People & Culture Business Partner, Scholars Programs

Title: People & Culture Business Partner for Scholars Programs

Department: People & Culture

Report to: Director, Talent Management

Compensation: $85,400 - $100,500

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Hybrid – 3 days/week in office

All candidates must be within commutable distance of SEO’s offices at 55 Exchange Place, New York, NY 10005, upon hire.  

ABOUT SEO

Founded in 1963 during the Civil Rights Movement, SEO closes educational and career opportunity gaps for 7,000 ambitious young people annually.  

POSITION OVERVIEW

The People & Culture Business Partner (PCBP) will support the Scholars Program teams to create an optimal employee experience that attracts, develops, and retains talent in service of SEO’s mission, vision, and values. The Scholars Program teams support the eight-year, academic program that transforms public high school students in New York City, San Francisco, North Carolina, and Miami into college graduates. By cultivating strong, trusting internal client relationships and serving as an advisor and expert HR liaison to the Scholars Program team leaders and employees, the PCBP will provide guidance on end-to-end talent management components, such as HR policies, organizational development, performance management, employee relations, workforce planning, onboarding & offboarding, talent acquisition.

The PBCP will partner with other operations teams and people leaders to develop, implement, communicate, and evaluate People & Culture initiatives based on critical needs.

Employee Relations & HR Policies

• Serve as primary point of contact for responding to Employee Relations (ER) concerns in a timely manner, and facilitate and mediate difficult conversations.
• Conduct ER investigations and make recommendations based on findings as needed.
• Escalate ER issues to Director of Talent Management to collaborate and problem solve accordingly with legal counsel.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the SEO Employee Handbook and SEO policies to coach, guide, and support staff while holding all team members accountable for conduct and compliance.
• Manage ADA workplace accommodations requests.    

Performance & Development

• Partner closely with leaders and managers to facilitate the performance management review cycle and milestones throughout the year.
• Work closely with managers to coach them through performance management issues and ways in which to develop their teams.
• Liaise between the people managers and People and Culture team to develop and deliver content for learning in support of organizational priorities, Scholar program participant needs, and individual/team development.

Recruitment, Onboarding & Retention

• Support the Talent Acquisition team to ensure a conscious, deliberate approach to attracting and retaining top talent.
• Partner with the Talent Acquisition team to ensure that the selection processes (e.g., conducting interviews, supporting new hiring managers, etc.) and onboarding processes (timely submission of new hire paperwork, supporting New Hire Orientation, etc.) are smooth and create the best new hire experience.
• Work closely with the Director of Talent Acquisition to develop retention strategies to minimize attrition, particularly in the Scholar program’s critical roles and specialty skillsets.

Employee Engagement

• Communicate with staff regarding People & Culture initiatives and assist in the change management.
• Respond to employee engagement indicators in collaboration with People & Culture colleagues and work with the Scholars Program leadership to develop action plans to address areas of concerns for staff.
• Support employee recognition, milestones, and accolades for the Scholar programs.
• Support our Employee Resource Groups as key business partner to group managers to help promote events, programming, communications and increase employee engagement.

Compensation & Benefits

• Collaborate with the Total Rewards team to support compensation reviews, as needed.
• Support the Total Rewards team in driving high participation in annual benefits open enrollment processes and connect staff to key resources.

People Operations

• Support the People Operations team in the execution of periodic data integrity audits and HRIS data clean-up.
• Partner with the People Operations team maintain accurate employee documents and databases for the Schol