Head of Workplace Relations & People Operations

Tandem Partners is pleased to be partnered with the City of Casey to appoint a Head of Workplace Relations & People Operations, a pivotal leadership role within the People & Culture function that reports to the Chief People Officer. This role is both strategic and operational: shaping enterprise-wide workplace relations strategy and enterprise agreements, while also leading strong day-to-day People Operations delivery.
  
The City of Casey
City of Casey is one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing councils, supporting a diverse workforce of 1800 to deliver essential services to a dynamic and expanding community.
Casey operates at genuine scale and complexity, delivering a wide range of services—from infrastructure, planning and community services through to health, early years, regulatory functions, and corporate services. The organisation plays a critical role as both a service provider and a major regional employer, with a strong focus on sustainable community outcomes.
  
City of Casey’s values guide how work is done and how decisions are made:

• Dream Big – thinking boldly about the future and being open to new ways of working and improving outcomes
• Empower Each Other – working collaboratively, building capability, and holding ourselves and others accountable
• Make Our Community Proud – acting with integrity, care and responsibility in everything we do, recognising our impact as a public organisation

  
Moreover, the organisation is proud to offer a flexible working environment in incredibly impressive, purpose-built offices in Narre Warren.
  
The Role
As Head of Workplace Relations and People Operations you will have a dual responsibility of ensuring consistent, high-quality resolution to workplace relations matters whilst also working on the transition to a Tiered Service Model.
  

• Lead enterprise workplace and industrial relations strategy, including multi-year and multi-employer enterprise bargaining and union engagement.
• Establish clear Employee Relations frameworks, governance and case management standards.
• Act as escalation point and manage complex and high-risk employee relations matters
• Collaborate and partner with the Business Partners to ensure that there is an overall capability uplift for service owners in understanding ER and IR matters, and where appropriate, handling this independently.
• Lead fresh thinking in leveraging technology and AI to improve the quality, speed and consistency of people operations functions
• Support and drive the transition to a Tiered Service Delivery model for handling HR queries, including determining pathways and levels.
• Lead the delivery of Tier 0–1 People Services, including intake, triage, case management and service standards, with a focus on “first time right” outcomes.

  
Success requires a leader who can negotiate at the highest level, manage legal and industrial risk, build capability and process from the ground up, and translate complex industrial instruments into workable, scalable operational practice.

Please note that whilst flexibility and hybrid working is available, the ideal candidate will be willing to be on site regularly to engage with the leadership teams. Please expect 2-3 days as a regular cadence.
  
Your Experience and Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification in Human Resources, Industrial Relations, Organisational Psychology or Business, with postgraduate qualifications in Employee Relations, Employment Law, Dispute Resolution or similar will be highly regarded.
• Strong track record in enterprise bargaining and union engagement.
• Previous leadership experience in Workplace Relations, Industrial Relations or Employee Relations, with a blend of ER, IR and EBA responsibility.
• Demonstrable expertise in managing complex ER and IR cases and a clear approach towards investigations.
• Proven experience leading a Tiered Service Delivery model and/or experience running HR operations is highly advantageous.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build impactful relationships both within HR and across organisations, educating colleagues on new methodologies collaboratively.
• A continuous improvement mindset, able to anticipate service demands and build processes to ensure effective, efficient service delivery.

For a confidential discussion on this role and to understand more, please contact Kate Castell at Tandem Partners.