Associate Vice President, Employee Relations

Richemont owns some of the world’s leading luxury goods Maisons, with particular strengths in jewellery, fine watches and premium accessories.

Each Maison represents a proud tradition of style, quality and craftsmanship and Richemont seeks to preserve the heritage and identity of each of its Maisons.

At the same time, we are committed to innovation and designing new products which are in keeping with our Maisons’ values, through a process of continuous creativity.

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

RICHEMONT AMERICAS | NEW YORK, NEW YORK

At Richemont Americas, we are proud to employ talent from many different backgrounds, experiences, and identities.

We believe that when diversity and inclusion are fully embraced and empowered, creativity and knowledge emerge to deliver excellence.

We continue to work towards creating a workforce that represents the diversity of our clients and our communities.

MAIN PURPOSE

The AVP of Employee Relations will develop, recommend, and implement an Employee Relations strategy that drives an organizational culture of trust, respect, and equity, and ensures positive employee experiences through people-focused, legally compliant policies and practices.

Currently reporting to the SVP Human Resources, this role will oversee the Richemont Americas Employee Relations COE, and collaborate closely with HR, Legal, and Maison (brand) leadership teams to help develop and implement employee relations practices.

This role will provide all levels of the organization with thought leadership, guidance, recommendations, support, and education to ensure consistency in the management of employee performance, behavior, conflict prevention, and dispute resolution. The AVP will advise and support employees, managers, and HRBPs on a broad range of escalated employment issues including HR policy interpretation, performance management, complaint investigation, employee discipline and misconduct, accommodations, terminations, reorganizations, and remediation of employment-related disputes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS LEADERSHIP AND EDUCATION:

• Provide all levels of the organization with day-to-day guidance, partnership, and ongoing education concerning ER best practices and evolving regulations, including but not limited to federal, state/province, and local laws and policy trends.

• Build ER-related skills and competencies across the region’s leadership teams through the development and delivery of learning programs and activities, including consistent performance management processes and guidelines.

• Collaborate with key stakeholders to identify and mitigate barriers to a positive, respectful, fair, and equitable workplace environment.

• Provide strategic vision on the continuous improvement of Employee Relations processes.

WORKPLACE INVESTIGATIONS:

• Establish and lead the implementation of a consistent and equitable process for conducting and managing internal investigations relating to issues of employee misconduct including allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, breach of privacy, conflict of interest, and other alleged policy violations.

• Conduct and resolve all internal investigations and/or guide the investigatory processes of HRBPs, in response to employee complaints of policy or practice violations.

• Prepare reports, summaries, and other necessary documentation to consistently and impartially communicate investigation facts, data, interview findings, etc.

to all key stakeholders to inform conclusions and outcomes.

• Build and maintain positive, productive working relationships with HR leaders across the organization as well as internal and external Legal Counsel to ensure integrity and respect for investigation processes and outcomes.

POLICY DEVELOPMENT, COMPLIANCE, AND RISK MANAGEMENT:

• Lead the development, implementation, and adherence to all employment policies and practices, ensuring that they are legally compliant, meet or exceed the company’s values and standards of fairness and equity, and foster an inclusive and diverse workplace environment.

• Partner with HR leaders to oversee and positively impact ER-related matters pertaining to recruitment and hiring; pay equity; leaves of absence; organizational restructuring; immigration; disciplinary action and terminations; etc.

• Collaborate with key stakeholders to identify trends in ER matters; predict and mitigate risk; and develop and implement appropriate solutions.

• Gather, synthesize, and apply ER-related data and observations to develop long-term solutions to systemic employment issues.

• Partner with in-house Legal counsel in the management of ER matters, including investigations and litigation.

• Maintain flexibility and adaptability in meeting rapidly evolving business needs, and perform other functions and duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in HR, with considerable experience leading an Employee Relations team for a corporation

• Excellent mediation skills while exemplifying flexibility, creativity, and emotional intelligence

• Ability to maintain the highest level of impartiality, information integrity, and confidentiality

• Exceptional judgment, active listening, and critical thinking skills

• Experience managing complex and highly sensitive investigations

• Strong comprehension of employment laws and regulations, and current trends in HR policy and practice

• Experience working with ER data and analytics, including the ability to handle highly confidential information in a professional manner

• Understanding of how to involve stakeholders and appropriately escalate issues to Legal Counsel in an inclusive, adaptative, collaborative, and optimistic manner

• Experience in addressing and resolving labor and employee relations issues, and working directly with managers in addressing same

• Strong organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills

• Ability to conceptualize and think strategically

• Strong influencing and relationship skills

• Ability to manage multiple projects

• MBA or Master’s degree in Human Resources field required, Juris Doctor strong preferred

A FEW OTHER DETAILS

• This role will ideally be based in our NYC corporate office in midtown Manhattan, with periodic travel to other corporate offices (Shelton, CT; Dallas, TX; Miami, FL; Mississauga, ON), boutique locations around North America, or our global headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

• About Us: Richemont owns a portfolio of leading international Maisons that are recognized for their distinctive heritage, craftsmanship, and creativity.

The Group operates in four business areas: Jewelry Maisons, being Buccellati, Cartier, and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers, being A.

Lange & Söhne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Officine Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors, being Watchfinder.co.uk and YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP; and Fashion & Accessories, including AZ Factory, Alfred Dunhill, Azzedine Alaïa, Chloé, Montblanc and Peter Millar.