Current Opportunities

Director, Labour Relations & Employee Services | MacEwan University

The Organization

MacEwan University is where caring faculty help people connect their passions to their future paths. Located in the heart of Edmonton’s diverse and dynamic downtown community, and on the traditional lands of Treaty 6 First Nations and homelands of the Métis people, MacEwan is known for exceptional undergraduate learning. With its dedication to teaching excellence, informed by scholarly research, innovation, and creative activity, MacEwan provides an exceptional collaborative and supportive learning environment with a commitment to human rights, environmental sustainability, and opportunities for community engagement. We are committed to creating an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community for all peoples, cultures, and identities.

Our comprehensive undergraduate university offers 59 programs to more than 18,000 full and part-time students in business, communications, community and human services, design, fine and performing arts, health, humanities, natural science, nursing, public safety, and social science. Through a wide array of experiential learning opportunities, and strategic relationships in the community, we partner with others to produce graduates of stature. Along with a robust grounding in their chosen disciplines, MacEwan students are given durable life skills that prepare them to take on the world.

Our Workforce

At MacEwan University, we welcome everyone. We respect human rights, celebrate diversity, and embrace equity and inclusion. We strive to have a workforce that is reflective of the diversity of the student body.

The delivery of exceptional student experience cannot occur without the dedication of 2500 faculty and staff members. Our workforce is made up of a range of professions and roles from instructors, student advisors, nurse educators, professors to accountants, marketing coordinators and project managers.

Most MacEwan employees are members of the Grant MacEwan University Faculty Association or the MacEwan Staff Association. Human Resources works collaboratively with the unions to ensure a positive working relationship where each other’s roles, interests and accountabilities are respected.

Our Human Resources Team

We are a fun, engaged team of human resource professionals who work collaboratively to cultivate a safe, resilient, engaged, and inclusive workforce. We partner with leaders from across MacEwan to align with the University’s mission and work towards achieving its vision: Teaching Greatness.

Our team consists of:

The Office of the Associate Vice President, Human Resources:

Health, Safety and Environment

Organizational Design and Development

HR Systems and Analytics

Labour Relations and Employee Services

The Labour Relations and Employee Services Team

Employee and Labour Relations

Employee and Labour Relations is responsible for building awareness and ensuring the consistent application of employment and labour related policies and relevant legislation. The team provides day-to-day guidance and advice to MacEwan leaders in the interpretation and administration of faculty and staff collective agreements, policies, and procedures.

Faculty Relations

With the direction from the Provost and Vice President, Academic, Faculty Relations works collaboratively with academic leaders in interpreting the collective agreement and administering employment terms and conditions for faculty association members. This may include supporting committees and projects.

Employee Services

The Employee Services team is responsible for the full cycle of bi-weekly payroll processing. This includes time and labour processing, benefits processing, year-end reporting, financial reconciliation, as well as processing and administering the Local Authorities Pension Plan.

Wellness and Benefits

The development and administration of wellness and benefits programs is an important part of supporting the health and wellbeing of MacEwan employees. This team provides oversight and support for the range of wellness, health, dental and insurance programs.

For more information about MacEwan University, please visit www.macewan.ca

 

The Opportunity

Reports to:	Office of the Associate Vice President
Direct Reports:	7: Team Lead, Wellness and Benefits; Manager, Employee Services; Senior Consultant, Employee and Faculty Relations; 4 Consultants, Employee and Labour Relations
Location:	Edmonton, Alberta

 

Mandate

Reporting to the Associate Vice-President of Human Resources, the Director of Labour Relations and Employee Services leads a cross functional team of 17 individuals who provide a range of employee services. The Director acts as the institution’s subject matter expert on employee and labour relations matters and collective bargaining. This team provides consultative HR advice to MacEwan leaders on employee health and wellness, recruitment and selection, job classification, performance management, faculty relations, and employee and labour relations. The team focuses on coaching leaders and employees in the successful resolution of issues and conflicts, while also delivering key employee services such as payroll and benefits administration.

The Director also serves as the lead negotiator for staff collective bargaining and supports Academic Affairs in faculty bargaining. In conjunction with MacEwan leaders, this role is accountable for fostering strong working relationships with the staff and faculty associations.

 

Key Accountabilities

• Provides strategic, forward-thinking leadership for the team that inspires and motivates others.
• Understand and respect the nuances of delivering HR services in an academic setting.
• Responsible for developing and implementing service-oriented strategies that align with best practices and current trends while anticipating and meeting the needs of internal clients.
• Work in partnership with the broader HR team to plan, develop, implement, and execute HR programs and projects that meet client needs, ensuring processes and activities are aligned with helping the institution achieve the strategic vision: Teaching Greatness.
• Develop strong working relationships with academic leaders that foster trust and collaboration.
• Leads and/or participates in collective bargaining and leads the execution and implementation of post bargaining activities across multiple functions and areas.
• Advises the Human Resources team and/or leaders on complex employment matters related to employee conduct and discipline, performance and attendance management, grievances, and terminations, as well as the interpretation and application of the collective agreement, legislation and policies and procedures.
• Provides leadership on issues related to employee wellness and benefits, ensuring effective collaboration with other areas of human resources and other functional areas and operations around matters such as employee accommodations.

 

First Year Deliverables / Measures of Success

Success in the first year will be determined by the candidate’s ability to:

• Collaborate with members of the HR Leadership Team to develop the HR strategic plan to align with the Teaching Greatness vision.
• Plan and organize the next round of collective bargaining.
• Align resources to support the rollout of HR initiatives including the new employee health and dental benefits plan, a recognition program, leadership development and employee wellness programs.
• Review the human resources service delivery model with the HR Leadership Team, and determine if it meets current and future needs of MacEwan.

 

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will have the following:

Education:

• Undergraduate degree in business, human resources, or a related field.

Experience:

• A senior leader with 10+ years of human resource experience within complex unionized environments.
• Experience in an academic or public sector environment is required and faculty relations is an asset.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex employee and policy issues, and exercise sound and experienced judgment in providing advice and guidance, often in ambiguous situations.
• Demonstrates deep functional knowledge and broad experience in all areas of human resource policies, practices, processes, and legislation.
• Proven track record as a senior HR leader, with in-depth knowledge of faculty and labour relations, and experience with a broad range of human resource services.
• Experience as a chief negotiator in the collective bargaining process is required.

Competencies and Attributes:

• An early adopter of process enhancements and demonstrated agility in service design, delivery, and development of programs.
• Strategic thinker with proven negotiation and influencing skills.
• Ability to build strong relationships with employees at all levels, external partners, and union representatives;
• Commitment to acting with integrity.
• An autonomous, self-starter with the ability to manage competing demands in a fast-paced environment to meet deadlines.
• Data-driven, with the ability to think critically and see the big picture while aligning to broader strategies.
• Demonstrate a strong client-service mindset and ability to lead their team to partner with clients to problem solve and find solutions.

 

The Compensation

An excellent total compensation package awaits the successful candidate.

 

Equal Opportunity

MacEwan University is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and recognizes that a diverse team benefits and is essential to service excellence. MacEwan University welcomes applications from all qualified individuals and encourage women, members of racialized communities, indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity to confidentially self-identify at time of application.  In accordance with the provincial legislation, accommodation will be provided by Gallagher and MacEwan University throughout the recruitment, selection and/or assessment process, upon request, to applicants with disabilities. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.

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How to Apply:

Please send your resume in Word or PDF format to: HRCCCanada.GBS.EdmontonPIES@ajg.com. Copy and Paste the following job title and code and place it in the subject line of your email so we can identify the job and confirm receipt of your application:
AKWI-440026 Director, Labour Relations & Employee Services | MacEwan University - AB - Edmonton and Area (OTIAPPLY)

Please note that only those candidates meeting the selection criteria, established by our client, will be contacted further. Although we may not contact you directly for this particular role, all applications will be reviewed as we would like to consider you for future opportunities that may be appropriate. We encourage you to continue to visit our website at optimumtalent.com as our opportunities are updated on a regular basis.