Specialist, Employee Relations

Job Summary

Responsible for providing Employee Relations (ER) support to managers and team members including administering employment policies and practices and researching and/or investigating team member concerns and making recommendations that effectively promote positive employee relations. Conducts workplace investigations. Counsels management with respect to federal, state and local EEO and other personnel laws, ensuring consistent interpretation and application of laws, policies and procedures. Recommends effective solutions for addressing workplace issues and corrective action in accordance with personnel policy and applicable laws. Performs required tasks and initiatives, following the guidelines and procedures established, maintaining appropriate documentation and records for Employee Relation cases. Delivers service in a professional and efficient manner, providing prompt assistance while managing expectations to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction.

Job Responsibilities

• Develops case management and/or investigation plan for each case. Assigns proper resources; identifies witnesses and key individuals; determines method, order and timing of interviews, evidence to gather; maintains contact with service request owner. Conducts investigations, as appropriate, including remote or onsite interviews with key individuals, such as the complainant, accused, witness, subject matter experts (SME).as needed utilizing standard and probing questions to effectively collect pertinent facts needed to resolve the case. Gathers evidence and facts required for conducting a proper assessment of the case; handling evidence in accordance with all company policies and guidelines. Identifies the company policies and practices that are relevant to the case in order to identify when a violation of company policy has occurred.
• Based on the findings, researches and recommends the action(s) to take to appropriately resolve the case.
• Assists team members with workforce issues by listening empathetically to concerns, managing expectations, and handling the case in a sensitive manner. Keeps team member regularly informed of the status of the case, informing the team member of obligations to ensure a timely and accurate handling of the case in accordance with company policies and guidelines.
• Consults with and advises managers regarding workplace issues and recommends appropriate personnel actions in accordance with Company policies and guidelines, and applicable laws. Coordinates review with employment law on guidance as appropriate in addressing cases that may result in potential legal action.
• Assists managers as needed in preparing corrective action documents and performance improvement plans, and preparing for employee conversations. Notifies manager of process and timeline based on the recommended actions. Reviews escalated matters with appropriate stakeholders and operates as intermediary as needed between the manager and the stakeholder.
• Remains current and informed in the field of Employee Relations in order to share knowledge and insights with others. Maintains knowledge of federal, state and local EEO and labor laws.
• Manages requests or inquiries from customers following defined procedures and guidelines. Conducts proper reviews and investigations working to resolve cases within acceptable timeframes, further escalating inquiries as appropriate in order to uphold timely, effective resolution. Engages appropriate stakeholders at the appropriate time in the case lifecycle in accordance with the HR functional area procedures and guidelines.
• Collaborates effectively with others in order to execute tasks and fulfill key deliverables within the HR functional area(s). Integrates efficiently with team members in the functional area(s) and seeks to provide expertise/advice in the area of specialization as appropriate. Strives to gather and share information to allow for transparent knowledge transfer and effective overall capability of the HR functional team. Interacts and interfaces with customers, vendors, service providers, and other third parties as applicable in relation to the activities and dependencies within the HR functional area(s).
• Takes ownership of all assigned tasks, initiatives, inquiries, and escalations within the HR functional area(s) of specialization and makes sure that they are resolved and completed efficiently and with a superior level of quality. Follows up and provides continuous feedback, guidance, and information to customers, key stakeholders, and peers within the HR functional area team. Ensures high-quality standards for all activities, initiatives, and tasks within the designated functional area(s) of responsibility. Adheres to all service level agreements (SLAs) established by the HR functional area(s) /or team.
• Communicates and interacts effectively with customers and team members of the HR functional area team while displaying empathy and courtesy. Cultivates a high level of trust with all customers, stakeholders and team members. Assists and encourages users and customers to make effective use of the HR Portlet and other self-service options, systems, products, services, etc. in order to drive rapid resolution and empower the customer. Educates and informs customers of the full range of HR services available to them.
• Ensures that company policies and procedures are adhered to and in compliance with all applicable Federal, state, and/or municipal laws. Makes a conscientious effort to ensure that the workplace is free of all discrimination and harassment.
• Serves as a liaison for a particular business area and contributes to the relevant team meetings as needed.
• Serves as point of contact for the HR M&A Team (if selected) and executes on M&A related tasks/initiatives as needed.

About Walgreens
Founded in 1901, Walgreens ( proudly serves nearly 9 million customers and patients each day across its approximately 8,500 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Walgreens has approximately 220,000 team members, including nearly 90,000 healthcare service providers, and is committed to being the first choice for pharmacy, retail and health services, building trusted relationships that create healthier futures for customers, patients, team members and communities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least 2 years of experience in an HR concentration such as an HR Generalist/HRBP, employee relations, labor relations, training and development, OD/OE, diversity, compensation, benefits, and/or talent acquisition. OR High School/GED and at least 4 years of experience in an HR concentration such as an HR Generalist/HRBP, employee relations, labor relations, training and development, OD/OE, diversity, compensation, benefits, and/or talent acquisition.
• Knowledge of federal, state and local employment (EEO) and labor laws
• Experience in diagnosing, isolating, and resolving complex issues and recommending and implementing effective solutions to resolve problems.
• Experience communicating both verbally (on phone, one-on-one, to groups) and in writing (emails, letters, reports, presentations) to various audiences (work group, team, company management, prospective acquisitions, external clients).
• Experience using time management skills such as prioritizing/organizing and tracking details and meeting deadlines of multiple projects with varying completion dates.
• Experience with analyzing and reporting data in order to identify issues, trends, or exceptions to drive improvement of results and find solutions.
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Word (for example: inserting headers, page breaks, page numbers and tables and/or adjusting table columns).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Excel (for example: using SUM function, setting borders, setting column width, inserting charts, using text wrap, sorting, setting headers and footers and/or print scaling).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft PowerPoint (for example: applying a theme, formatting character spacing, inserting a picture, changing slide layout and theme colors, adding transitions, customizing slide numbers, changing chart style and/or formatting font).
• Willing to travel up to 5% of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with employee relations, providing guidance to management and researching, investigating and responding to team member issues and concerns.
• PHR or SPHR Certifications as conferred by HRCI (Human Resource Certification Institute).
• Experience working in a customer service environment.
• Experience providing employee relations support virtually to team members in multiple locations.
• Experience using Case Management / Workflow tools, such as Navex EthicsPoint, Kronos, People Central, etc.
• At least 1 year experience of cross functional team leadership.

We will consider employment of qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

The Salary below is being provided to promote pay transparency and equal employment opportunities at Walgreens. The actual hourly salary within this range that you will be offered will depend on a variety of factors including geography, skills and abilities, education, experience and other relevant factors. This role will remain open until filled. To review benefits, please click here jobs.walgreens.com/benefits. If you are applying on a job board or unable to click on the link, please copy and paste this URL into your browser jobs.walgreens.com/benefits

Salary Range: $86400 - $138200 / Salaried