our Central Service team located at our Head Office in Islington!

£60,000.00 - £65,000.00 per annum depending on experience, working 35 hours per week.

Our benefits include:

• Annual leave increasing up to 30 days with length of service
• Season ticket loans for public transport travel to work
• Exclusive discounts and cashback via Reward Gateway® and opportunity to buy a Blue Light Card
• Fully paid induction programme and further training
• ILM courses and Apprenticeship Programmes
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme for 24-7 confidential support
• Online wellbeing resources
• A generous pension – we will contribute up to 8% matched pension
• Quarterly Staff Awards to reward & recognise our amazing staff’s commitment and contribution
• Free DBS

All applicants must be legally eligible to work in the UK by the start of employment as Look Ahead are not able to offer sponsorship.

The Head of Employee Relations and Culture is responsible for leading the organisation’s approach to employee relations, culture, and staff engagement, ensuring the delivery of fair, consistent, and values-led people practices across the organisation.

The role provides leadership to shape, embed, and sustain a positive organisational culture that aligns with the organisation’s purpose, values, and strategic objectives. The role leads on cultural change, employee engagement, inclusion, and behaviours, working in close partnership with the Executive Team, People function, and leaders across the organisation. This role will act as an internal expert and change leader, supporting leaders to role model values and drive high performance, wellbeing, and accountability

This role provides strategic leadership and expert guidance on complex employee relations matters and working closely with managers and leaders to embed behaviours that support staff accountability, enabling colleagues to deliver high-quality services to our customers.

What you’ll do:

This is not an exhaustive list of all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time and is subject to change in accordance with the needs of Look Ahead.

Employee relations leadership

• Lead the delivery of a high-quality, responsive employee relations service across the organisation.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership for all employee relations activity, including disciplinary, grievance, absence management, probations, performance and capability, restructures, redundancies and TUPE. This includes attending meetings, consultations and appeals as the HR representative.
• Act as the organisational expert on complex, sensitive or high‑risk Employee Relations cases, ensuring proportionate, lawful and values‑based decision‑making.
• Provide, and ensure the team provides clear, pragmatic advice that balances legal risk, organisational values and operational realities.
• Ensure ER cases are managed consistently, fairly and in line with employment law, internal policies and best practice.
• Oversee casework reporting, trends analysis and risk escalation to the Director of People.
• Develop and maintain clear, accessible employee relations policies and procedures aligned with UK employment law and sector best practice.
• Build organisational capability by coaching and developing managers to handle people matters effectively and confidently.
• Lead the organisation’s approach to partnership working with trade unions and staff representatives, supporting constructive and collaborative relationships.
• Work with legal partners, where required and within budget, on high risk or Employment Tribunal cases.

Culture, values and employee voice

• Lead and champion a positive, inclusive and respectful organisational culture aligned to Look Ahead’s values.
• Lead the development and delivery of initiatives that strengthen organisational culture, staff engagement and recognition.

Policy, governance and assurance

• Lead the development, review and implementation of employee relations policies and procedures, ensuring they are legally compliant, accessible and consistently applied.
• Maintain strong governance and audit trails for ER decisions and outcomes.
• Ensure lessons learned from ER cases are captured and used to improve policies, practice and leadership capability.
• Identify and escalate people-related risks appropriately.

Leadership and capability building

• Coach, support and challenge managers and leaders to manage people issues confidently, consistently and at the lowest appropriate level.
• Build management capability across the organisation activity through training, guidance and practical tools for managers.
• Lead, manage and develop the Employee Relations team, ensuring high standards of professional practice and service delivery.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the Employee Relations function.
• Act as a role model for professional, inclusive, and values-led leadership.
• Oversee People and Legal budget ensuring value for money and effective budget management.
• Work alongside the Head of Talent and Development on effective Succession Planning.

Partnership and influence

• Work collaboratively with People colleagues, manager and leaders, Safeguarding, Health & Safety, and other corporate teams on cross‑organisational issues.
• Ensure robust approaches to managing safeguarding-related employment matters in line with organisational responsibilities.
• Contribute to People Strategy priorities and wider organisational change initiatives.
• Provide strategic advice to the Director of People on employee relations risks, trends, and workforce culture.
• Alongside the Head of Talent and Development develop and embed a consistent, values-led approach to people management across the organisation.
• Promote a culture of fairness, accountability, inclusion, and psychological safety.
• Use employee relations data, staff feedback, and engagement insights to identify organisational risks and improvement opportunities.
• Support organisational transformation initiatives through proactive people planning and engagement.
• Provide reports and insight to senior leadership on employee relations trends, risks, and engagement outcomes.

About you:

• Significant experience leading busy employee relations functions within a medium to large organisation.
• Experience managing complex and high-risk employee relations cases.
• Proven experience of leading culture, engagement, or organisational development initiatives.
• Experience managing and developing teams.
• Experience working with trade unions and managing collective relationships.
• Experience advising senior leaders on complex and sensitive people matters.
• Experience supporting organisational change and transformation.
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Good understanding of organisational culture and employee engagement
• Ability to influence and build trusted relationships at all levels.

What you’ll bring:

Essential:

• Significant senior‑level experience in employee relations within a complex organisation.
• Strong, up‑to‑date knowledge of UK employment law and best practice.
• Demonstrable experience managing complex ER cases, organisational change and senior stakeholder relationships.
• Proven ability to influence, coach and challenge senior leaders constructively.
• Experience of leading teams and driving consistent, high‑quality ER practice.
• Experience supporting cultural transformation or engagement programmes
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to use data and insight to inform decisions.

Desirable:

• Experience within the social care, housing or charity environment.
• CIPD Level 7 qualification (or equivalent experience).
• Experience embedding values‑led culture or delivering culture change initiatives.
• Knowledge of safeguarding principles in workforce settings.

About us

Look Ahead is a leading, not-for-profit care and support provider in London and the South East. Our vision is to build better lives through social care and housing in local communities. As an organisation we deliver over 100 services, providing support to thousands of customers each year. Our mission is to co-design and deliver services that offer innovative social care solutions and support people to thrive. We work across mental health, homelessness and complex needs, young people and care leavers and learning disabilities so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.

We have a strong social purpose and we live and work by our values:

• We focus on Excellence and innovation.
• We are Caring and Compassionate.
• We are Inclusive and Trusted.
• We work in Partnership and are One-Team.