Director, Employee Relations

Job Summary:

The Director, Employee Relations serves as a strategic HR leader and trusted advisor to executive leaders, HR Business Partners, Legal, Compliance, and HR Centers of Excellence. This role establishes and leads the enterprise employee relations strategy, governance framework, and standard practices to ensure consistent, compliant, and effective resolution of workplace matters across the organization. The Director provides guidance on complex, high-risk, and precedent-setting employee relations matters; strengthens leader capability; advances talent, organizational effectiveness, engagement, performance, and change management initiatives; and uses data-driven insights to support a positive, accountable, and high-performing work environment.

Essential Functions:
- Establish and lead the enterprise employee relations strategy, governance framework, escalation model, and standard practices to ensure consistent, compliant, and effective resolution of workplace matters across the organization.

- Provide strategic employee relations leadership and guidance to executive leaders, business leaders, HR Business Partners, and Centers of Excellence to align employee relations strategies with business objectives.

- Develop and implement proactive employee relations strategies, practices, and risk mitigation plans that foster a fair, respectful, compliant, and positive work environment.

- Independently advise on and resolve complex employee relations matters with sound judgment, discretion, urgency, and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous situations.

- Serve as a senior advisor on high-risk, complex, and precedent-setting employee relations matters, partnering with Legal, Compliance, HR leadership, and business executives to mitigate risk and support sound decision-making.

- Oversee thorough, timely, and well-documented investigations; assess findings, identify root causes, and recommend appropriate next steps.

- Provide leadership and oversight for policy interpretation, performance management, performance standards, and accountability practices to ensure consistency across departments and alignment with enterprise objectives.

- Build leader and Employee Relations team capability by providing coaching, tools, and guidance for routine employee issues, clear communications, documentation, and consistent ER practices.

- Collaborate with business leaders to understand organizational challenges, assess talent and workforce needs, and develop actionable plans that support organizational effectiveness and growth.

- Partner with the HR Business Partners and Leadership to drive employee engagement action planning initiatives.

- Partner with HR Business Partners and Centers of Excellence to drive change management, adoption, and communication efforts for key functional and enterprise initiatives.

- Analyze employee relations trends, engagement metrics, exit data, HR metrics, and case activity to identify insights, guide decision-making, and recommend practical solutions.

- Own employee relations dashboards, case trend reporting, investigation timeliness metrics, leader capability insights, and other key measures to assess effectiveness, identify risks, and drive continuous improvement.

- Lead the review, development, and standardization of employee relations policies, procedures, templates, and documentation practices to promote consistency, compliance, and operational excellence.

- Design, update, and deliver employee relations training for leaders and employees at all levels to strengthen leadership capability, consistency, and compliance.

- Lead, coach, and develop Employee Relations team members or cross-functional partners, as applicable, to ensure consistent execution, strong service delivery, and ongoing capability development.

- Ensure employment practices comply with applicable federal and state employment laws and support organizational policies, procedures, and risk mitigation expectations.

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