Senior Employee Relations Manager, Asia

Overview

The Global Employee Relations (GER) team was established in 2020, and operates globally with the following Mission Statement: 

• Swiftly respond to, investigate, and help address employee concerns to foster an inclusive work environment where all employees feel heard, respected, and supported.  
• Be a trusted, collaborative partner who helps employees and partners navigate sensitive workplace issues.   
• Remain committed to continuous learning and leverage technology to empower the business with meaningful data insights that inform policies, principles, and practices. 

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. 

Responsibilities

Educating and Guiding Through Expertise 

• Seeks to understand the nature of the conflict for issues and what may be potential solutions for conflict resolution while maintaining appropriate levels of confidentiality. Collaborates with colleagues and/or management as deemed appropriate or needed.
• Serves as a subject matter expert on Employee Relations (ER)-related topics both within teams and for other teams.  Leverages other stakeholder partners to influence policy and decision-making based upon ER best practices and observed trends. 
• Objectively provides guidance through the ER experience by actively engaging with employees and managers on how to navigate work and handle themselves post-investigation and sets appropriate expectations around this. Collaborates with colleagues and/or management as deemed necessary or appropriate.
• Builds a trusted connection with employees at all levels to facilitate exploration of options and next steps in the employee relations process balancing the individual need with organizational context. Recognizes trends in current and past coaching to make recommendations to ER colleagues for future coaching engagements with employees. 

Investigations 

• Assists/partners with internal investigative entities at Microsoft in investigations of serious cases with increasing complexity, visibility, and risk, and implements appropriate remediation in conjunction with a business, region, or geography. May lead the investigations for a business, region, or geography where resources are limited. Ensures appropriate documentation of issues is in place. 
• Concludes an investigation independently recommends appropriate corrective/disciplinary actions or processes, consulting with peers/managers where needed, and influencing acceptance of recommendations by key stakeholders. Anticipates consequences and manages risk proactively in cases with increasing complexity, visibility, and risk.
• Utilizing Human Resources (HR)-related tools and customer relationship management (CRM) platform, tracks and documents findings gathered through interviews and the investigatory process.  
• Contacts and interviews complainants, reported witnesses, and respondents related to policy or culture concerns/violations and incident or threat response with increasing complexity, visibility and risk. 
• Identifies and interprets trends in employee relations issues across business, region, and/or geography. Designs and recommends interventions and solutions. 

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements 

• Bachelor's Degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, HR, Business, Industrial Relations, Law, or related field AND 7+ years experience in HR or Employee Relations (ER)-related roles.OR Juris Doctorate or Master's Degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, HR, Business, Industrial Relations, Law, or related field AND 4+ years experience in HR or Employee Relations (ER)-related roles.OR equivalent experience.
• Skilled in Employee Relations, Investigations, and possess strong understanding of Labour laws within Asia Region. 

Preferred Requirements 

• Fluency in English and other languages (ideally Japanese and/or Korean), as the role will support multiple markets in Asia.
• Strong stakeholder management, data-driven, clear judgment and problem-solving skills.
• Prior exposure to MNCs and familiar with working in a highly-matrix organisations/ collaborating across diverse teams and cultures. 

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.