Head of Strategic Employee Relations

A great opportunity to join one of the UK’s world renowned centres of excellence and develop your career in a new role where you would be leading on strategic employee relations for Oxford University Hospitals. Care to Join Us?

Head of Strategic Employee Relations

Band 8C– Hybrid/Remote Working

Our aim is to be the best NHS Trust to work for in the country.  Join us as we embark on an exciting period of new investment and transformation in our People Directorate.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) is a world-renowned centre of clinical excellence and one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the UK. The Trust is made up of four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, the Churchill Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, all located in Oxford, and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, north Oxfordshire. The Trust employs over 11,000 staff and provides a full range of clinical and specialist services. Our collaboration with the University of Oxford underpins the quality of the care that is provided to patients, from the delivery of high-quality research, bringing innovation from the laboratory bench to the bedside, to the delivery of high-quality education and training of doctors

This is an exciting opportunity to join us in this newly created role of Head of Strategic Employee Relations. Reporting to the Assistant Director of Workforce (Employee Relations) you will be a key member of the Culture, Communications and Workforce senior leadership team. You will support the delivery of the Trust’s strategic goals in relation to all employee relations issues with a particular emphasis on the employment, deployment, productivity and efficiency of our Medical and Dental (M&D) workforce. You will use your skills, expertise and experience to take a long-term strategic view of employee relations for the Trust to support the implementation of our People Plan. You will have the opportunity to lead on a range of projects delivering transformation and innovation in the working practices of employee relations for all our staff aligned to our Just Culture approach.   

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Providing strategic and specialist employee relations advice
• Contributing to the strategic development of all Trust employment policies and procedures
• Interpreting legislation and policy to support the development of a Trust wide Employee Relations strategy.
• Leading on policy development for medical staffing across the organisation; working collaboratively with other organisations to ensure consistency of approach.

The successful candidate will need recent experience within a senior HR role advising on high level complex employee relations issues, together with thorough knowledge of best practice, current thinking, and developments in HR. You will also have extensive experience of working in a unionised environment and successfully negotiating with Trade Union partners to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a leading healthcare provider and an established team where you will have the opportunity and support to develop your career. We are keen to hear from you if you are an experienced employee relations practitioner looking to move into a more strategic role or if you are an experienced medical workforce specialist who is keen to broaden your experience into a wider strategic employee relations role.

OUH offer extensive flexible working opportunities and are fully supportive of hybrid and remote working, although there will be a requirement to be at OUH sites occasionally to meet the demands of the role.

The Closing Date for applications will be Midnight on Sunday 26^th June.