Associate Relations

Nottingham Trent House , United Kingdom, Nottingham, NottinghamshireAssociate Relations - Principal Associate

About this role

In HR Shared Services (HRSS), the employee experience is at the heart of everything we do. We strive to deliver HR processes flawlessly, and provide a high quality and responsive Employee Relations service to the company. Here at Capital One, we call it Associate Relations (AR).

We're looking for an AR Principal Associate, reporting directly to the AR Manager, who will own and manage a range of employee relations cases, and provide legislative and best practice advice and coaching to People Leaders and associates throughout the business on a range of employment topics. Alongside case work, they will also coach and guide more junior members of the HR team.

What you'll do

• You'll partner with the business to deliver high quality and proactive case management of employee relations issues such as: disciplinary, grievances, redundancy, TUPE, complex terminations (e.g. involving settlement agreements), ACAS Early Conciliation cases, as well as capability and absence management cases.

• You'll provide the business with pragmatic and commercial solutions to their employee relations cases, whilst considering the employment legal and risk framework, and associate experience. 

• You'll ensure legal and HR policy compliance across the business to promote consistency, equality and fairness, and ensure sensitive information is dealt with in accordance with the law and internal information retention procedures.

• Where required, you'll provide coaching to managers to upskill and support them to reach positive, inclusive outcomes with their associates.

• You'll contribute to team development through the sharing of best practice and lessons learnt on cases, and identify issues, trends, and changes needed within our approach or documentation as part of our commitment to continuous improvement.

• You'll build high quality trusted relationships with others in the HR team (e.g. HRBPs, Talent Acquisition, Diversity Inclusion and Belonging). In doing so, you'll support and maintain an effective feedback loop with them to identify business risks, and ensure leaders engage in risk-based decision making.

• You'll build strong relationships within the pool of trained investigators and hearing managers across the business to obtain support during the life cycle of your individual case work.

• You'll actively participate in broader HR projects and initiatives, bringing your employee relations knowledge to add value and support/challenge next steps.

• Where required, you'll participate in specific risk management activities for the HR team, and analyse case management statistics to identify themes and make recommendations to share with the team and HR Business Partners.

• You will manage your cases diligently, updating our case management system regularly, and escalate high risk cases to the AR Manager as and when appropriate.

What we're looking for

• You'll have a strong operational background in Employee Relations - depending on your experience, this might have been in a dedicated employee relations case management role or as part of a generalist HR role. Either way, you will have solid knowledge of UK employment law and demonstrable experience of supporting employee relations issues.

• You can demonstrate how you have previously used your knowledge and judgement to help your business stakeholders assess and mitigate (or accept) any employee relations risks posed to their business, and are not afraid to challenge your stakeholders and escalate where necessary in order to manage risk.

• You will be used to working with a case management system, with high attention to detail on your cases to ensure accurate records are kept and key documents are appropriately stored.

• You'll have project and/or change management experience, and a continuous improvement mindset.

• You'll enjoy building trusted relationships across teams and identifying ways that the AR Team can add further value within the company.

• You'll be proactive in keeping your own knowledge up to date (e.g. employee relations technical knowledge and external best practice),through attendance at employment law briefings and wider external reading.

• You have excellent attention to detail and pride yourself on delivering high levels of service at all times.

• You'll understand the importance of high quality stakeholder management and demonstrate this in your interactions with others.

• You'll have excellent verbal and written communications skills. 

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position and is based in our Nottingham offices.  

Our hybrid working model offers you the flexibility to work from our offices and from home, when you need to.

We're big on collaboration and connection, and so generally encourage our associates to use our offices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

What's in it for you

• Bring us all this - and you'll be well rewarded with a role contributing to the roadmap of an organisation committed to transformation

• We offer high performers strong and diverse career progression, investing heavily in developing great people through our Capital One University training programmes (and appropriate external providers)

• Immediate access to our core benefits including pension scheme, bonus, generous holiday entitlement and private medical insurance – with flexible benefits available including season-ticket loans, cycle to work scheme and enhanced parental leave

• Open-plan workspaces and accessible facilities designed to inspire and support you. Our Nottingham head-office has a fully-serviced gym, subsidised restaurant, mindfulness and music rooms. In London, you can heighten your mood with a run on our rooftop running track or an espresso at the Workshop Coffee café

What you should know about how we recruit

We pride ourselves on hiring the best people, not the same people. Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We know it's about what you do, not just what you say. That's why we make our recruitment process fair and accessible. And we offer benefits that attract people at all ages and stages.

We also partner with organisations including the Women in Finance and Race At Work Charters, Stonewall and upReach to find people from every walk of life and help them thrive with us. We have a whole host of internal networks and support groups you could be involved in, to name a few:

• REACH – Race Equality and Culture Heritage group focuses on representation, retention and engagement for associates from minority ethnic groups and allies

• OutFront – to provide LGBTQ+ support for all associates

• Mind Your Mind – signposting support and promoting positive mental wellbeing for all

• Women in Tech – promoting an inclusive environment in tech

• EmpowHER - network of female associates and allies focusing on developing future leaders, particularly for female talent in our industry

Capital One is committed to diversity in the workplace.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact   All information will be kept confidential and will only be used for the purpose of applying a reasonable adjustment.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to

Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.

Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).

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