Director of Employee Experience & Development

Arthur J. Gallagher · Ithaca · $150,000 (stated in the posting)

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The Director of Employee Experience & Development is a member of the HR Leadership team reporting directly to the Chief Human Resources Officer. This role serves as a cornerstone of our organizational culture and internal community. Having overall responsibility for designing, scaling, and managing the end-to-end journey of our team members. This role unifies organizational culture and workplace engagement with learning, leadership development, and career mobility. You will bridge the gap between business strategy and people enablement ensuring that every milestone of the employee lifecycle reinforces high-performance, inclusive, and agile culture.  

Success will require Trust and Transparency serving as a reliable, candid liaison between leadership and the wider team, ensuring project delivery, execution of strategic initiatives and operational effectiveness; Cultural Alignment and Collaborative Leadership providing direction, guidance and mentorships that reinforce our core values and creating a positive, inclusive and high-performing culture, while maintaining productive, high-trust relationships across all levels of the organization and Team Development and Engagement investing in team member development, managing performance and development programs, fostering a continuous learning environment within HR and across the internal community we serve.  

Position Goals:

• Strengthen the employee experience: Improve employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention through coordinated programs and initiatives. 

• Build talent for the future: Develop learning and career-growth opportunities that enhance skills and build talent pipelines to meet future workforce needs. 

• Align people strategies with business priorities: Partner with HR and senior leadership on organizational development, workforce planning, and strategic people initiatives. 

• Foster a positive, inclusive, and accountable culture: Support effective performance management, consistent policies, constructive employee relations, and open communication. 

• Deliver effective HR services: Lead the employee experience and development teams, collaborate with talent acquisition, HR operations and total rewards to delivery high quality reliable and efficient service and manage the functional budget. 

• Drive measurable improvement: Use employee feedback, surveys, and key performance indicators to assess program effectiveness and adjust strategies. 

• Maintain compliance and manage risk: Ensure practices align with employment laws, organizational policies, and risk-management requirements.

Employee Experience & Workplace Culture 

• Design architecture for the employee lifecycle. Map, assess, and continuously refine key moments in the employee lifecycle (onboarding, performance check-ins, internal mobility, life events, and offboarding) to minimize operational friction and maximize retention.  
• Develop and lead continuous listening mechanisms (pulse surveys, engagement surveys, exit interviews, stay interviews, and focus groups) to understand and champion team member voice. 
• Partner with internal communications and executive leadership to reinforce cultural values, promote transparency and engagement, psychological safety, celebrate organizational milestones and sustain connection across distributed/hybrid teams.  
• Identify opportunities and collaborate with total rewards, HR operations and talent acquisition to develop initiatives aimed at improving satisfaction, engagement, retention, culture, and employee well-being.

Employee Development 

• Develop a comprehensive learning and development strategy aligned with business goals and future workforce needs. 
• Lead the development of career pathways, internal mobility, and succession planning. 
• Oversee onboarding, mentoring, coaching, and professional development programs. 
• Maintain modern performance management strategies and ensure consistency in accountability across the organization. 
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to ensure alignment between recruiting and development strategies. 
• Collaborate with senior management to identify high-potential talent and build targeted developmental plans to enhance capabilities and readiness. 

Performance Enablement & People Intelligence  

• Establish and track human capital metrics and use data to demonstrate trends, inform decisions, recommend improvements, and establish business objectives.  
• Partner with leaders to strengthen team effectiveness, engagement, and performance outcomes. 
• Drive initiatives that support employee belonging and inclusion to strengthen our internal community. 
• Develop and execute retention strategies to support growth, expansion, and preserve institutional knowledge during career transitions. 
• Lead organizational effectiveness and change initiatives supporting strategic priorities. 

Key Characteristics:

• Relationship Building: Builds strategic alliances across the organization to drive business goals, foster collaboration, eliminate silos, and advance organizational success. 
• Culture Management: Leads by example in upholding organizational values and shaping and evolving company culture. 
• People Leadership: Champions engagement, retention, and development through coaching, recognition, shared leadership, and succession planning. 
• Strategic Leadership & Execution: Shapes long term strategy by aligning vision, mission, and values with strategic goals, growth initiatives, and future challenges. 
• Problem Solving & Decision Making: Promotes objective, forward-thinking decisions by applying the Tompkins model, seeking diverse perspectives, and empowering accountability. 
• Planning & Results Orientation: Leads strategic planning by setting goals, managing resources and budgets, mitigating risks, and driving continuous improvement. 

• Bachelor's degree in HR or Business or related field.  

• Ten (10) plus years of human resource management experience required.  

• SHRM or HRCI Certification is highly preferred. 

• Experience leading organizational development, change management, employee development and employee engagement. 

• Excellent written, verbal and strong presentation skills.  

• Exceptional ability to build relationships, manage expectations and influence at all levels of the organization in a collaborative environment. 

• Adapts to changes in the work environment; manages competing demands.  

• Strong leadership, communication, emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. 

• Strategic thinking, problem solving abilities, and a passion for driving positive change.  

• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail in a fast-paced environment. 

• General knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations affecting the Human Resources function. 

• Must be proficient in learning and working with various software and tools.  

• Must be able to travel up to 20% of the time across the Tompkins footprint. 

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• 401(k) Match
• Profit Sharing
• Paid Time Off
• 11 Holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Free Parking throughout Tompkins Bank & Trust
• Employee Referrals

Tompkins is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity ("EEO") with respect to all team members and applicants for employment and a work environment free from discrimination (including unlawful harassment) based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender non-conformity, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, marital status, domestic violence victim status, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, military or veteran status or status in any group protected by federal, state, or local law. 

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Employee Experience & Workplace Culture 

• Design architecture for the employee lifecycle. Map, assess, and continuously refine key moments in the employee lifecycle (onboarding, performance check-ins, internal mobility, life events, and offboarding) to minimize operational friction and maximize retention.  
• Develop and lead continuous listening mechanisms (pulse surveys, engagement surveys, exit interviews, stay interviews, and focus groups) to understand and champion team member voice. 
• Partner with internal communications and executive leadership to reinforce cultural values, promote transparency and engagement, psychological safety, celebrate organizational milestones and sustain connection across distributed/hybrid teams.  
• Identify opportunities and collaborate with total rewards, HR operations and talent acquisition to develop initiatives aimed at improving satisfaction, engagement, retention, culture, and employee well-being.

Employee Development 

• Develop a comprehensive learning and development strategy aligned with business goals and future workforce needs. 
• Lead the development of career pathways, internal mobility, and succession planning. 
• Oversee onboarding, mentoring, coaching, and professional development programs. 
• Maintain modern performance management strategies and ensure consistency in accountability across the organization. 
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to ensure alignment between recruiting and development strategies. 
• Collaborate with senior management to identify high-potential talent and build targeted developmental plans to enhance capabilities and readiness. 

Performance Enablement & People Intelligence  

• Establish and track human capital metrics and use data to demonstrate trends, inform decisions, recommend improvements, and establish business objectives.  
• Partner with leaders to strengthen team effectiveness, engagement, and performance outcomes. 
• Drive initiatives that support employee belonging and inclusion to strengthen our internal community. 
• Develop and execute retention strategies to support growth, expansion, and preserve institutional knowledge during career transitions. 
• Lead organizational effectiveness and change initiatives supporting strategic priorities. 

Key Characteristics:

• Relationship Building: Builds strategic alliances across the organization to drive business goals, foster collaboration, eliminate silos, and advance organizational success. 
• Culture Management: Leads by example in upholding organizational values and shaping and evolving company culture. 
• People Leadership: Champions engagement, retention, and development through coaching, recognition, shared leadership, and succession planning. 
• Strategic Leadership & Execution: Shapes long term strategy by aligning vision, mission, and values with strategic goals, growth initiatives, and future challenges. 
• Problem Solving & Decision Making: Promotes objective, forward-thinking decisions by applying the Tompkins model, seeking diverse perspectives, and empowering accountability. 
• Planning & Results Orientation: Leads strategic planning by setting goals, managing resources and budgets, mitigating risks, and driving continuous improvement. 

• Bachelor's degree in HR or Business or related field.  

• Ten (10) plus years of human resource management experience required.  

• SHRM or HRCI Certification is highly preferred. 

• Experience leading organizational development, change management, employee development and employee engagement. 

• Excellent written, verbal and strong presentation skills.  

• Exceptional ability to build relationships, manage expectations and influence at all levels of the organization in a collaborative environment. 

• Adapts to changes in the work environment; manages competing demands.  

• Strong leadership, communication, emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. 

• Strategic thinking, problem solving abilities, and a passion for driving positive change.  

• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail in a fast-paced environment. 

• General knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations affecting the Human Resources function. 

• Must be proficient in learning and working with various software and tools.  

• Must be able to travel up to 20% of the time across the Tompkins footprint. 

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