Director Employee Relations

Selective Insurance Company of America•Short Hills, NJ

About The Position

The Director, Employee Relations & Workforce Practices leads Selective’s enterprise Employee Relations & Workforce Practices function. The role develops a modern, data-informed approach to employee relations, workforce-risk management, investigations, and workplace practices, and establishes enterprise standards, capabilities, and technologies that support organizational health. The director partners with HR business partners, Legal, Compliance, senior leaders, investigators, and external providers to strengthen employee relations and manage workplace risk. The position oversees complaint intake and triage, investigation governance, case management, employment-action standards, policy interpretation, organizational-risk insights, and provider performance. It sets decision rights, case standards, escalation protocols, quality expectations, governance, and reporting; leads complex investigations; and ensures consistent, confidential, auditable case practices. The director also leads and develops Employee Relations team members and translates case trends into actionable insights for workforce strategy and risk mitigation. All duties must comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Business, Legal Studies, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive Human Resources or employee-relations experience, including significant experience leading complex, sensitive, and high-risk workplace investigations and employee-relations matters.
5+ years of people, program, or functional leadership experience, with responsibility for establishing standards, providing oversight, and driving consistent practices across an organization.
Advanced expertise in employee relations, workplace investigations, employment law, and HR policy, including intake and risk assessment, investigative interviewing, evidence evaluation, credibility analysis, findings, and documentation.
Ability to manage complex, sensitive, and high-risk employee matters with sound judgment, discretion, objectivity, and appropriate escalation.
Strong knowledge of corrective-action and case-management practices, including consistent application of policies, investigation standards, documentation requirements, and governance protocols.
Strong analytical and operational capabilities, including leveraging employee-relations data and case trends to identify emerging risks, root causes, and opportunities to strengthen workplace practices.
Exceptional consulting, communication, and influencing skills, including the ability to advise and influence senior and executive leaders on complex employee-relations matters and workplace risk.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or specialized workplace-investigation training.
Experience overseeing external investigators, counsel, or other vendors.
Professional Human Resources or workplace-investigation certification.

Responsibilities

Lead the enterprise Employee Relations & Workforce Practices function and own employee-relations strategy, complaint intake and triage, investigation governance, case management, employment-action standards, policy interpretation, organizational-risk insights, and external-provider oversight.
Establish a consistent, defensible, risk-tiered approach to workplace concerns and investigations in partnership with HR Business Partners, Legal, Compliance, and external providers.
Develop and implement enterprise strategy, including decision rights, case standards, escalation protocols, quality expectations, governance, and reporting.
Oversee complaint intake and triage, including immediate-risk assessment, issue classification, conflict screening, evidence-preservation decisions, and appropriate routing.
Manage vendor relationships, service-level expectations, and quality.
Lead complex and sensitive workplace investigations and oversee assigned investigators, setting and approving scope, methodology, escalation criteria, and work-product expectations in coordination with Legal as appropriate.
Ensure technology solutions support consistent case assignment and management, including documentation, timeliness, milestones, confidentiality and privacy, record integrity, closure, workload balancing, and auditability.
Establish standards and govern performance-improvement plans, corrective action, separations, reductions in force, and other formal employment actions to promote consistency, proportionality, strong documentation, and appropriate review.
Interpret and administer employment policies, identify policy and practice gaps, coordinate employment-law and compliance support, and maintain current knowledge of applicable requirements.
Establish investigation quality standards and review investigative scope, evidence, interview quality, credibility analysis, findings, limitations, and unresolved issues.
Recommend proportionate remedial actions and oversee follow-through, including accountability, completion timelines, retaliation monitoring, and reassessment when facts or risk levels change.
Analyze employee-relations data and trends and translate findings into predictive, actionable insights for HR Business Partners and senior leaders.
Lead, develop, and manage Employee Relations team members.
Manage external-provider performance, including quality, capacity, cost, conflicts, security, service levels, and calibration.
Carry out all duties and responsibilities in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.