Director Employee Relations

Primary Purpose of Role
The Director, Human Resources Business Partner will have a concentrated focus in the Employee Relations function. S/he will be a corporate-wide, process-aligned resource and responsible for creating a core competency within the business partner community by setting the overall approach for how employee relations work is conducted in HR. This role will drive a climate that fosters a fair, consistent and balanced approach to employee matters. S/he will work closely with the business-aligned HR Business Partners and will be responsible for personally handling employee relations investigations, serving on internal investigation committees, providing company wide reporting, partnering with our Labor & Employment and Diversity & Inclusion areas, owning EEOC processes including affirmative action plans and EEO complaints, creating, maintaining and interpreting HR policies. The successful candidate will be able to create strategic value to the company by developing a centralized employee relations platform that demonstrates disciplined human capital risk management, provides short and long term solutions and affords employees a consistent and positive work experience. This is a leadership role within HR and the company and requires the incumbent to think broader than his or her direct responsibility, to role model strong teaming behaviors and to create a high performing work environment within and across HR and the company.


Core Responsibilities
- Manage individual employee relations cases across TIAA, from incident report through final disposition. The incumbent will be responsible for ensuring that all cases are properly documented and will be responsible for issuing complete reports and recommendations. This includes cases initiated internally, by external agencies/regulators, audits and any other applicable source.
- Provide oversight and subject matter expertise to ensure standardization of service delivery and tracking of Employee Relations activities across a geographically and functionally diverse workforce. Recommend ER practices that are aligned with the regulatory interests of the Compliance Department and the firm overall. Produce standard reporting, trend analysis and risk assessment data to be shared with appropriate management and company representatives.
- Lead development, maintenance and interpretation of HR policies, procedures and practices. Recommends procedures for implementing policies to ensure compliance. Document standard operating procedures (OSP) and communicate process to internal customers. Create consistent escalation and/or appeal process for various parties across organization across various policies and procedures.
- Advise management and employees on disciplinary actions, performance problems, productivity, conflict resolution, policy and procedure interpretation and any other relevant issues to resolve disputes. Establish and maintain relationships with managers and employees to stay abreast of current and future employee relations issues to help prevent potential employee relation problems.
- Handle resignation and termination procedures, as well as potential legal matters related to employees filing law suits against the employer. Conducts exit interviews to identify problems and solutions. Use exit interview data from external vendor to identify trends, risks and Area-specific action plans.
- Maintain current knowledge of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and affirmative action guidelines and laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. Identify employment law and workplace trends (internally and externally), and partner with Employment Law to design training programs on relevant topics.
- Interpret and ensure company's compliance with federal reporting requirements in partnership with other key groups (e.g. Diversity & Inclusion, Legal;) manage the company response to federal audits