Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: Manchester Store Support Centre - Field Based, Manchester, M4 3AL
Contract type: Fixed-Term Assignment
Business area: Group HR
Closing date: 01 May 2026
Requisition ID: 400058396

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work–life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. We’re the first to say we do HR differently here. For a start, we work as business partners and specialists. Whether that’s making sure nearly 150,000 colleagues are paid on time, or shaping a strategy that helps us attract the right people, put them in the right place, and unlock their potential. This is a fast-moving business, and our policies and rewards evolve with it. That’s why we’re as flexible as we can be about where and when you work. We’re also flexible about your future. There’s always room to move up or across, if that’s what you want. We really value different perspectives, so there’s no one opinion, no single path, and yours matters.

About the team

You’ll be joining the Employee Relations team within Sainsbury’s People Division – a specialist team responsible for supporting our colleagues and leaders across the business with fair, balanced, and commercially‑sound employee relations solutions. The team plays a critical role in protecting our culture, minimising legal risk, and building confidence and capability in how ER matters are managed across our stores and operations. Working closely with People Partners, senior leaders, and legal colleagues, the team operates at the heart of complex decision‑making within a fast‑paced retail environment.

About the role

As an Employee Relations Executive, you will take ownership of complex, high-risk, and high‑profile ER cases across the North zone. Acting as a trusted advisor to leaders and People Partners, you’ll provide expert ER guidance from initial risk assessment through to resolution, ensuring consistency, legal compliance, and alignment to our valued behaviours.

Day‑to‑day responsibilities

Your day‑to‑day work will include supporting investigations, managing whistleblowing cases, advising on disciplinaries, performance and capability matters, occupational health cases, and consultation processes, including redundancy and redeployment. You’ll also work closely with ER Specialists and our Employment Law team to prepare and support ACAS conciliations and Employment Tribunal claims, as well as contribute to ER projects aligned to our wider ER strategy.

About you

To be successful in this role, you’ll bring demonstratable experience of managing employee relations cases and the confidence to advise leaders on sensitive and complex issues. You’ll be comfortable assessing risk, applying policy pragmatically, and using sound judgement to balance colleague experience, legal compliance, and commercial considerations.

You’ll be highly collaborative, able to build credibility with stakeholders at all levels, and motivated by developing line manager capability through coaching and learning interventions. An interest in continuous improvement and keeping your ER knowledge up to date will support your success in this role.

Key requirements

• Demonstratable experience managing employee relations cases, including complex or high‑risk matters
• Proven ability to advise and influence leaders using employment law, policy, and ER best practice
• Experience supporting or preparing cases for ACAS conciliation and/or Employment Tribunal proceedings
• Ability to assess ER risk and determine appropriate resolution strategies on a case‑by‑case basis
• Experience working with ER case management systems to track, manage, and conclude cases

Benefits and culture

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance‑related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.

Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).