Kelly Joseph LLB/MCIPD

Lead global Employee Relations strategy across an 8,000 employee professional services organisation operating in a regulated, high scrutiny environment. Act as senior advisor to Executive and Risk leadership on complex people matters with operational, financial and reputational impact.

Strategic leadership and enterprise impact:

• Own and continuously evolve the global ER operating model, strengthening governance, risk categorisation and policy architecture to ensure consistent, defensible and commercially aligned decision making

• Provide executive advice on high risk and reputationally sensitive cases including senior conduct matters, whistleblowing disclosures and regulatory linked investigations

• Successfully defend Employment Tribunal claims and resolve complex disputes through early conciliation, mitigating financial exposure and protecting brand integrity

• Lead tribunal strategy including evidence collation, witness preparation and coordination with external counsel to ensure robust defence positioning

• Lead high volume TUPE transfers and large scale consultation exercises, overseeing due diligence, employee liability information review, risk assessment and structured communication planning to ensure legal compliance and protect operational continuity

• Design and deliver consultation strategies for restructures and redundancy programmes impacting significant employee populations, balancing cost efficiency with fairness and engagement

• Reduced escalated case volume by 15% through workflow redesign, enhanced manager capability and clearer accountability frameworks

• Lead and develop a team of 12 ER specialists, embedding investigative standards, quality assurance mechanisms and succession capability

• Produce Board and Risk Committee level ER analytics via Workday and Navex, identifying absence, conduct and behavioural trends to proactively manage workforce risk

• Strengthened alignment between ER, Legal, Compliance and Risk functions to ensure cohesive governance and protect enterprise resilience

• Delivered targeted leadership capability programmes enabling senior managers to manage complex ER matters confidently, reducing unnecessary escalation and improving resolution quality

Strategic HR lead advising Executive Board and senior leaders within a regulated environment of 1,000 employees.

Key Responsibilities & Impact:

• Act as trusted advisor to senior stakeholders on complex and high-risk employee relations matters, ensuring legally robust and commercially balanced outcomes.
• Designed and implemented organisation-wide organisational development strategy aligned to business objectives.
• Led complex redundancy and TUPE programmes across multiple sites, ensuring compliant consultation and minimised operational disruption.
• Delivered workforce insights and risk analysis to Executive Board, influencing strategic workforce planning decisions.
• Achieved £470,000 in efficiency savings through targeted HR interventions.
• Contributed to a 6% increase in employee engagement through structured leadership support and change delivery.

Strategic HR partner supporting large operational directorates within a 65,000-employee organisation, with direct responsibility for a 5,000-employee function

Key Responsibilities & Impact:

• Provided senior advisory support on complex ER cases, industrial relations and organisational risk within a highly unionised environment.
• Partnered with leadership and Trade Unions to mitigate industrial action risk during major pay and contract reform.
• Led significant restructuring activity under the Building Our Future Locations Programme, retaining 274 employees and avoiding £9.6M in exit costs.
• Played a key role in the Debt Transformation Programme, designing a new operating model and resourcing plan aligned to strategic objectives.
• Reduced absence rates by 1.0 AWDL through policy redesign and leadership capability interventions.
• Contributed to a 4% improvement in employee engagement through cultural and organisational change initiatives.
• Strengthened governance and risk oversight across ER processes to ensure consistent and defensible decision-making.

Led a devolved HR and ER function supporting 4,500 employees across multiple operational sites.

Key Responsibilities and Impact:

• Led and developed an ER team responsible for disciplinary, grievance, performance and attendance matters across a large operational workforce.
• Designed and embedded a risk-based ER framework to improve governance, consistency and executive oversight.
• Introduced performance metrics and workforce reporting to identify trends and proactively manage people risk.
• Achieved a 50% reduction in Average Working Days Lost through innovative absence and wellbeing strategies.
• Built collaborative Trade Union relationships to support implementation of new reward structures and organisational design changes.
• Managed Employment Tribunal claims and early conciliation processes, ensuring defensible and proportionate outcomes.
• Conducted agency-wide skills gap analysis and delivered targeted ER capability training to strengthen managers' confidence in complex cases.