Principal, Employee Engagement

Paychex•Cincinnati, OH

About The Position

The Principal, Employee Engagement serves as the strategic owner of Paychex's Voice of the Employee ecosystem, transforming employee feedback into actionable business insights that improve engagement, retention, productivity, and organizational effectiveness. This role owns the design, administration, analysis, and evolution of enterprise listening strategies while serving as a trusted advisor to HR and business leaders on employee sentiment and experience trends. As a senior individual contributor, this role is expected to operate with significant autonomy, influence leaders across the organization, and build the foundation for a scalable employee insights capability. The position may evolve into a people leadership role as the function expands. This role is responsible for creating a connected listening ecosystem that includes engagement surveys, pulse surveys, lifecycle feedback, workplace sentiment, employee experience analytics, and emerging listening channels. The individual will identify meaningful trends, connect employee feedback to business outcomes, and ensure leaders receive actionable recommendations that drive measurable improvements in the employee experience.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Organizational Psychology, Business, Analytics, Communications, or related field.
7 years of experience in Employee Experience, Employee Engagement, Organizational Development, HR Analytics, Workforce Insights, or a related discipline.
Experience designing and managing enterprise survey and listening programs.
Demonstrated ability to analyze large datasets and translate findings into business recommendations.
Strong executive communication and storytelling skills.
Experience presenting to senior leaders and influencing strategic decisions.
Proven ability to manage complex cross-functional initiatives.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in Organizational Psychology, Business, Human Resources, Analytics, or related field.
Experience with employee listening platforms and survey technologies.
Knowledge of employee experience design, journey mapping, and change management methodologies.
Experience building employee analytics capabilities or VoE programs from the ground up.
Previous informal leadership or team leadership experience.

Responsibilities

Own and continuously evolve the enterprise Voice of the Employee (VoE) strategy and listening framework.
Establish governance, standards, and methodologies for employee listening programs.
Ensure employee feedback channels are integrated into a cohesive listening ecosystem.
Create strategic roadmaps that align employee listening efforts with business priorities and Employee Experience goals.
Evaluate and implement innovative listening tools, methodologies, and technologies.
Lead the design, execution, and optimization of employee listening programs, including: Annual engagement surveys, Pulse surveys, Lifecycle surveys, Post-interaction surveys, Workplace and culture sentiment measurement, Emerging listening channels and feedback mechanisms.
Experiment with new approaches to collecting employee feedback and evaluate effectiveness through the Employee Experience Design Loop.
Partner with stakeholders to ensure listening activities create value and drive action.
Transform complex employee data into compelling, actionable insights for leaders.
Identify emerging trends, risks, opportunities, and root causes impacting employee experience.
Build executive-level reporting, dashboards, scorecards, and narratives.
Analyze key drivers of engagement, retention, performance, and culture.
Connect employee sentiment data to business metrics and outcomes.
Develop predictive insights related to retention, employee experience, and organizational health.
Serve as the enterprise expert on employee engagement strategy and measurement.
Consult with leaders to interpret survey results and develop meaningful action plans.
Facilitate leadership discussions regarding engagement opportunities and themes.
Monitor progress against engagement commitments and organizational initiatives.
Support business units in translating insights into measurable improvements.
Act as a trusted advisor to HR leaders, people managers, and executive stakeholders.
Present findings and recommendations to senior leadership teams.
Influence organizational decisions using employee insights and data-driven recommendations.
Partner across Employee Relations, Communications, Total Rewards, Talent, Learning, and Operations to drive aligned actions.
Research best practices, benchmarks, and emerging trends in employee listening and engagement.
Evaluate external market data to contextualize internal employee sentiment.
Recommend innovative approaches to measuring and improving the employee experience.
Lead pilots and experimentation efforts to improve insight generation and employee participation.