Employee Relations Specialist

Employment Type: Regular Full-Time

Shift: 1st Shift

Work Status: Onsite

Position Summary

The Employee Relations Specialist serves as a focal point for communication to and from employees related to new policies, change initiatives, morale, and other areas related to work experience. Builds a rapport with employees, assists, educates, makes them feel comfortable, and updates them on issues pertinent to them. To be successful, the person in this role must have an objective approach to all topics and exercise High-level confidentiality.

This is an onsite position working with a large volume of manufacturing employees as well as office staff. This role is predominantly working with people on the plant floor in Cranston and/or Fall River facilities.

Measures of success:

• Employee interface metrics improved
• Timely comprehensive reporting on feedback and outcomes
• Accurate insights into employee perspective

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Employee Relations

• Establishes a point of contact for employee feedback, a resource for answers to questions, and a sounding board for concerns; seeks insight into employee reactions to new policies, initiatives, etc.
• Confers with employees and provides guidance and/or consultation making sure they are using tools and resources available
• Meets with employees individually and in groups to gather information on employees' feelings about factors that affect morale, motivation, and efficiency as well as employee attitudes toward the work environment and supervision
• Acts as liaison with other team HR members such as payroll and benefits; researches employee concerns and provides timely and accurate feedback to employees
• Investigates employee complaints related to fair and equitable treatment in the workplace; advises supervisors and managers on actions to take; escalates complex issues to HR leaders
• Promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives
• Gathers feedback from employees to share with management; relays aggregated employee concerns and suggestions to management
• Communicates new policies and practices; defines the company and governmental rules, regulations, and procedures, and the need for compliance with employees
• Guides people through reasons for changes and adaptation skills
• Prepares communication and reports on feedback and outcomes; utilizes systems to compile, store, or retrieve employee-related information
• Identifies trends and opportunities to positively impact employee experience; conducts and summarizes exit interview feedback
• Assists employees with completing employment-related documents or data entry; explains company processes

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Communications, Training, or significant related experience in lieu of degree
• Certification in Employee Relations, Diversity & Inclusion, or related area of study a plus
• 3 years of experience partnering with management-employee relations issues and focusing on the in-person interface
• Proficient in MS Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Proven conflict resolutions skills
• Exceptional verbal, written, and presentation skills
• Able to communicate effectively across diverse levels of employees
• Ability to build trusted relationships essential for success
• Exceptional emotional intelligence required
• Able to balance employee voice with management and business requirements
• Must be able to flex schedule to engage with employees on all shifts
• Travel between facilities is likely

Preferred:

• Bilingual (Spanish or Portuguese)

Work Environment:

This position works primarily in an office environment using computers and technology. Verbal and auditory capabilities are required.

Onsite – This position reports into the site every day.

Daily exposure in production plant where large equipment and noise are prevalent. Safety gear is required in these areas.

Management:

This position has no direct reports.