Sr Director, Global Employee Relations

Note: This role can be fully remote but has to be in East Coast Time-zone

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Senior Director, Global Employee Relations will contribute to the creation of a positive vision of Employee Relations at the IRC. They will oversee all related global Employee Relations policy, practice, and process; the global Employee Relations caseloads and related assignments; and oversight of workplace case reviews and examinations as well as serious workplace safeguarding investigations. The Senior Director will also offer consultation and collaboration across the full spectrum of people-related matters, ensuring alignment and feedback across all People & Culture (P&C) functional areas. By serving as a primary point of contact for significant Employee Relations issues, s/he, will coordinate with other P&C functions to ensure cohesion with our practices, procedures, policies and processes with a particular focus and sensitivity to our Duty of Care, Safeguarding, Equality and Inclusion standards and requirements.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Employee Relations Leadership

• Responsible for ensuring that the IRC Way: Our Standards of Professional Conduct and all other employee-related policies reflect best practices, grounded in an inclusive, people-centered approach that informs all aspects of our work.
• Acts as the primary P&C technical lead on matters related to Respect at Work, Workplace Harassment, Anti-Retaliation, and other related policies
• Acts as the IRC lead on all Workplace Safeguarding matters from strategy design through case reviews, case closure, management action recommendations and trend reporting and analysis
• Liaise with program management and regional leadership on appropriate levels of case reporting, trending, and analysis
• Leads the development and maintenance of the US Employee Handbook and ensures that country-specific handbooks model these standards where appropriate, and remain current, accurate, and compliant with local labor laws.
• Owner of employment policies and responsible for ensuring country employment policies model US standards or greater, where appropriate and are current, accurate and compliant with federal and local laws
• Serves as a member of the P&C Leadership Team contributing to the Department and organizational direction and focus

Employee and Labor Relations Management

• Conducts organizational needs assessments and recommends interventions based on best practices from both the industry and the humanitarian sector.
• Serves as the primary People & Culture partner to the Ethics and Compliance Unit, triaging and assigning incoming Employee Relations matters including those outside the typical scope of P&C that require specialized support with particular attention to cases involving Sexual Harassment and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
• Responsible for partnering with P&C Partners who are assigned breaches of IRC Way and policy violation cases and for ensuring cases are thoroughly reviewed, properly documented, and brought to resolution
• Responsible for personally owning unique, complex and/or highly confidential P&C breaches of IRC Way or other Employee Relations cases, including deep in-country investigation missions
• Advise and make recommendations to leaders and line management on matters related to disciplinary action, in line with labor laws and IRC values
• Acts as the primary strategic employment policy partner with the General Counsel's office
• Partner with the Duty of Care, Safeguarding, and Gender Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Units, and related Employee Resource Groups to assure that all Employee Relations policies, practices, and procedures are appropriately sensitive, contextualized, and supportive
• Partner with the Ethics & Compliance Unit to further evolve the shared technology and reporting vehicles needed to support the People & Culture function
• Provide expert guidance to regional and country-level leadership on union-related matters, including collective bargaining, union organizing, grievances, and disputes, ensuring compliance with local labor laws and alignment with IRC Values.

Employee Relations Communications, Training & Education

• Responsible for assessing and building Country P&C Lead Employee Relations case management capacity with a full suite of adult learning approaches and on the ground training delivery
• Acts as a policy education and interpretation consultant to Human Resources and line management
• Responsible for proactive, preventative, and multi-lingual US and global policy communications and education
• Develop and contribute to Talent Management's on-boarding and management development curriculum
• Responsible for assuring that US and country level intranet content is current, accurate and informative
• Further develop new and innovative means to communicate with global employees on Employee Relations matters
• In partnership with General Counsel's office and P&C Partners, responsible for understanding, interpreting, and communicating to P&C and line management around all national and local applicable employment laws

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to: Vice President, People & Culture
• Direct Reports:a cadre of 6 - 8 Employee and Labor Relations Specialist, and Case Management roles
• Key Internal Relationships:Global and Regional P&C Partners,Global Program Leadership,Duty of Care, Ethics and Compliance Unit,Office of the General Counsel,IRC Safety & Security
• Key External Relationships:Global outside counsel,Global NGOs for case reviews, benchmarking, and best practice,Global NGO regulatory agencies

Job Requirements:

• Minimum of 15 years of progressive global Human Resources or strongly related experience with at least 5 years of specific Employee Relations experience required
• Knowledge and demonstrated application of relevant domestic US and international employment laws, regulations, and trends
• A commitment to the humanitarian mission and demonstrated professional work experience that upholds the highest values of the organization. Prior work experience in the humanitarian or development sector preferred
• Ability to establish and nurture collaborative relationships across functions, disciplines, and countries, in a multi-cultural and diverse work environment; adept at incorporating cultural perspectives
• An appropriate combination of education and work experience in Human Resource Management and Employee Relations is required, a JD or master's degree in labor relations, conflict resolution, international relations or other applicable fields is a significant advantage
• Ability to operate at advanced levels of authority and manage significant activities and resources to produce and take responsibility for results
• Change management and process improvement experience across global settings
• Acumen in successful conflict resolution
• Proven risk management mindset in resolving complex Employee Relations issues; ability to drive creative, holistic outcomes that balance employee and organizational interests
• Demonstrated success in influencing policy and disciplinary action decisions
• Demonstrated excellence in writing and developing policies and procedures is required
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely both verbally and in writing, and lead presentations, training courses, and effective meetings
• Experience in and a commitment to incorporating employee engagement, diversity and inclusion and gender equality in all facets of work
• Demonstrated capability to continuously multitask in high-pressure and insecure environments, while simultaneously exhibiting resilience in resisting stress, valuing, and pursuing personal work-life balance and leading with a staff care lens
• Able to operate independently where appropriate, with a keen professional sense of when to escalate issues
• Availability to travel approximately 25% both planned and unplanned to all global IRC locations
• Reachable during non-traditional work hours
• English proficiency required; French, Arabic or Spanish proficiency is a strong plus

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.
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