Global Employee Relations Director

Boston Consulting Group · London

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Locations: London | Lisbon | München | Gurgaon

Who We Are

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we help clients with total transformation-inspiring complex change, enabling organizations to grow, building competitive advantage, and driving bottom-line impact.

To succeed, organizations must blend digital and human capabilities. Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives to spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting along with technology and design, corporate and digital ventures—and business purpose. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, generating results that allow our clients to thrive.

At BCG, we commit to high standards of responsible and ethical behavior and to doing the right thing. Our Values describe the kind of firm we want to be and the standards of behavior to which we hold ourselves accountable. We want people to speak up to ensure we uphold our Values.

The purpose of the Global Employee Relations (ER) COE is to protect BCG’s speak up culture. We focus on risk assessment, prevention, role clarity, and trend analysis of raised concerns and workplace investigations to advise leadership and build HR capabilities across the firm.

We ensure all employment related investigations are conducted by appropriately trained and experienced investigators, that outcomes are calibrated against fairness and appropriateness, and that decision makers can make informed decisions following investigations. We keep the employee experience at the centre of all the work we do.

This role reports directly to the Global Senior Director of the ER COE who reports to the Global CHRO.

What You'll Do

• Define and refine the global ER Operating model, to ensure it is responding to the changing needs of the organisation. 
• Build ER capability and consistency across the firm to mitigate employment risk and protect the employee experience, using AI and other tools to create efficiency and build skills.  
• Provide structure, competence and process for managing, addressing, recording and reporting on global ER matters. 
• Provide expertise and consultation to the business in addressing employee behavior, including the development and delivery of appropriate interventions that align with the firm’s values and processes.  
• Lead and manage BCG’s complex, sensitive and high-risk ER matters and investigations, particularly those involving senior stakeholders or significant employment, regulatory, litigation or reputational risks.
• Resolve complex workplace matters, including using early dispute resolution techniques to prevent needless escalation. 
• In collaboration with legal counsel, provide effective guidance, advice and referrals on policies, procedures and laws and regulations to ensure compliance with policies and local employment laws.  
• Supervise the drafting, review, maintenance, and communication of HR policies and procedures in compliance with local employment laws.  
• Audit HR practices in conjunction with HR colleagues to ensure regulatory compliance. 
• Encourage rigor, high standards and completeness in the use of BCG’s ER case management system.
• Develop and deliver training for the end users of the system, including ‘white glove’ one to one training for senior stakeholders
• Design end user reports for CMV data that enable users of the system to self serve. These reports must be robust, insightful, and comprise a mix of data and compelling narrative.
• Ensure all matters reported through the various platforms (eg Ombuds and Speak Up), are investigated, resolved and reported on.
• Collate, present and contextualise misconduct data as required by regulators and auditors.
• Identify emerging employment and workplace risks and translate these into proactive ER priorities, interventions and capability-building initiatives.
• Continue to strengthen and evolve the ER Networks across the firm, sustaining an engaged community of ER practitioners and developing communities of practice that enable colleagues to share expertise, solve common challenges, build capability and drive greater consistency in ER practice globally.

What You'll Bring

• A track record in building sustainable and trusting relationships with senior HR colleagues and senior leaders to pre-empt, understand and respond to ER needs across the world.  
• Deep expertise of leading complex and high risk investigations, including managing senior stakeholders and advising on cases with potentially very serious consequences.  
• A track history in building detailed ER toolkits and other practical solutions to enable colleagues to conduct other ER activities (such as investigations) independently and successfully.  
• Previous experience of successful and scalable ER training interventions to prevent and mitigate typical ER issues. 
• Ability to interpret ER case data and translate it into meaningful trends and patterns to enable informed decisions and effective employment risk management. 
• Your ability to be persuasive, pragmatic and credible, with the judgement and confidence to advise HR colleagues and senior leaders on sensitive, complex and high-risk matters, including those with potential litigation, regulatory or reputational implications.
• Ability to work in close partnership with critical stakeholders such as Legal and Compliance, earning their trust as a credible counterpart. 
• Successful management of large scale change projects. 
• The capacity to thrive in a complex and truly global organisation, working well with ambiguity. 
• The knack of flexing your approach according to the situation and the experience of those you are supporting. This could range from coaching a new investigator through their first investigation to working alongside highly experienced ER and Legal colleagues on a complex misconduct matter that may require reporting to external authorities. Both require expert judgement, credibility and confidence.
• The understand of the criticality of keeping the employee experience front and centre of decisions and actions.  

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

• 10-15 years of HR/ER experience, including investigations and training at a senior level, in large, complex multinational organisations, with a proven ability to work with people at all levels in an organisation, and from all parts of the world. The role holder must demonstrate cultural awareness, and an ability to work easily with a global stakeholder group in a matrixed, distributed and complex international environment.
• Must work confidently in an often ambiguous environment, and balance occasional conflicting stakeholder rights (eg, those who believe they have the right to make certain decisions, or to know of confidential matters)
• Highly developed quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, as the role requires interpretation, communication and contextualisation of often complex data, at all levels of the organisation, from MDSPs to colleagues at more junior levels.
• Upward stakeholder management is critical, as the jobholder may be the most junior person in a room where very senior individuals need to make an informed and difficult decision about a complex matter involving legal and reputational risk.
• Must be able to work efficiently with case management systems, HR systems and data, and the entire Microsoft office product suite.
• The role of the COE is to guide, train, influence and advise. The role holder must be a confident and assured individual, with the ability to persuade, advise and influence at all levels in the organisation, including at MDSP level. Equally, the ability to relate to and resonate with those at a more junior level of the organisation is very important.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and an ability to turn around highly impactful and concise PowerPoint presentations
• Bachelor’s degree

Who You'll Work With

This role reports directly to the Global Senior Director of the ER COE who reports to the Global CHRO.

Additional info

At BCG, our people and relationships are at the heart of everything we do. We believe that in-person collaboration plays an important role in our culture, mentorship, and professional development.

For this role, you will generally be expected to work from a BCG office or in person with clients on a regular basis (typically around 50% of working time), depending on business needs and in line with local policies and practices.

We aim to provide a dynamic and collaborative environment that fosters connection and teamwork.

• Boston Consulting Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under national, provincial, or local law, where applicable, and those with criminal histories will be considered in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws.
• BCG is an E - Verify Employer. Click here for more information on E-Verify.

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