Talent Management Deputy Director – Onboarding

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.  

Job Overview:

The mission of the Learning and Development (L&D) team is to take the IRC’s people to the next level. The team accountable for improving the capability of IRC staff by providing language, culture and technology-appropriate processes, tools, training, and guidance. Offerings span across the employee lifecycle including onboarding, staff and leadership development, performance management, recognition, quality individual and team learning and career planning and workforce management.

The Talent Management Deputy Director – Onboarding will have responsibility for setting the direction and philosophy for the way IRC manages new joiner onboarding and accountability to established standards for our global staff. Similarly, designing, developing, launching and scaling a thoughtful and strategic off-boarding process for departing employees will fall within the remit of this role. The incumbent will identify design, implement, evaluate, and maintain organization-wide processes, programs and resources that support the successful onboarding/off-boarding of IRC’s dispersed and global workforce. The role will scale and strengthen existing offerings and innovate additional ways to help new joiners around the world successfully onboard. This role applies a deep expertise in both research-supported models and practical, hands-on experience with leading practices to shape and customize what onboarding is at the IRC and how we implement it in contextually appropriate ways. Engagement and behavioral change are important aspects of success in this role. Impact of onboarding efforts are aimed at driving up the employee experience of inclusion, driving down the early employee-initiated turnover and supporting new joiners’ success in their roles. This role offers an opportunity to shape the future direction of onboarding using innovative, user-centered design.

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide subject matter expertise for strategic direction of program.
• Responsible for all design aspects of the organization-wide onboarding/off-boarding program in addition to design of standard methodology guides, tools, and templates for onboarding/off-boarding at the Regional/Function/Location/Team/Role levels.
• Maintain, improve, and scale existing program elements
• Innovate new program elements
• Design and implement strategies to expand the onboarding program’s scale and reach across cultural, technical, language and literacy barriers
• Collaborate with HR Partners and Regional roles to adapt onboarding/off-boarding tools and processes to fit language and contextual needs
• Partner with Recruitment, HR/Ops and Learning Innovation to enhance technology-enabling solutions such as those available in Cornerstone (ATS), WorkDay (HRIS) and KAYA (LMS)
• Identify, develop, and collaborate with the roles who own onboarding/off-boarding locally
• Find opportunities to enhance the manager and employee relationship, emphasizing each role’s accountabilities in this process
• Incorporate tracking and accountability measures into the Onboarding Process for GEDI (Gender Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion), policy compliance and other learning goals to measure & report on knowledge transfer, process consistency, etc.
• Build and deliver training on onboarding/off-boarding-related topics
• Collaborate with translation focal points to ensure materials are multilingual.
• Embed IRC values and leadership standards into onboarding processes, and incorporate onboarding principles, concepts, and expectations into broader learning programs such as performance management and manager training.
• Continuously measure success and seek options to strengthen onboarding resources, tools, and training
• Regularly collect data and feedback to evaluate the process for increased impact
• Collaborate with L&D colleagues to integrate onboarding principles, terminology, and tools into other L&D offerings

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Employee Experience Director
• Position directly supervises: May include formal supervision or informal oversight of various support roles

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• At least 6 years of proven experience building and delivering global onboarding processes
• Proven success implementing learning and development programs for a diverse and dispersed workforce
• Proven expertise with facilitating L&D programs in a virtual and in-person setting
• Familiarity with technology platforms and tools that enable successful onboarding
• Ability to work with external suppliers to ensure strong working relationships
• Proficiency in English required. Proficiency in French, Spanish or Arabic a plus

Demonstrated skills and competencies:

• Strong communication, project management, and organizational skills
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Flexible, creative, solution focused thinking
• Commitment to customer service and process improvement
• Able to prioritize and balance multiple tasks and projects
• Comfortable interpreting and working with data
• Familiarity with organizational change practices
• Ability to interact within a multi-cultural environment and with all levels of the organization
• High proficiency with Zoom and MS Teams

Work Environment

• Standard office work environment: considerable time spent at a computer terminal
• Domestic or international travel may be required occasionally
• Fully remote or hybrid arrangements possible

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct.  These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability.  In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability. 

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement:

In accordance with IRC’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards and our commitment to safeguard the health of our employees, clients, and communities, IRC requires new hires to furnish proof of vaccination against COVID-19 in order to be considered for any in-office or hybrid positions.  All IRC US offices require full vaccination to attend any in-office functions (e.g., meetings, trainings).

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity:

IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity.  We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits:

We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits.  In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days (depending on role and tenure), medical insurance starting at $145 per month, dental starting at $7 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare, childcare, and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with up to 4.5% immediately vested matching contribution, plus a 3-7% base IRC contribution (3 year vesting), disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

Compensation: