Employee Relations Manager

About the role

We're looking for a Employee Relations Manager in Schiphol, Rijk To enable the business to make good people decisions quickly by providing a high-quality Employee Relations (ER) service across Liberty Global in the UK and the Netherlands, with a primary focus on supporting People Business Partners (PBPs) to deliver outcomes with confidence. This role owns end-to-end informal and formal ER casework (from triage through to resolution), bringing calm, commercial judgement and a bias for action. The focus is on simple, practical guidance that helps PBPs and managers move fast, manage risk and land fair outcomes. You will build and run ER ways of working that are easy to use and easy to follow: clear principles, lightweight processes, and one-page guidance wherever possible. You will create and maintain a strong template library and use digital and AI-enabled tools to reduce manual effort, improve turnaround time and deliver a great stakeholder experience-while keeping the right level of legal and policy compliance in place. Reporting to the People Director, this is a client-led role providing ER support to all PBPs (including those outside the immediate reporting line) and to people leaders across the UK and NL. You will partner closely with Legal for advice on higher-risk matters and with Reward for policy governance and sign-off. 1. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES Own and drive ER cases across the UK and NL end-to-end (informal and formal), moving quickly from issue to options, decision and resolution. Be the trusted, go-to adviser for PBPs-bringing commercial judgement, clear recommendations and pragmatic risk management on complex, sensitive or high-impact matters. Coach and upskill people leaders and managers to handle issues earlier and more informally, building confidence and capability so the business can resolve more cases proactively. Lead or guide investigations, hearings and appeals as needed-ensuring the right level of rigour, fairness and documentation to support sound decisions. Own ER process and policy content for UK and NL: simplify, standardise and keep it practical-creating easy, user-friendly guidance (one-page where possible) and ensuring adoption through PBPs and managers. Work with Reward (policy governance) to align ER policies with the wider people policy framework and support review cycles, consultation and sign-off. Partner with Legal (and external counsel where needed) to sense-check approach and manage higher-risk situations (e.g., settlements, litigation risk, consultations), ensuring we move fast while staying compliant. Stay current on UK and NL employment law and translate it into clear principles and practical guidance (including Wet Verbetering Poortwachter / Gatekeeper Act obligations where applicable). Build ER capability at scale: design and deliver training, drop-ins and coaching for PBPs and managers; create bite-sized 'how-to' tools, scripts and templates that improve consistency without adding bureaucracy. Use ER data and stakeholder feedback to spot themes, prevent repeat issues and improve the service (e.g., cycle time, manager confidence, quality and consistency of outcomes). Modernise and simplify ER: build a strong library of templates (letters, outcome notes, invite scripts), create one-page playbooks, and explore safe use of AI/digital tools (including AI-assisted drafting and knowledge retrieval) to reduce manual effort and speed up delivery. Deliver an excellent client experience: be responsive, manage demand and priorities, set clear expectations, and build strong relationships with PBPs and leaders across the business. 2. KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL SKILLS & EXPERIENCE ER case management experience in a complex, fast-paced and/or multi-country organisation, independently managing informal and formal cases end-to-end and driving timely resolution. Commercial judgement and pragmatism-focused on enabling the business to move fast and land the right outcome, not creating unnecessary process. Strong client-service mindset: able to turn complexity into plain-English , user-friendly guidance (one-page where possible) that stakeholders actually use. Knowledge of UK and Dutch employment law and ER best practice, with the ability to translate it into pragmatic options, clear principles and manager-friendly guidance. Demonstrable capability handling high-risk, sensitive and complex ER matters with sound judgement, discretion and integrity. Excellent stakeholder management skills, with a consultative, service-led approach and the confidence to challenge constructively. Strong investigation skills (planning, interviewing, evidence evaluation, report writing) and high standards for documentation and case records. Coaching and facilitation skills, with ability to upskill managers and/or People teams to build proactive people management capability. Continuous improvement mindset with experience simplifying processes, creating toolkits/templates and improv