Employee Relations Specialist

Job Description

At abrdn, our purpose is to enable our clients to be better investors.

Clients worldwide trust us to find future-fit investment opportunities to deliver the outcomes they want. Our technology and insight help empower them to make better decisions, while the powerful partnerships we build help to enhance the expertise that we offer. And by enabling clients to invest responsibly, it helps us to build a better world.

About the department:

abrdn’s Human Resources function is globally led by Tracey Hahn, our Chief People Officer (CPO) and has a vision that positions our Culture and Talent as a market differentiator. The HR function has a lead role to play in making our brand meaningful for colleagues. This encompasses creating the right culture, development opportunities, remuneration principles and organisational structures to attract, reward, retain, develop, and successfully deploy a high-calibre, impactful, diverse, and inclusive workforce.

About the role:

The Employee Relations Specialist is responsible for developing and maintaining employment policies globally, leading UK employee relations activities, and managing and coordinating global mobility programmes, within abrdn.

This role ensures compliance with international employment laws and regulations, supports employee relocations, international assignments and immigration, and fosters positive and compliant employee relations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop, implement and maintain the global HR policy framework in collaboration with policy owners, and regional SMEs.

• Develop and maintain the global contract framework, working with internal SMEs to ensure contract documentation is up to date and reflects local employment regulations.

• Conduct horizon scanning and monitor changes in employment legislation in conjunction with regional SMEs and best practices to feed into recommendation for changes to policy and/or practices.

• Develop and maintain UK employee relations (ER) policies (e.g., Disciplinary, Grievance, Anti Bullying & Harassment, Sickness Absence, Redundancy, Flexible Working etc.) and associated collateral and processes in line with UK legislation and internal drivers (e.g., DE&I, HR strategy, operational requirements).

• Ensure UK policy changes are integrated into operational processes and systems (e.g., Workday) and communicated to internal stakeholders

• Impact assesses employment policies and practices in the context of future reforms and make recommendations for policy and practice changes (e.g., Employment Rights Bill) and implement these.

• Advice and support HR colleagues on UK employment policies and best practices to ensure compliance with legislation, working with the internal and external legal teams where required

• Develop and maintain UK employment contracts in line with UK legislation and internal policy changes and ensure that online versions on Workday are updated in line with global employment contract framework and governance

• Maintain ER related OD collateral and ER guidance material (e.g. Restructuring and TUPE)

• Develop, maintain and implement global mobility policies and associated internal process and collateral.

• Coordinate international assignments, including visa applications, corporate tax, and payroll compliance, and relocation logistics with internal stakeholders and abrdn’s external global mobility service providers.

• Coordinate and track international assignments and relocations actions required across abrdn’s corporate tax, share plan, payroll and HR services teams.

• Manage relationships with external global mobility service providers for relocation services, tax and immigration.

• Ensure internal HR processes are in place to monitor employee visas in line with Right to Work legislation

• Manage the global mobility budget and ensure timely and accurate re-allocation of costs to the business.

• Provide support and advice to HR colleagues, managers, and employees on global mobility matters.

Skills and Experience

• Proven experience in employment relations in a professional services, large Financial Service or FTSE 250 organisation.

• Additional global mobility experience highly desirable

• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and preferably global immigration and tax regulations.

• Experience of working in a multinational organisation.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. Therefore, if you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire and one of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits:
 

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business:

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.