Employee Relations Analyst I

About the Role: The Employee Relations Analyst provides consistent, efficient, and well-documented operational support as the Employee Relations service front door. The role receives and validates new matters, confirms completeness, applies approved categorisation and priority guidance, resolves standard transactional requests, coordinates case and programme activity, maintains accurate records, and routes work to the appropriate ER resource. The Employee Relations Analyst supports managers and stakeholders through established policies, processes, templates, knowledge content, and approved self-service tools. Matters requiring regional ER judgement, substantive manager coaching, local employment-law interpretation, investigation findings, policy exceptions, or recommendations on case strategy or outcome are escalated to Tier 1 Employee Relations Partners in the regional case hubs. Critical, executive, whistleblowing, collective, litigation, regulatory, or specialist-investigation matters are immediately escalated through the designated route to Tier 2 Global Investigations Specialists or the appropriate senior or specialist resource. Accountabilities:

• Own ER intake and validation by reviewing matters received through approved channels, confirming required information and documentation, identifying gaps, acknowledging receipt where required, and establishing a complete initial case record.
• Apply standard categorisation and priority guidance using the approved ER data dictionary, issue and sub-issue categories, case types, urgency and exposure criteria, local requirements, and escalation rules.
• Resolve standard transactional requests that can be completed through established policy, process, templates, knowledge articles, standard communications, or manager self-service without case-specific ER judgement.
• Route matters to the appropriate ER owner by distinguishing operational and transactional work from cases requiring Tier 1 regional case management or Tier 2 global investigation and specialist expertise.
• Administer planned ER programmes including performance-management processes, reduction in force or redundancy activity, exit interviews, involuntary separations, and other structured ER work by coordinating approved workflow steps, preparing documentation packs, scheduling activity, monitoring milestones, and maintaining records.
• Identify judgement points and refer them to Tier 1 ER Partners when case facts require interpretation, locally specific legal assessment, substantive manager coaching, an exception to standard process, or a recommendation on case strategy or outcome.
• Coordinate case activity by gathering documents, organising evidence, scheduling intake, consultation, and interview meetings, maintaining action logs, and ensuring assigned next steps are visible and progressed.
• Support investigations operationally by preparing materials from approved templates, arranging interviews, taking or cleaning notes or transcripts, collating evidence, and preparing draft case documentation for the assigned Tier 1 ERP or Tier 2 specialist. The ER Analyst does not determine findings, credibility, policy violations, or disciplinary outcomes.
• Maintain case-management quality by ensuring correspondence, categorisation, priority, ownership, supporting documentation, hand-offs, actions, and closure information are timely, complete, accurate, and securely recorded.
• Monitor service delivery against acknowledgement, routing, progression, and completion expectations and proactively flag missing information, stalled actions, forecast demand, bottlenecks, and potential SLA or statutory deadline risk.
• Prepare complete hand-offs with a concise summary, relevant facts and documents, current status, categorisation and priority, actions completed, and a clear reason for escalation or transfer.
• Promote self-service and knowledge use by directing managers and stakeholders to approved resources, templates, knowledge content, and AI-enabled tools where appropriate, while applying required human review, confidentiality, and accuracy controls.
• Maintain ER knowledge assets by updating approved process documents, routing and escalation guides, templates, standard operating procedures, and knowledge articles.
• Contribute to service insights and improvement by tracking intake patterns, repeat queries, hand-off quality, workflow friction, service performance, and recurring themes that can improve self-service, manager capability, process design, or capacity planning.
• Collaborate across the ER operating model with Tier 1 ER Partners, regional ER Leads, Tier 2 Global Investigations Specialists, the Centre of Excellence, Legal, Compliance, HR colleagues, and other stakeholders.
• Perform other duties and critical activities assigned by ER Leadership that are consistent with the ER Analyst remit. ER Analyst Ownership Boundary:
• The ER Analyst owns intake, completeness checks, standard acknowledgement, initial categorisation and priority application, transactional resolution, approved procedural guidance, workflow coordination, case administration, scheduling, tracking, standard documentation, and complete hand-off preparation.
• The ER Analyst may support regional cases and investigations through logistics, document gathering, evidence collation, notes, transcripts, action tracking, and draft materials under the direction of the assigned ER case owner.
• The ER Analyst does not own substantive manager coaching, case strategy, investigation scope or findings, credibility assessment, policy-violation conclusions, disciplinary or termination recommendations, policy exceptions, local legal interpretation, or other decisions requiring professional ER judgement. Escalation to Tier 1 Employee Relations Partners
• Regional Case Hubs:
• Escalate regional advisory matters requiring substantive manager coaching or case-specific judgement on performance management, conduct, attendance, grievances or complaints, workplace conflict, occupational-health-related ER implications, restructures, redundancies, or termination-related decisions.
• Escalate standard regional investigations requiring scope determination, interviews led by an ER case owner, evidence assessment, findings, policy interpretation, or corrective and disciplinary recommendations.
• Escalate local risk or exception matters involving local employment-law interpretation, procedural fairness, unclear or conflicting policy, departure from standard process, materially disputed facts, stakeholder challenge, or potential precedent within a region.
• Transfer ownership efficiently by providing the Tier 1 ERP with a complete and accurate hand-off while retaining agreed operational support activities where appropriate. Escalation to Tier 2 Global Investigations Specialists:
• Escalate immediately through the designated route matters involving executives, whistleblowing, collective issues, litigation, regulatory scrutiny, specialist-investigation requirements, or other critical and highly sensitive concerns defined by the escalation framework.
• Escalate complex or cross-border investigations where scope, stakeholders, evidence, legal exposure, independence, or organisational impact requires global specialist ownership.
• Protect confidentiality and evidence by limiting disclosure, preserving records, and following specialist instructions once a Tier 2 matter is identified or assigned. Qualifications:
• Bachelor's Degree holder
• Possess relevant experience in HR operations, Employee Relations support, case management, shared-service delivery, or a comparable role involving confidential information, stakeholder support, and process application.
• Demonstrate experience using standard procedures, templates, service levels, case-management systems, shared mailboxes or intake channels, and escalation frameworks.
• Exhibit sound judgement in recognising what can be resolved through established guidance an