Director Employee Relations

Selective Insurance; Short Hills (NJ); On-site; USD 172,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care plans

Retirement plan with company match

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Tuition assistance and reimbursement

Job summary

Selective Insurance is seeking a Director of Employee Relations & Workforce Practices to lead our enterprise ER function with a data-informed approach. You will drive investigations governance, policy interpretation, and workforce-risk management while partnering with HRBPs and senior leaders to build a stronger, more resilient organization.

You will influence executive decisions, establish standards for case management, and oversee external investigators to ensure compliant, high-quality

Qualifications

• Advanced expertise in employee relations, investigations, employment law, and HR policy.
• Experience managing complex, high-risk employee matters with sound judgment and discretion.
• Strong ability to oversee investigations and manage external investigators or counsel as appropriate.
• Analytical capability to translate case data into predictive workforce insights for leaders.
• Excellent consulting, communication, and influencing skills when advising senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Leads enterprise Employee Relations & Workforce Practices and sets strategy, case standards, and governance.
• Manages intake, triage, investigations, and vendor oversight to ensure compliant processes.
• Develops enterprise-wide standards for risk assessment, escalation, and action plans.
• Ensures privacy, documentation integrity, and auditable workflows across cases.
• Collaborates with HR, Legal, Compliance, and external providers to mitigate risk.
• Analyzes trends to inform workforce strategy and leadership actions.

Skills

Employee relations

Workplace investigations

Employment law

Policy governance

Analytical skills

Executive liaison

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR or related field

HR certification preferred

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

About Us

At Selective, we don't just insure uniquely, we employ uniqueness.

Selective is a midsized U.S. domestic property and casualty insurance company with a history of strong, consistent financial performance for nearly 100 years. Selective's unique position as both a leading insurance group and an employer of choice is recognized in a wide variety of awards and honors, including listing in Forbes Best Midsize Employers in 2025 and certification as a Great Place to Work in 2025 for the sixth consecutive year.

Employees are empowered and encouraged to Be Uniquely You by being their true, unique selves and contributing their diverse talents, experiences, and perspectives to our shared success. Together, we are a high-performing team working to serve our customers responsibly by helping to mitigate loss, keep them safe, and restore their lives and businesses after an insured loss occurs.

Overview

Selective is investing in the future of Human Resources and capabilities that help our people, leaders, and business thrive. The Director, Employee Relations & Workforce Practices will lead the development of a modern, data-informed approach to employee relations, workforce-risk management, investigations, and workplace practices. This role offers the opportunity to help define enterprise standards, introduce new capabilities and technologies, influence organizational health, and partner directly with HR business partners and senior leaders to build a stronger and more resilient organization. For HR leaders who are energized by strategy, operational excellence, workforce insights, and meaningful organizational impact, this is a rare opportunity to help shape the future of HR at Selective.

Responsibilities

• Leads the enterprise Employee Relations & Workforce Practices function and is accountable for employee-relations strategy, complaint intake and triage, investigation governance, case management, employment-action standards, policy interpretation, organizational-risk insights, and external-provider oversight.
• Establishes a consistent, defensible, and risk-tiered approach to workplace concerns and investigations and partners closely with Human Resources Business Partners, Legal, Compliance, and external providers.
• Develops and implements enterprise Employee Relations & Workforce Practices strategy, establishing decision rights, case standards, escalation protocols, quality expectations, governance, and reporting.
• Oversees complaint intake and triage, including immediate-risk assessment, issue classification, conflict screening, evidence-preservation decisions, and appropriate routing to management, internal Employee Relations, independent investigators, or outside counsel. Manages vendor relationships, service level expectations, and quality.
• Leads complex and sensitive workplace investigations and oversees assigned investigators, establishing and approving scope, methodology, escalation criteria, and work-product expectations in coordination with Legal as appropriate.
• Ensures technology solutions deliver consistent case assignment and management practices, including documentation, timeliness, milestones, confidentiality and privacy, record integrity, closure, and workload balancing, to ensure matters are handled consistently and are appropriately documented and auditable.
• Establishes standards and governs performance-improvement plans, corrective action, separations, reductions in force, and other formal employment actions, promoting consistency, proportionality, documentation quality, and appropriate review.
• Interprets and administers employment policies, identifies policy and practice gaps, coordinates employment-law and compliance support, and maintains current knowledge of applicable federal, state, and local requirements.
• Established investigation quality standards and reviews investigative scope, evidence, interview quality, credibility analysis, findings, limitations, and unresolved issues to ensure conclusions are objective, well-supported, and appropriately documented.
• Recommends proportionate remedial actions and oversees follow-through, including accountability, completion timelines, retaliation monitoring, and reassessment of matters when facts or risk levels change.
• Analyzes employee relations data and trends, including case volume, severity, aging, repeat respondents, organizational hotspots, retaliation concerns, external-provider utilization, and remediation closure. Translate findings into predictive and actionable insights for Human Resource Business Partners and senior leaders to inform workforce strategy, leadership actions, and risk mitigation.
• Leads, develops, and manages Employee Relations team members and manages external-provider performance, including quality, capacity, cost, conflicts, security, service levels, and calibration.
• All job duties and responsibilities must be carried out in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

Knowledge and Requirements

• Advanced expertise in employee relations, workplace investigations, employment law, and HR policy, including intake and risk assessment, investigative interviewing, evidence evaluation, credibility analysis, findings, and documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, sensitive, and high-risk employee matters with sound judgment, discretion, objectivity, and appropriate escalation.
• Strong knowledge of corrective-action and case-management practices, including consistent application of policies, investigation standards, documentation requirements, and governance protocols.
• Strong analytical and operational capabilities, with experience leveraging employee-relations data and case trends to identify emerging risks, root causes, and opportunities to strengthen workplace practices; experience overseeing external investigators, counsel, or other vendors as appropriate.
• Exceptional consulting, communication, and influencing skills, with demonstrated ability to advise and influence senior and executive leaders on complex employee-relations matters and workplace risk.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Business, Legal Studies, or a related field required; advanced degree or specialized workplace-investigation training preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive Human Resources or employee-relations experience, including significant experience leading complex, sensitive, and high-risk workplace investigations and employee-relations matters.
• 5+ years of people, program, or functional leadership experience, with demonstrated responsibility for establishing standards, providing oversight, and driving consistent practices across an organization.
• Professional Human Resources or workplace-investigation certification preferred.

Total Rewards

Selective Insurance offers a total rewards package that includes a competitive base salary, incentive plan eligibility at all levels, and a wide array of benefits designed to help you and your family stay healthy, achieve your financial goals, and balance the demands of your work and personal life. These benefits include comprehensive health care plans, retirement savings plan with company match, discounted Employee Stock Purchase Program, tuition assistance and reimbursement programs, and 20 days of paid time off. Additional details about our total rewards package can be found by visiting our benefits page.

The actual base salary is based on geographic location, and the range is representative of salaries for this role throughout Selective's footprint. Additional considerations include relevant education, qualifications, experience, skills, performance, and business needs.

Pay Range

USD $172,000.00 - USD $220,000.00 /Yr.

Additional Information

Selective is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. That means we respect and value every individual's unique opinions, beliefs, abilities, and perspectives. We are committed to promoting a welcoming culture that celebrates diverse talent, individual identity, different points of view and experiences – and empowers employees to contribute new ideas that support our continued and growing success. Building a highly engaged team is one of our core strategic imperatives, which we believe is enhanced by diversity, equity, and inclusion. We expect and encourage all employees and all of our business partners to embrace, practice, and monitor the attitudes, values, and goals of acceptance; address biases; and foster diversity of viewpoints and opinions.

For Massachusetts Applicants

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.