Employee Relations Consultant

Toast is driven by building the all-in-one restaurant platform that helps restaurants operate their business, increase sales, engage guests, and keep employees happy.

Toast’s Employee Relations (“ER”)  function is responsible for engaging with employees and leaders at critical moments in the employee life cycle to ensure an equitable, inclusive, and respectful experience for all employees consistent with Toast’s policies, values, and culture. The Employee Relations Consultant will report to the Sr. Manager, Employee Relations and support the Customer Care organization within Toast, a Call Center environment primarily based in Omaha, NE, by providing employees, leaders, People Success Partners (PSPs), Performance Consultants and other stakeholders with ER expertise and services, including: leading workplace investigations, policy creation and interpretation, consultation on performance management, consultation on leaves of absence and medical accommodations, workplace training, organizational change assessment, crisis response, conflict resolution, case data analytics, and other workplace projects impacting the employee experience. 

The Employee Relations Consultant must be able to perform work with little supervision, exhibit superb written and verbal communication skills, handle a wide range of complex and highly sensitive employment situations with great efficiency, and demonstrate strong emotional intelligence to skillfully interact with employees at all levels of the organization who have a wide range of experiences and backgrounds.  This position can be remote or hybrid and will experience moderate travel.

About this roll* (Responsibilities) 

• Culture & Collaboration: Foster a positive and inclusive work environment aligned with company values. Promote teamwork, trust, and open communication within the Customer Care team.
• HR Policy & Compliance: Serve as a subject matter expert on HR policies and procedures. Advise, educate, and ensure adherence to regulations, promoting a fair and consistent workplace.
• Investigations & Conflict Resolution: Conduct thorough and impartial workplace investigations, ensuring due process and confidentiality. Manage conflict resolution effectively, facilitating productive conversations and outcomes.
• Employee Support: Provide empathetic guidance and support to employees throughout the employee relations process. Coach managers on handling sensitive situations and navigating challenging conversations.
• Data & Insights: Proactively analyze employee relations data to identify trends and root causes. Provide actionable insights and recommendations to prevent issues and promote a healthy workplace.
• Manager Enablement: Partner with the People team to develop and deliver training programs that empower managers to effectively handle employee relations matters.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate effectively with the Legal, People team, and other departments to navigate complex employee situations, manage leaves of absence, ensure compliance, and promote a positive employee experience.
• Continuous Improvement: Continuously identify opportunities to improve employee relations processes, tools, and documentation. Stay abreast of industry best practices and leverage them to enhance the company's employee relations practices.

Do you have the right ingredients*? (Requirements)

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work experience
• Employee Relations or related employment law experience 
• Demonstrated experience leading a wide variety of complex employee investigations and providing employee relations consultations with little supervision.
• Demonstrated experience working in a call center environment in an ER capacity.

Special Sauce* (Nice to Haves)

• Strong problem solving, critical thinking and root cause/analysis skills. You’re proactive and accountable, with solid judgment, excellent listening skills, proven consultative skills and the ability to handle information with sensitivity and confidentiality.
• You’re empathetic with high emotional intelligence and strong people skills.
• Leads with integrity, respect, high personal standards to build credibility for self and function, with the ability to handle highly sensitive and confidential matters with compassion, equity, creativity to think inside and outside of the box to drive the right solutions.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills and attention to detail; the ability to work autonomously and manage multiple requests with varying timelines.
• Positive employee approach, ability to remain tactful, calm and persuasive in challenging situations.
• Demonstrated partnership development and influencing others without direct authority; builds internal community, drives inclusion, supports team, collaborates well.
• Excellent communication/presentation and writing skills and the ability to effectively communicate and partner with all levels of leadership across functional areas
• Experience using data to identify insights that drive action and experience helping global organizations scale
• You have working knowledge and application of US employment law and regulations. 
• Demonstrated experience learning and thriving in a constantly changing environment, including a desire and enthusiasm for operating in the gray and working in a fast-paced, team oriented environment.
• Professional in Human Resources (PHR)/Society for Human Resources Management-Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) or equivalent.
• Spanish speaking
  
  
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