Emp Relations Specialist I

Bronson Healthcare Group•Kalamazoo, MI

2d•Onsite

About The Position

In collaboration with human resources colleagues, the Employee Relations and Engagement Specialist will be intimately involved in the development, planning, and deployment of processes and systems that help foster a high-performing, fully engaged workforce. The Employee Relations and Engagement Specialist will provide day-to-day consulting, mediation, facilitation, and guidance regarding employee relations issues across Bronson. The Employee Relations and Engagement Specialist will be responsible for designing and deploying action plans to address engagement and climate surveys, exit interviews, and employee communications. The Specialist also will be responsible for developing metrics that measure the pulse of the organization and provide leading indicators that help the organization proactively develop solutions to increase and sustain a fully engaged workforce.

Requirements

Education and/or experience equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree required
minimum 3 years of experience in Human Resources
Integrity and Trust: Is widely trusted; is seen as direct, truthful individual; can present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences, admits mistakes, doesn’t represent him/herself for personal gain.
Listening: Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience to hear people out; can accurately restate opinions of others even when he/she disagrees.
Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of the internal and external customers, to getting first-hand customer information and using it for improvements in benefit delivery services; acts with customers in mind, establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their respect and trust.
Negotiating: Can negotiate skillfully in tough situations with both internal and external groups; can settle differences with minimum noise; can win concessions without damaging relationships; can be both direct and forceful as well as diplomatic; gains trust quickly of other parties of the negotiations; has a good sense of timing.
Conflict Management: Steps up to conflict, seeing them as opportunities; reads situations quickly; good at focused listening; can hammer out tough agreements and settle disputes equitably; can find common ground and get cooperation with minimum noise.
Problem Solving: Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems or agendas, is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
Managing Diversity and Inclusion: Interacts with all kinds of classes of people equitably; deals effectively with all races, nationalities, cultures, disabilities, ages, sexual orientations, and genders; supports equal, fair treatment, and opportunity for all.
Composure: Is cool under pressure; does not become defensive or irritated when times are tough; is considered mature; can be counted on to hold things together during tough times; can handle stress; is not knocked off balance by the unexpected; doesn’t show frustration when resisted or blocked; is a settling influence in a crisis.
Approachability: Is easy to approach and talk to; spends the extra effort to put others at ease; can be warm, pleasant, and gracious; is sensitive to and patient with the interpersonal anxieties of others; builds rapport well; is a good listener; is an early knower, getting informal and incomplete information in time to do something about it.
Self-Development: Is personally committed, and actively works, to continuously improve himself/herself; understands that different situations and levels may call for different skills and approaches; works to deploy strengths; works on compensating for weakness and limits.
Planning: Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks and projects; sets objectives and goals; breaks down work into the process steps; develops schedules and task/people assignments; anticipates and adjusts for problems and roadblocks; measures performance against goals, evaluates results.
Written Communications: is able to write clearly and succinctly in a variety of communication settings and styles; can get messages across that have the desired effect.

Responsibilities

Conducting fact-finding investigations in a way that deploys best practice methodologies to uncover root cause(s) and thereafter solutions that ensure the organization is focused on the Bronson mission.
Overseeing engagement and climate surveys and other employee engagement processes including interpreting data and developing follow-up programs to address feedback from the surveys.
Working collaboratively with people leaders, Equity and Inclusion colleagues, and Center for Learning colleagues with implementation of strategies to facilitate positive change in employee and organizational development, such as heightened employee engagement, increased individual and team performance, improved safety, and work practices that support the growth, vision, and mission of Bronson.
Developing and managing the exit and stay interview processes to identify themes and organizational solutions that improve retention (i.e., regrettable turnover).
Assisting with providing strategic direction for employee relations including the evaluation of external and internal factors that impact the work environment, and the development of appropriate strategies and tactics to drive positive change.
Providing consulting services to all organizational levels on employee relations matters.
Engaging proactively with the organization to eliminate or minimize employee relations issues.
Mediating employee relations issues by meeting with supervisors and employees to discover the source of the issue and facilitating resolution.
Consulting as appropriate with administration, general counsel, and the Office of Equity and Inclusion, on matters related to equitable treatment of employees and to minimize exposure to liability and litigation.
Acting as support to administrators in cases of organizational re-alignments, reallocation, financial exigency, or other reduction of force plans; ensuring affected parties benefit from all available resources in these cases.
Facilitating employee relations-related educational courses and providing materials to supervisors.
Maintaining familiarity with HelpNet, the Employee Resource Network and Success Coaches to support the “whole” person.
Consulting with people leaders on performance management issues and deploying an array of corrective action measures.