Lead, Employee Relations

Job Description

Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for a Lead, Employee Relations to join our global team.

Team purpose

To help make SCI a great place to work by creating a safe, respectful, fair and accountable working environment where people feel supported and concerns are addressed effectively. The Employee Relations team provides expert guidance, leads high-quality investigations and complex case management, and builds organisational capability to prevent and resolve workplace concerns fairly, consistently and at the right level. Through data, insights and lessons from cases, the team identifies systemic issues, strengthens leadership and management practice, and drives continuous improvement in the employee experience and organisational culture across SCI.

Role purpose

To lead SCI’s grievance investigations capability, ensuring concerns are investigated fairly, consistently, proportionately and to a high professional standard. The role provides senior oversight of senior, complex and high-risk cases, develops a skilled investigations team and safeguards the integrity, quality and timeliness of the investigation process. Through strong partnerships, case insights and organisational learning, the role helps identify systemic risks, strengthen practice and contribute to a safe and respectful working environment.

• Job Title: Lead, Employee Relations
• Reports To: Head of Employee Relations
• Work Pattern: Hybrid/Remote with flexible working options available
• Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers
• Required Time Zone: Any
• Contract Length: Permanent
• Right to Work: The successful candidate must have the right to work in the country where the role is based, for the duration of employment.
• Language Requirements: English
• International Travel: up to 5%
• People Management: Number of people managed in total: 3-4
• Remit: Global

Principal Accountabilities

• Lead, manage and develop a team of specialist investigators, setting and maintaining high professional standards for investigative planning, methodology, evidence assessment, recommendations and report writing.
• Create an environment where investigators can exercise independent professional judgement whilst maintaining robust quality assurance mechanisms and providing senior challenge where required to ensure decisions remain impartial, consistent and defensible to internal stakeholders and the communities we serve
• Maintain effective oversight of the grievance investigation caseload, ensuring concerns are handled swiftly, compliantly and proportionately and workloads are balanced whilst timelines are met, and emerging risks, delays, or barriers to progression are proactively addressed or escalated.
• Lead investigations into high risk grievances against senior leaders, ensuring they are addressed fairly, consistently and in accordance with SCI’s Safe and Respectful Working Environment Policy and Grievance Procedure.
• Ensure a person-centred approach throughout the investigation process, recognising the wellbeing, needs and rights of individuals affected by a concern and ensuring all parties are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.
• Build trusted relationships with senior leaders, Country Offices and functions including Risk, Legal, Safety and Security and the wider People team, navigating competing perspectives whilst aligning to confidentiality protocols and protecting the integrity of the investigation process.
• Proactively identify recurring themes to escalate systemic issues, areas of organisational risk and opportunities for improvement, providing actionable insights that strengthen SCI’s approach to maintaining a safe and respectful working environment.

Essential

Experience and Skills

• Substantial experience overseeing and/or conducting complex and sensitive investigations into grievances across multiple countries in which SCI operates.
• Demonstrable expertise and experience advising on relevant employment law and its application to case management in SCI’s operating contexts.
• Proven ability to lead, manage and develop a team, setting clear expectations for quality, timeliness and professional standards and providing effective technical supervision, coaching and quality assurance.
• Demonstrable experience managing a complex investigation caseload, effectively prioritising high-risk and sensitive concerns, monitoring progress against agreed timelines and proactively addressing barriers, delays and capacity constraints.
• Ability to exercise independent and balanced judgement to reach well-reasoned findings when dealing with sensitive employee relations concerns, including navigating conflicting evidence, complex stakeholder dynamics and matters involving significant organisational, legal or reputational risk.
• Highly developed interpersonal, listening and questioning skills, with the ability to build trust and engage sensitively and effectively with reporters, impacted individuals, subjects of concern, witnesses and other stakeholders throughout the investigation process.
• Significant experience applying continuous learning to continually innovate and improve existing ways of working, investigation frameworks, methodologies or quality assurance processes.
• Demonstrates strong cultural awareness and inclusive leadership, with the ability to recognise and adapt to cultural considerations and the implications of power dynamics when leading investigations and investigation teams

Desirable

• Experience of leading investigations within an international, federated, humanitarian or similarly complex organisation.
• Significant experience in a generalist HR, talent acquisition or as a paralegal/legal counsel
• Professional proficiency in French, Spanish or Arabic would be highly desirable

Education And Qualifications

Desirable

• Professional training, qualification or accreditation in workplace investigations, employee relations, HR, law or another relevant discipline, or equivalent experience

Working at Save the Children International

Save the Children is the world's leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children's lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first.

We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like-minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children's voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.

Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.

Application Information

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application. A full copy of the role profile can be found at SCI Careers . It is recommended that you save a copy of the role profile as it will no longer be available after the advert closes.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the job advert may be closed earlier than advertised subject to the volume of suitable applicants. Please submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates who are successfully shortlisted should expect to hear from us within 2 weeks of the advert deadline.

Our Recruitment Process

• Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
• Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
• Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
• If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks

We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti-Harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.