Global Employee Relations Director

Arcadis is the world's leading company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

We are more than 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can solve the world's most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Role description:

As a globally connected People function, Arcadians will experience an improved Quality of Life in us being human-centered and inclusive in everything we do. We will - in true partnership with the business - drive a high-performance culture. The People function will support Arcadians in developing relevant (digital) capabilities that will enable Arcadis to deliver in the best possible way. Together we will build a sustainable future for Arcadis.

The Global Employee Relations Director role will be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the strategic framework, policies, procedures, and programs that promote a positive and inclusive employee experience and compliance with labour laws across the countries Arcadis operates in. This role can based in Europe/the UK&I.

The role reports primarily to the Chief People Officer and secondary to the Global People Operations Director. There are no direct reports. The role will collaborate with country and global People teams and employee relations professionals to help manage and investigate cases and achieve efficiency and effectiveness, guided by our global ER framework.

Role accountabilities:

Create a global framework to manage employee relations and ways of working, to ensure consistent and equitable resolution.

Managing Inflow of Employee Relations (ER) cases

• Triage ER cases that come in through our global integrity line for country teams to investigate.
• Develop efficient processes and procedures for handling and prioritizing ER issues globally.
• Implement a system for tracking and documenting ER cases to ensure timely resolution and global reporting as well as provide organizational insight.
• Ensuring engagement of organizational SMEs (P&R, DEIB, Talent Management, etc) as required for issue resolution or advice;

Collaborating with Stakeholders:

• Engage with key stakeholders such as People team COEs, Human Rights, legal, compliance, and business leaders to align ER strategies with organizational goals.
• Foster strong relationships with internal departments and external partners to enhance ER processes and outcomes.
• Looking at employee relations data and developing interventions with global stakeholders that help mitigate future issues or help improve the company culture.
• Review Employee Engage Surveys to assess Arcadian lived experience and organizational risk.

Engagement of External Counsel:

• Identify and engage external legal counsel when necessary for complex ER matters.
• Collaborate with legal experts to ensure compliance with labour laws and regulations.

Providing Employee Relations Support:

• Guiding/managing local people team members / ER team members, supporting managers and employees on managing Employee Relations issues to ensure compliance with relevant employment legislation.
• Act as an escalation point for in-country People teams in handling challenging employee relations situations or grievances.
• Serve as a resource for employees seeking advice or assistance on ER-related concerns.

Investigating ER Matters:

• Conduct thorough investigations into ER complaints, allegations, or disputes where necessary.
• Ensure investigations are fair, objective, and in compliance with company policies and legal requirements.
• Where appropriate, engage with DIB team to ensure the diversity aspect is considered to ensure equitable and fair resolution.

Conducting Training:

• Develop and deliver training programs for People team professionals, managers, and employees on ER best practices, conflict resolution, and compliance.
• Provide guidance on effectively managing ER situations in the workplace.

General

In this role you will act as a visible steward of health and safety and ensure familiarity and compliance with Health and Safety regulations and guidelines including wellbeing and resilience. Where required, you will undertake external promotion and presence for both the Arcadis and personal brand in the marketplace through though leadership and speaking engagements. This role will may require travel from time to time to meet with key stakeholders, and attend meetings and workshops. Depending on location it may require work outside normal business hours.

Qualifications & Experience:

The candidate should have an academic degree (eg, human resources) progressive human resource experience, and relevant experience in a complex international matrix setting. They should have broad experience and understand the complexity of handling employee relations issues within a global setting.

Further, the candidate should have demonstrated experience in driving behavioral change pertaining to people issues. Other required experience and competencies for this role:

• Proven track record in managing global ER issues and collaborating with external counsel.
• Extensive experience in conducting ER investigations and providing support to employees and management.
• Solid understanding of labour laws, regulations, and best practices in ER management across the UK, Europe, Asia and North America, and Latin America.
• Understanding of DIB issues impacting employees' lived experience.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities as well as cross-cultural awareness.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Proficiency in conflict resolution and negotiation.
• Training in conducting investigations or conflict resolution techniques is beneficial.

For this role, Arcadis values professional experience across the following priority areas:

• People management: Creating high-performing teams, communicating vision and purpose, engaging others, and ensuring aligned objectives. Caring for employee wellbeing and recognizing and celebrating success.
• Mobilizing talent: Embracing new workforce profiles and planning approaches, attracting and developing talent, leveraging talent in different markets, and catalyzing a movement.
• Living our purpose: Mentoring and sponsoring people coming through the business and from outside. Proactively, supporting communities and social initiatives, and showing attention for the planet and sustainability.

Aligned to the Arcadis Leadership model we seek leaders with a strong fit to our leadership success profile, to build and drive our culture of inclusion, accountability, human-centricity, and sustainability. Successful leaders at Arcadis will possess strong learning agility, combined with a balanced mix of being curious, driving success, and igniting passion.

Recruitment agencies need not respond. Details from this vacancy are not to be used for marketing purposes.

Why Arcadis?

We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It's why we are pioneering a skills-based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together.

You'll do meaningful work, and no matter what role, you'll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark, on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you.

Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Join Arcadis. Create a Legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day, which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people.