Director, Employee Relations

Sutter Health•Sacramento, CA

1d•$181,875 - $291,013

About The Position

The Director, Employee Relations provides strategic, operational, and consultative leadership across Sutter Health’s integrated healthcare delivery system to foster a positive, high-performing work environment. The role advises leaders and employees on complex employee relations matters involving represented and non-represented employees, aligning practices with Sutter Health policies and applicable legislation. It leads proactive workplace initiatives, investigations, internal reviews, performance and behavior management, grievance and discipline processes, conflict resolution, and employee transitions related to enterprise transformation and restructuring. The Director develops scalable employee relations strategies and practices across acute, ambulatory, ancillary, and home health settings. Using workforce data and analytics, the role identifies trends and risks, supports manager capability-building, and recommends actions to improve workforce effectiveness and employee experience. It partners closely with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Security, Communications, Human Resources, and other stakeholders on crisis response, safety, threat assessment, leave, accommodations, and related matters. The position also leads the system HR investigations team, setting consistent practices and standards and overseeing complex, sensitive, and high-risk investigations. It ensures investigations are objective, thorough, timely, defensible, and attentive to employee experience and organizational culture. The Director leads and develops a multi-site employee relations team, manages its operations and budget, and advises senior and executive leaders on workforce strategies and sensitive issues.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree; equivalent experience may be accepted in lieu of the degree.
Eight years of recent relevant experience.
Progressive employee relations experience.
Leadership experience managing managers and multi-site teams in complex environments.
Demonstrated people-management ability, including cultivating an engaging, high-performing, and inclusive culture.
Strong executive communication, influence, cross-functional partnership, and collaboration skills, with ability to work in complex, matrixed environments.
Sound judgment and a balanced approach when handling high-risk, complex, or emotionally charged matters.
Expert knowledge of federal and state employment laws, including NLRA, Title VII, ADA, FMLA or CFRA, and wage and hour requirements.
Advanced investigative skills and experience with restructuring, performance improvement, discipline, leaves and accommodations, crisis management, threat assessment, and reputation matters.
Experience advising senior executives.
High proficiency in using data and analytics to drive business and people outcomes.
Cultural competence and demonstrated commitment to inclusion and belonging.
Ability to lead effectively in fast-paced clinical environments and maintain stability during operational disruption.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement enterprise employee relations strategies aligned with organizational goals, patient care, safety priorities, and operational needs.
Use employee survey results, climate indicators, workforce metrics, risk assessments, and listening strategies to create proactive solutions and evaluate outcomes.
Develop scalable employee relations practices, policies, catalogs, playbooks, and decision frameworks.
Partner with stakeholders on labor relations, preventive strategies, education, and manager capability-building.
Coach leaders on interpersonal effectiveness, accountability, team dynamics, culture, difficult conversations, and conflict resolution.
Advise leaders on performance management, corrective actions, performance improvement plans, discipline, misconduct, and documentation.
Consult with managers and employees to resolve conflict, improve communication, and reinforce inclusion and belonging.
Partner on accommodations, leave, disability interfaces, and workers’ compensation matters.
Lead or oversee objective workplace reviews and investigations, including matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and policy or Code of Conduct violations.
Lead or support responses involving workplace violence, employee safety, fitness for duty, clinical practice concerns, and brand or reputation matters.
Maintain confidentiality, discretion, ethical judgment, high-quality documentation, defensibility, chain of custody, and readiness for reviews, audits, litigation, and external inquiries.
Provide leadership in crisis events, threat assessments, and urgent employee relations matters.
Use dashboards, trend analysis, predictive analytics, listening strategies, and end-of-employment insights to identify risks and develop interventions.
Present workforce insights and recommendations to senior and executive leaders and influence cross-functional action plans.
Use enterprise case-management tracking to monitor case volumes, issues, actions, outcomes, and trends.
Support reorganizations, redeployments, and reductions in force, ensuring compliant, consistent, and dignified processes.
Partner on end-of-employment processes, including employee communications, claims and settlements, severance and separation programs, and outplacement services.
Build and transform the employee relations function and support changes to the human resources operating model.
Lead, develop, and structure a high-performing, inclusive employee relations team across multiple sites; provide coaching and feedback.
Establish supervisory structures, staffing plans, coverage models, and standard operating procedures.
Improve service delivery, cycle times, stakeholder satisfaction, and workload balance using data.
Manage the budget and optimize systems, policies, and processes.
Build trusted partnerships with clinical and operational leaders and HR, labor relations, talent, legal, compliance, quality, security, and safety teams.
Communicate critical matters and strategies to senior and executive leadership and influence collaborative decisions across functions.