Employee Relations Specialist, Americas

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities.

Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 109,000 accomplished people in 110 countries. WPP has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore and a corporate presence in major markets worldwide.

We create transformative ideas and outcomes for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

WPP and our award-winning agencies work with most of the world's biggest companies and organisations – from Ford, Unilever and P&G to Google, HSBC, and the UN. Our clients include 61 of the FTSE 100, 317 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. WPP are the leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and 8th in the FTSE 100 rankings for Women on Boards.

We are looking for an Employee Relations Specialist that will work with the broader Employee Relations team as they address workplace issues and concerns, and ensure that our people are treated fairly, respectfully, and consistently across the organization. Specifically, this role will assist the Employee Relations team as they provide advice and support to employees, managers, and People Partners (HRBPs) on a broad range of escalated employment issues including HR policy interpretation, performance management, HR investigations, employee discipline and misconduct, and remediation of employment-related disputes.  The analyst will have the opportunity to learn and grow in this function enabling them to potentially become subject matter experts themselves.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prepare research, data, materials, and reports, to assist the Employee Relations Leads with conducting reviews, investigations, drafting policies, trainings.
• Triage cases and respond to general employee inquiries and policy questions, overseeing and tracking requests for accommodations and remote work arrangements.
• Manage incoming complaints/inquiries in the HR Acuity Queue and Employee Relations mailbox, obtaining additional information as necessary, help triage cases, and conduct initial intakes.
• Handle routine employee relations issues.
• Take notes and summarize investigation interviews in consultation with Employee Relations Leads.
• Compile, review and analyze supporting documentation and evidence produced during reviews and investigations.
• Manage HR Acuity permissions, user setup, and trainings. Triage issues with case setup, naming conventions, issue locations, parties involved, and issue categories to ensure accurate data input. Help leads maintain consistency from case-to-case, audit cases, and make recommendations when there are inconsistencies.
• Help document case information in the ER management system to ensure interview notes, supporting documentations, findings, and recommended outcome are properly documented.
• Support continuous improvement of the function through process improvements aimed at increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
• Setup reports and conduct regular reporting on key metrics and trend data.

What You’ll Need

• 3+ years or more experience in Employee Relations or in HR with an employee relations component.    
• Excellent organization skills and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated high-quality judgment and sound decision-making.
• Ability to handle confidential information and appropriately escalate issues.
• Strong communication, interpersonal skills
• Comfortable working with data to analyze key metrics to uncover trends and root causes. 
• J.D. or Masters Degree in Human Resources a plus

Who you are:

You’re open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You’re optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with confidence: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You’re extraordinary: We are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we deliver extraordinary every day.

What we’ll give you:

Passionate, driven people – We champion a culture of people that do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to