Why is a VP of Employee Relations a strategic hire?
Most CHROs can rattle off their org chart's gaps without hesitation: a Total Rewards leader, a People Analytics expert, maybe a dedicated HR AI role. Employee Relations rarely makes that list, until a particularly complex wrongful termination suit lands on your desk, an unexpected unionization petition surfaces overnight, or a pattern of harassment complaints reveals a culture problem that the media got wind of before you did.
By then, you're not hiring strategically. You're hiring in crisis mode. And that's exactly why a VP-level Employee Relations expert belongs on your roadmap now, not later.
ER has outgrown the HR generalist
Some years ago, employee relations was a shared responsibility, a bit of casework here, a policy interpretation there, usually absorbed by HR business partners alongside a dozen other priorities. Then companies hired ER experts, but hid them within “shared services” teams where they remained focused on case management and policy interpretation advice. Neither of those approaches hold anymore.
Workforces are more distributed, more vocal, and more legally protected than ever. Remote and hybrid arrangements have blurred jurisdictional lines. Pay transparency laws, whistleblower protections, and social media scrutiny mean a single mishandled complaint can become a headline. And employees themselves - particularly younger generations - expect fairness, consistency, and psychological safety as baseline conditions of employment, not perks.
An HR generalist or even an HR Business Partner, handling ER as a side responsibility simply cannot keep pace with this complexity. What you need is someone who treats employee relations as a discipline in its own right, with the seniority to shape policy, the judgment to navigate ambiguity, the foresight to manage risk before it becomes real, and the credibility to influence legal, the Board, and the C-suite when it matters most.
What a VP of Employee Relations actually does
This isn't a glorified investigator role. At the VP level, employee relations expertise spans:
Risk architecture, not just risk response. A strong ER leader builds the systems; escalation pathways, investigation protocols, documentation standards - that catch problems early, rather than scrambling to contain them after they've metastasized into litigation.
Cross-functional fluency. They operate comfortably at the intersection of HR, Finance, Operations, Legal, and Compliance, translating between them all without letting any one function dominate the conversation at the expense of the others.
Culture stewardship at scale. Every investigation, every disciplinary decision, every policy update sends a signal about what your organization actually values, as opposed to what it says it values in the handbook or on your company’s promotional material and website. A VP-level ER leader understands that these decisions are cultural statements, not just procedural ones and sometimes, there’s greater value in the humane decision rather than rigidly sticking to policy.
Manager capability building. Most ER issues don't start as ER issues, they start from a manager who didn't have a hard conversation soon enough, or handled it badly when they finally did. The best ER leaders build training and coaching programs that stop problems upstream.
Labor and regulatory foresight. Whether or not your organization is unionized today, a seasoned ER executive tracks the regulatory and labor-relations landscape closely enough to advise you before it becomes a live issue, not after.
The business case, in numbers your board will understand
If the qualitative case doesn't land, the quantitative one will:
Litigation avoidance. A single employment lawsuit can run into six or seven figures in legal fees, settlements, and reputational damage, before accounting for the productivity lost to internal disruption.
Retention. Employees who trust that concerns will be handled fairly are demonstrably less likely to leave. Turnover driven by unresolved interpersonal or managerial issues is expensive and largely preventable.
Speed to resolution. Organizations with mature ER functions close investigations faster and more consistently, reducing the window in which unresolved conflict erodes team performance.
Employer brand. In an era of Glassdoor reviews and public callouts, how you handle internal conflict is increasingly external information. A strong ER function is reputational insurance, ensuring current employee engagement, and attracting new people who too often have the luxury of job offer choices.
None of this shows up as a line item in most HR budgets; which is precisely why it's under-invested, and precisely why it's a differentiator when you get it right.
What to look for in the search
If you're building this role, resist the temptation to default to a litigator-turned-HR profile or a pure investigations specialist. The strongest candidates combine:
Deep casework and investigation experience, ideally across multiple industries or company sizes
Genuine partnership instincts with legal and unions - collaborative, not territorial
A track record of building scalable ER infrastructure, not just handling cases one at a time
Executive presence: the ability to brief a CEO or board committee on a sensitive matter with clarity and composure, and a natural comfort with data that allows informed decision making
A demonstrated point of view on how ER connects to culture and retention, not just compliance
The cost of waiting
Every quarter you delay this hire, you're not avoiding the cost, you're deferring it, and usually compounding it. The organizations that build employee relations muscle proactively are the ones that navigate workforce disruption, regulatory change, and cultural flash points with the least damage.
A VP of Employee Relations isn't overhead. It's the function that protects everything else you're trying to build; your culture, your talent brand, and, not incidentally, your own credibility as the person the board holds accountable when things go wrong.
The question isn't whether you can afford to make this hire. It's whether you can afford not to.
At Carter Morris, we specialize in identifying, assessing and securing high-impact, commercially minded ER leaders who understand that their role must be proactive and fixing source issues rather than just fighting recurring fires. If you are questioning whether your current ER team has the capability to support your next phase of growth, transformation or investment, you’re welcome to contact me for a confidential conversation about what exceptional ER leadership could bring to your organization and the caliber of experts who can deliver measurable results for your bottom line.
About the Author
Sally-Anne is appreciated across her leadership network for her constructive honesty and care. As a senior partner she brings many years of career experience supporting executives in their search for new career challenges, and in their search for high performing talent for their own teams.