Employee Relations Manager

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving more than 18 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With fiscal year 2017 sales of $68.6 billion, Lowe’s and its related businesses operate or service more than 2,390 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 310,000 people. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s supports the communities it serves through programs that focus on K-12 public education and community improvement projects. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

Overview:
The primary purpose of this role is to execute strategies to maintain a positive employee relations environment and manage a team of Employee Relations Consultants (investigators) that handle all employee complex, high-risk workplace complaint investigations. This role will maintain programmatic approaches to union avoidance, support education and training across the enterprise and provide leadership of direct interventions, as necessary. This role will also provide strategic and tactical support on employment resolutions and manage the company’s guiding principles and practices around employee investigations. This role requires very extensive knowledge in Associate and Labor Relations and experience supporting union-free environments.

Responsibilities:
• Supervises and leads a team of Consultants in partnership with AR Supervisors and their team of Advisors, for investigations into associate relations concerns and unfair labor practice allegations.
• Executes associate relations guiding principles and strategies that align to the company’s culture while optimizing employee engagement.
• Conducts or leads complex, high-risk and confidential investigations at the company, with support from the AR Consultants.
• Accountable for on all employee workplace complaint investigations and may be consulted for escalated open-door issues.
• Provides guidance on case management and policy interpretation that aligns to local, state and federal laws and statutes and company policies and practices.
• Partners with HR and business leaders to build strong partnerships and develop proactive positive associate relations strategies that drive business objectives.
• Cultivates and maintains trusted and productive relationships with human resources, legal, business operations leaders across the enterprise.
• Provides coaching, guidance and expertise to leaders to address employee conduct and performance-related concerns.
• Ensures corrective/disciplinary actions are implemented consistently, fairly and legally across the enterprise.
• Inspires, motivates, develops and influences individuals and teams.
• Analyzes and provides recommendations for identified trends through benchmark reports, litigations, employee relations case management, etc., resulting in improved positive employee engagement.
• Supports and facilitates education and training across the enterprise on positive workplace practices for employees and leaders.
• With guidance from the ER Director, manages and executes the labor relations hotline procedures.
• Executes labor relations guiding principles and strategies to support and enhance Lowe’s union-free philosophy, including providing direction on procedures for handling potential unionizing efforts.
• In partnership with Field HR and location managers, serves as the day-to-day monitor of union organizing vulnerability.
• Stays apprised of labor and associate relations and general human resources trends by maintaining strong connections with positive associate relations professional organizations (e.g., CUE, Inc., etc.) as well as other human resources/employee relations and retail-focused organizations (e.g., RILA, SHRM, etc.).

Required education and experience:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Industrial Relations, Business or equivalent.
• 7+ years experience in employee relations – Multi-state, multi-location environment.
• 7+ yeares experience in an HR Generalist, Employee Relations or a related role conducting complaint investigations related to Federal, State, Local employment and labor laws for multi-site organization.
• 5+ years experience Managing workplace complaint investigations, union avoidance, employee advocacy and EEP compliance.
• 5+ years experience gathering, researching, analyzing and resolving complex employee relations issues (including conduct, performance and policy violations).
Additional
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Ability to establish trust and credibility.
• Able to work effectively at all levels in the organization.
• Excellent program facilitation skills.
• Ability to travel and work under stressful situations.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish would be an asset.
• Master’s Degree in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Industrial Relations, Business, J.D.

Lowe’s is an equal opportunity affirmative action employer and administers all personnel practices without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, genetics or any other category protected under applicable law.