Senior Manager, Employee Relations

About you

You’re a connector who puts people first and values the lasting ​partnerships you’ll build. You’re an active listener who cares about the stories people share and are energized by communication and collaboration. You love learning new things and are known for bringing innovative perspectives and questions to the table. You’re deadline and results-driven, passionate about creating new processes, systems, and best practices that help your internal partners do their best work.

About this role 

The Employee Relations function is an integral part of Udemy and essential to maintaining our culture. This role requires a consultative, and hands-on leader to help us guide the continued evolution of our employee relations and investigations model to align with the importance of foundational Udemy values. In addition, this role is an opportunity to build the ER function from the ground up.

The role will work closely with the Employment, Legal and People Partner teams to ensure that Udemy’s treatment of employees is fair, respectful, and consistent with our core values. The role will drive critical employee relations issues that are highly sensitive and require building trust and collaboration, such as workplace investigations, consultation on challenging employee and manager situations, and/or manager training. Balancing time between projects and crisis-response is a critical component for success in the position. The role will also work as a project manager on proactive programs that improve employee relations and HR/Legal compliance initiatives.

What you'll be doing

• Build the newly created Employee Relations function including designing the strategic roadmap and education and adoption for the ER function at Udemy in partnership with the legal team. 
• Conduct investigations into routine and non-routine workplace matters, including: employee concerns about discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation and violation of other Udemy policies.
• Use effective investigation techniques to promptly and thoroughly investigate concerns, including: gathering and analyzing facts, applying relevant policies and practices to reach conclusions, preparing investigation reports, and documenting findings in online case management system to facilitate prompt and effective resolution of workplace concerns
• Provide consultation, guidance and coaching to People Partners and people managers to address employee behavior and possible policy violations.
• Provide guidance and assistance with the development and delivery of appropriate feedback or corrective / disciplinary actions that align with Udemy approach, practices, and processes  
• Support design, implementation and continued evolution of end-to-end employee relations strategy and methodology to address work-related issues
• Develop and implement best practice templates/forms/playbooks to assist with process and/or documentation requirements
• Conduct manager training in partnership with People Partners and Employment Legal Team.
• Manage or participate on special projects / programs requiring employee relations stakeholder input, as needed (i.e. M&A).
• Serve as a point of contact on matters of employee/company policies and compliance, partnering closely with various stakeholders including: People Partners, Employment Legal, Business Leaders, Privacy & Security, and other internal teams
• Build trusted relationships quickly, and lead with warmth, empathy, compassion, and creativity to think inside of and outside of the box to drive the right solutions
• Report on overall employee relations trends by geography, team and/or organization to strengthen policies/practices/leader enablement
• Liaise between the People Team, Employment Legal Team, business groups, and other stakeholders at Udemy, all while representing Udemy values and culture.

About your skills

• General knowledge of all functional areas in HR. 
• Experience building Employee Relations function
• A business consultant with strong analytical skills with the ability to use data to form hypothesizes, operate, advise with empathy in the “gray” areas.
• Adept understanding of client motivations and business pain points; leverages inputs to influence business decisions.
• Ability to synthesize complex issues, translating them into written form to ensure legally appropriate documentation.
• Self starter with ability to thrive in an unstructured environment with minimal supervision.
• Ability to think critically, problem solve, and recommend effective solutions. 
• Ability to work across time zones and in a fast paced environment.
• Must be able to flex work style - strategic, operational and tactical - and partner effectively across functional teams and employee levels. 
• Exceptional organization and project management skills.
• Possesses high degree of integrity and competence dealing with highly sensitive / confidential information in a discrete manner.
• Excellent coaching, facilitation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate successfully within ambiguity, multiple priorities and a constantly changing environment.
• Excellent writing, communication, mediation, and interpersonal skills. 
• Operates with utmost integrity and respect. 
• Strong diversity and inclusion acumen and commitment.
• Has a data driven mind-set to assess organizational metrics and provide insights to the business.

We understand that not everyone will match each of the above qualifications. However, we also realize that everyone has unique experiences that can add value to our company. Even if you think your background might not perfectly align, we'd love to hear from you!

Life at Udemy

We aspire to be as vibrant and dynamic as the communities we serve, as inquisitive as those who use our platform, and as revolutionary as the future we strive to open for everyone. Here are some of the things we love about life at Udemy:

•  We’re invested in creating an inclusive environment that welcomes a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. From creating employee resource groups, ensuring we’re a Fair Pay Workplace, and building a flexible work culture, our belonging, equity, diversity, and inclusion (BEDI) initiatives always put our people first. We want you to be able to bring your authentic self to work because when we all do, we’re better for it.
  
• Learning is what we do – inside and out. Our Learning & Development team is second to none, helping ensure your journey is one of continuous progression. You’ll also have unlimited access to Udemy courses, monthly UDays (meeting-free professional development days), and a generous annual professional development stipend.
  
• Our reason to exist is to revolutionize learning – that calls for taking risks and learning from failures. Whether it’s our hackathons (a company-wide effort to envision new possibilities for our product) or sharing our prototypes, we see experimentation as a crucial step on the path to success.
  
• We’re committed to creating world-class employee experiences and are proud of the recognition of this by Great Place to Work. 

Of course, the best thing about being part of Udemy is knowing your work makes a difference for people and organizations around the world. You’ve got the skills; why not use them to help others develop theirs?

At Udemy, we value diversity and inclusion and consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, medical condition, or disability. We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our Benefits Start With U

Our benefits package at Udemy “starts with U” and is grounded in mission-driven benefits that intentionally align with our core values. Here’s a sneak peek at just a few highlighted benefits if you’re a full-time Udemate based in the United States:

• Core Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life/AD&D, and disability coverage
• HSA/FSA/Commuter: Pre-tax savings/spending plans, including HSA employer contributions
• Transgender Benefits: Expanded medical coverage for gender-affirming care
• Parental Benefits: Financial assistance for fertility (including egg-freezing), adoption, and surrogacy expenses; twelve weeks of paid family bonding for birth, surrogacy, adoption, and foster placement (plus up to six to ten weeks of paid disability leave for birthing parents) as well as a two-week “ease-back” program that enables parents to return part-time at full pay
• Whole U: Fully paid memberships for meditation/mindfulness, therapy/coaching visits, financial planning, fertility and family building, maternity and newborn care, parenting and pediatrics, menopause care, breastmilk shipping, and caregiving support
• Learning: Free access to Udemy and Udemy Business plus a yearly stipend to spend on professional development
• Retirement: Pre-tax and Roth 401(k) plan with an employer contribution
• Vacation: Flexible vacation for salaried Udemates and fifteen days per year for hourly
• Holidays: Twelve paid holidays throughout the year

Information regarding data privacy is available within the Udemy Careers Privacy Notice.