Human Resources (HR) Director
Thriving Suburb of Capital City Seeks Strategic and Service-Driven HR professional
If you are a change agent and want to make a significant impact on an organization, this is the opportunity for you! The Town of Wake Forest, NC seeks an innovative, visionary, and transformational Human Resources (HR) Director. The next HR Director will be passionate about HR, interested in ensuring excellence, and using best practices to carry out the HR functions for the Town during a time of generational workforce changes. Candidates must have a track record of evaluating existing HR programs/policies, effectively influencing, and advocating for revisions, and/or developing systems that empower Town departments with the outcome of sound and data-driven HR decisions. The HR Director will be part of the executive team providing leadership and oversight to develop and carry out the goals of the organization. The position is open due to retirement. The Town Manager oversees the day-to-day operations of the organization which consists of a team of 387 employees, not including part-time and seasonal staff, across 15 departments. All are committed to upholding the core values of caring, commitment, integrity, and innovation.
The Human Resources Director will be a member of the Town Manager's leadership team and report to the Town Manager. With six employees and a budget of approximately $830,000, the Human Resources Department, operating under a hybrid office model, is responsible for developing and administering programs that includes employment, labor relations, benefits, compensation, staff training and development, health, and wellness, as well as the development of any related policies.
Given that HR staff are strong in carrying out the compliance function of HR, the focus of the HR Director is to create a flexible culture that responds to workforce, organizational, and department-level challenges born out of global and national conditions, balanced with a track record of legal defensibility in policy and practices. The Town is not just seeking a sound customer-service approach to HR, but one that is designed around the customer needs, while reducing legal liability. Thus, technological skills and the ability to lead change efforts are essential.
Key priorities for the next Director are:
- evaluating the department head needs and desires and match to current HR staffing and practices to assess what changes, if any, may be needed to HR staffing levels, systems, and programs;
- creating an effective partnership climate that respects differences among departments and allows department heads to exercise flexibility and autonomy that leverage operational uniqueness in HR decisions, while ensuring efficiency, equity, and compliance needs are met;
- empowering HR staff members to offer outstanding customer service to their portfolio departments through continuing education in HR best practices, deep understanding of trending topics impacting the workforce, delegation of authority for timely decision-making,
- revising and streamlining the Town's recruitment, selection, policies, procedures, and metrics, after assessing organizational needs, to create effective and timely initiatives that ensure that the Town workforce reflects the community it serves at all levels;
- initiating a strategic review of the pay plan and ensuring that the compensation policy is flexible enough to both attract and retain outstanding staff given current differences in the national, regional, and local labor market; and,
- evaluating the onboarding system to include user satisfaction and achievement of outcome goals that ensure a comprehensive and engaging program for the organization and departments, using best practices, and ensuring the revision/ development of a system that is consistently applied.
Qualifications: A minimum of a bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Public Administration, or related field from an accredited institution, and eight years' progressive experience in human resources, which must include five years of administrative and supervisory experience. Preference given to prior experience as a director, assistant director of HR, or division manager of HR functions. A master's degree in Public Administration, Human Resources, or related field is strongly preferred along with HR certification (SPHR, SHRM-SCP, IPMA-HR SCP).