HR People Partner

About the role

People & Wellbeing is a growing function covering HR and Health, Safety and Environment. and it is being built up to provide expertise and support to our people: documented process, consistent practice and improved data where little existed after. The People Partner is central to that. This role exists to ensure our people and those that lead them get consistent, well-judged people advice, delivered close to where the decisions are made. This is not a generalist administration role; the People Partner is the expert in the room on people matters. Leaders will bring decisions to you after they make them, act on your advice, and rely on your read of a situation being right.

The People Partner works alongside a HR Operations, a Centres of Expertise pillar and Health, Safety and Environment that together handle day-to-day transactional activity, employee experience, design policy, reward and talent programmes, and translates these into practical support for leaders. Employee relations casework, organizational change, workforce planning and leadership coaching sit at the centre of what the People Partner is responsible for. You will be upholding the standard for quality, ensuring the right things get done and seeing work through to completion.

Key accountabilities

Business partnership and advice

• Act as the trusted people advisor to operating or corporate leaders and building the relationship needed to be brought into business decisions while they are being made.
• Translate business priorities into workforce and organizational implications and translate People & Wellbeing policy and program design back into terms that makes sense to leaders.
• Provide strategic HR advice on workforce planning, leadership impact and change, drawing on the Centres of Expertise and HR Operations rather than duplicating their work.
• Challenge the business to ensure there is integrity in all our people decisions

Employee relations and risk management

• Manage an active caseload of employee relations matters, applying the organization's documented process consistently and fairly.
• Escalate matters with legal, human rights or reputational exposure through the established review gate after any formal step is taken, and keep sensitive files separated from broadly distributed material.
• Capture accurate, consistent case data to support trend reporting and evidence-based improvement of practice across the function.

Workforce planning and portfolio management

• Support headcount planning, position management and organizational design for the businesses and teams you support, working through UKG Pro as the system of record.
• Bring workforce data and story behind them to the annual budget cycle and to broader organizational design work led by People & Wellbeing.
• Support succession planning and the identification of capability gaps, including within the Squamish Nation member workforce.

Change leadership

• Lead or support the people side of change initiatives within the businesses and teams you support, including system rollouts, restructuring and new operating procedures.
• Coach leaders through difficult conversations and organizational transitions, rather than having those conversations for them.

Talent, performance and engagement

• Support performance management cycles, coaching leaders on setting expectations, giving feedback and managing performance fairly and consistently.
• Use engagement survey data and other qualitative input to identify themes specific to the businesses and teams you support and turn them into practical actions.
• Collaborate with the wider People & Wellbeing function on Recruitment, Onboarding, Learning & Development priorities for the cluster.

Squamish Nation and Indigenous representation

This is not one priority among many. As the economic development arm of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation, growing and supporting Squamish Nation and Indigenous employment and advancement runs through every accountability above, built into workforce planning rather than bolted on as a separate initiative. The People Partner is expected to hold this lens actively in day-to-day advisory work.

Other

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of a positive and psychologically safe workplace culture.
• Perform other duties as required.
• Working additional hours as required and within reason.
• Adheres to and promotes Nch'ḵaý's six Guiding Principles (Leadership, Trust, Respect, Wisdom, Competence, and Passion).

What you will bring:

• Previous experience in a Senior HR role with progressive experience, typically seen within a 7-to-10-year period including direct ownership of complex employee relations casework and developing initiatives to proactively raise the quality bar.
• Working knowledge of employment contracts, policies, employment legislation, including; Employment Standards Act, Human Rights Code and WorkSafeBC.
• Proactive approach to problem solving and passion to find supportive solutions.
• Experience operating as a business partner to operational leaders, ideally across multiple sites or business units with a customer service approach.
• Proven exposure in casework judgement, knowing when to coach a matter to be handled directly and when there is a need to go through a review gate after any step is taken, having exceptional written record discipline throughout.
• Relationship building with leaders up to and including those on the Senior Leadership Team who may not have worked with a dedicated People Partner after.
• Willingness to travel, this position at times will require at least 1/3 of the time visiting our Operating businesses in the Squamish Valley and/ or North Vancouver.

Assets:

• Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR)/ Certified Indigenous Human Resources Professional (CIHRP) designation or equivalent.
• Direct exposure to a Nation-owned, Indigenous-governed, or similarly mission-driven organization is a strong asset, though not a hard requirement if the respect and willingness to learn is genuinely there.
• Knowledge of lateral kindness and a curiosity to learn new models and approaches.
• An interest in, and respect for, Indigenous economic development and the specific context of working within a First Nation or First Nation owned organization.