Description
We are an award-winning independent creative solutions company that aspires to be the most culturally-influential company in the world. We help ambitious brands harness the power of culture to solve their biggest challenges.
You will step into a senior, embedded PBP seat as the day-to-day people advisor to our agency leadership team while our PBP is on leave. This is not a placeholder role: you will be in the room for leadership decisions, bring a clear point of view on talent, performance and organizational questions, and handle difficult conversations with confidence. You will also own a live performance review cycle from calibration through delivery.
Responsibilities
- Senior leader partnership
- Serve as the day-to-day people advisor to the agency leadership team and their departments
- Contribute to the Senior Leadership Team agenda, which meets twice a week, in partnership with our VP of Agency Operations
- Drive progress on the agency leadership OKRs (our “big rocks”) as part of an agency-wide push, owning the people priorities and partnering closely with Finance and Operations where people, headcount and financial goals are tightly linked
- Employee relations
- Proactively manage and resolve employee relations issues, from coaching conversations through performance plans and exits
- Guide managers through hard conversations and deliver difficult messages directly when needed
- Ensure compliance with company policies, and escalate to leadership and counsel appropriately
- Talent and planning
- Stay close to the business to spot talent and skills gaps early, and plan full-time, temp and freelance needs hand in hand with Operations and Finance
- Advise on org design, workforce planning and headcount, and surface internal mobility and succession opportunities in critical roles
- Partner with Talent Acquisition, and external search partners for priority roles, to keep a steady pipeline and fill roles fast with the right talent
- Keep leaders informed on pipeline and hiring progress, so teams know when help is on the way
- Lead onboarding for incoming agency leadership hires, setting them up to build relationships and get up to speed quickly
- Core people programs
- Help lead the Q1 performance review cycle across the agency, advising leaders on ratings, talent decisions and how to deliver feedback
- Facilitate calibration sessions with leaders, partnering with our VP of People Operations to challenge ratings and hold the bar
- Support compensation decisions tied to the review cycle, ensuring internal equity and clear rationale
- Support planning for the annual engagement survey, including question review and rollout timing
- Continuity
- Keep a weekly update log covering decisions, open issues and next steps
- Partner closely with People Operations on processing people changes and with our UnitedMasters PBP on cross-company matters
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Strong coaching/ consulting capabilities
- Demonstrated business acumen, organization savvy, judgment and decision making
- Collaborative style; positive can-do attitude. A team player with a strong drive to create a positive work environment
- Excellent stakeholder management skills including ability to engage, influence and keep informed
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to analyze data, understand trends and develop recommendations for action based on the analysis
- Excellent communication skills – a strong verbal communicator and writer; ability to frame a message
- Demonstrated change management capability
- 5+ years as an HR or People Business Partner supporting senior leaders
- Experience working across multiple business functions with first line and senior leadership
- Proven ability to handle employee relations matters across the spectrum, including performance plans and exits
- Confidence leading hard conversations with managers, employees and executives
- Ability to ramp quickly, work from existing plans, and make sound calls with limited history
- Strong judgment, discretion and written communication