Employee Relations Specialist

SMBC Group; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Accommodations available

Job summary

SMBC Group in the United States is seeking an Employee Relations Investigator to support the Americas division. The role requires handling complex investigations with discretion, interviewing employees at all levels, and producing defensible summaries.

You will work in a hybrid environment, partnering with Legal, Compliance, and HR teams to identify risks, develop action plans, and improve policies and training. A JD is a strong plus, with 5–8 years of relevant experience.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of investigations, employee relations, and/or employment law experience.
• Bachelor's degree required; JD a significant plus.
• Excellent investigation, writing, and relationship management skills.

Responsibilities

• Conducts and facilitates complex investigations, interviewing employees at all levels and gathering evidence.
• Maintains clear documentation, findings, recommendations, and resolution.
• Manages a dynamic caseload and adjusts to changing priorities and risks.
• Provides objective advice and recommends remedial actions based on findings.
• Collaborates with Legal, Compliance, IT Security, Risk, and HR partners.

Skills

Employee relations

Investigations

Employment law

HR policies

Analytical writing

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

HR systems

Job description

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SMBC Group is a top-tier global financial group. Headquartered in Tokyo and with a 400-year history, SMBC Group offers a diverse range of financial services, including banking, leasing, securities, credit cards, and consumer finance. The Group has more than 130 offices and 80,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) is the holding company of SMBC Group, which is one of the three largest banking groups in Japan. SMFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York (NYSE: SMFG) stock exchanges.

In the Americas, SMBC Group has a presence in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Backed by the capital strength of SMBC Group and the value of its relationships in Asia, the Group offers a range of commercial and investment banking services to its corporate, institutional, and municipal clients. It connects a diverse client base to local markets and the organization's extensive global network. The Group's operating companies in the Americas include Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., SMBC Capital Markets, Inc., JRI America, Inc., SMBC Leasing and Finance, Inc., Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro S.A., and Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Co., Ltd.

Role Description

As SMBC Americas has grown in both size and impact as an organization, so have the needs of our expanding Employee Relations team to support the organization and our employees with fairness, consistency, and discretion. Employee Relations serves as a partner to our HR Business Partners as well as the Legal Department. The Employee Relations Investigator will leverage their combined knowledge of ER investigations, U.S. employment law, HR policies/procedures, reporting, trend analysis to provide timely, efficient, innovative, and value-added resolutions to serious and high-risk employment related concerns. This role will have principal responsibility for a portfolio of workplace investigations and will also have opportunities to contribute meaningfully to all aspects of Americas Division and Global Employee Relations initiatives.

Role Objectives

• Conducts and facilitates complex, sensitive, and time-critical investigations, in consultation with Legal and HR Business partners, as needed. Independently interviews employees at all levels of the organization and identifies, collects, and analyzes relevant documents and other evidence. Maintains clear documentation of the investigative process, findings, recommendations, and resolution. Prepares thorough investigative summaries in a clear, concise, and legally defensible manner.
• Effectively manages a dynamic investigative caseload, balancing competing priorities and adapting promptly to changing business needs, risk considerations, and case developments.
• Serves as an objective third party, engages relevant stakeholders, provides trusted advice, and recommends remedial measures based on investigative findings.
• Partners closely with cross-functional HR colleagues, business stakeholders, and control functions, i.e. IT Security,Risk, Compliance, Audit and Legal, as needed.
• Identifies and contributes to projects and initiatives based in part on individual interests and developmental goals. Opportunities may include new policies/programs, HR tools, benchmarking, employee handbook reviews, and training creation, delivery and/or vendor management.
• Analyzes investigation and employee relations data to identify trends, emerging risks, and opportunities for preventative or remedial actions.
• Maintains current knowledge of relevant legal and regulatory requirements and contributes to related policy and process updates.

Qualifications and Skills

• Ideal candidate could be an employee relations investigator with 5-8 years of investigations, employee relations, and/or employment law experience.
• Bachelor's degree required, JD is a significant plus.
• Excellent strategic and tactical investigation skills.
• Strong influencing, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Works well in a complex, matrixed environment. Experience working with multiple partner groups including but not limited to Legal and Compliance professionals.
• Advanced writing, analytical, and relationship management skills.
• Solutions driven and customer service oriented.
• Experience with the financial services business model a plus.
• Demonstrates the highest of standards of ethics, integrity, honesty, and discretion.
• High emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt to work effectively across different cultures, communication styles, and levels of the organization.

Who Wil Succeed in this Role:

You might be an ideal candidate if you:

• Thrive in an evolving global organizationand are excited by the opportunity to build and enhance employee relations practices that scale with the business. Your ability to navigate the complexities of an evolving organization will be an asset.
• You are skilled at balancing complexity and compliance with a human touch.With experience in highly regulated environments, you apply legal, risk, and compliance priorities thoughtfully while remaining attentive to the employee experience.
• You are energized by a global perspective.As part of a sizeable global organization with growing global mobility of employees, you have the ability to understand and adapt to different cultures and are energized by the opportunity to learn from other countries/regions.
• You have a proactive approach to conflict resolution and a passion for continuous improvement. You do not just identify challenges, you look for trends in data, propose process improvements, and build credibility as a trusted partner.
• You enjoy a variety of work while maintaining focus on the details.You value the direct employee interaction and analytic work involved in investigations, but also enjoy collaboration with internal stakeholders. You will have opportunities to pursue projects aligned with your interests and strengths, which may include preventative trainings, employee handbooks, reporting, and other special projects.

Who This Role is Not For:

This job may not be a good fit for you if:

• You prefer a steady state environment. If you thrive on predictable work and highly established processes that are not evolving, this growing team in an expanding organization may not align with your strengths.
• You are more comfortable advising than doing. This is a hands-on role, where you need to manage the full scope of complex employee relations cases and collaborate with stakeholders, not just consult on activities.
• Prefer traditional approaches over digital tools and data-driven decision-making.We are seeking a proactive approach, rather than waiting for issues to surface, so your willingness to see the increasing opportunity to leverage systems and data insights in the work is a must.

Additional Requirements

SMBC's employees participate in a Hybrid workforce model that provides employees with an opportunity to work from home, as well as, from an SMBC office. SMBC requires that employees live within a reasonable commuting distance of their office location. Prospective candidates will learn more about their specific hybrid work schedule during their interview process. Hybrid work may not be permitted for certain roles, including, for example, certain FINRA-registered roles for which in-office attendance for the entire workweek is required.

SMBC provides reasonable accommodations during candidacy for applicants with disabilities consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application process, please let us know at [e-mail].