APAC Employee Relations Regional Lead

We’re looking for a Regional Employee Relation (ER) Lead to join our ER team in the Singapore office. This role is a unique opportunity to have an impact on Wise’s mission and assist our Wisers, Leads and teams in delivering a seamless employee experience throughout the entire ‘Wiser’ journey.

This role will report to our Global Employee Relations Director based in London.

Your mission: 

As one team, our Employee Relations’ (part of People Services) vision is to create fast, convenient, transparent Wiser support, powered by smart tech and human advice. To help us get there, you’ll have the exciting opportunity to own Employee Relations (ER) matters across APAC, providing important insights and sound recommendations for policy and process changes, and ensuring key stakeholders are continually informed of legislation, law and regulation updates.

You’ll also provide input on team goals, KPIs, efficiencies, process improvements and future optimisation of our regional ER team, through deliverables in local and global projects.

You'll be leading a team of Employee Relations Advisor, assisting them in navigating the complexities of advisory and case management. Your leadership will contribute to the cultivation of a safe, inclusive workplace—an environment where employees thrive and contribute to the overall success of Wise.

Here’s how you’ll be contributing to the team:

• Allocate new ER cases to Advisors taking into account volume and complexity

• Independently own ER matters end-to-end, supporting and advising Wisers and Leads through a significant volume and range of complex situations (from internal conflict management to external escalated cases), and balancing our exposure and appetite to risk in the process (liaise with internal and external counsel on complex cases)

• Analyse Employee Relations trends and recommend solutions to address systemic issues, enabling the business to make sound and proactive decisions and take strategic actions where needed in conjunction with the Global ER Lead.

• Improve on critical commercial outcomes by proactively identifying challenges and managing risks associated with individual cases, being prepared to challenge and be challenged and use advanced techniques to determine best outcomes.

• Strengthen our collaboration between ER function and People Partners, equipping both teams with informed data insights to drive empowered stakeholder relationships. 

• Coach and upskill ER People Advisors in navigating end-to-end management of Employee Relations cases with increased complexity, sensitivity, regulation and risk, and cross-sharing recommendations and learnings from specific cases to enable further development across the Global ER team.

• Act as a point of escalation for Employee Relations cases with deeper complexity/severity (e.g. disputes, hearings, tribunals).

• Provide important insights and sound recommendations for policy changes (local and global), ensuring key stakeholders are continually informed of legislation, law and regulation updates.

• Develop capability of Business Leads to independently handle a range of Employee Relations matters, developing management styles to foster positive working relationships with Wisers.

• Collaborate with Global ER Lead and other Regional ER Leads on future ER Strategy and associated projects

• Champion and role-model our values and culture, supporting the continual embedding of them in everything we do and enabling an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work.

This role will give you the opportunity to:

• Contribute strategic thinking towards the bi-annual planning cycles: attend global review sessions, collate data on team performance, share ideas for improvements and lead new projects.

• Create continuous improvement within the team: partner with your global team to recommend new approaches and changes in policy and procedures, co-creating solutions with a global and mass customisation outlook.

• Maximise advisory impact and partnership: collaborate with the People Partners (HRBPs) and senior stakeholders to share advisory data and trends to drive empowered and inclusive stakeholder relationships.

Qualifications

• Employee Relations Lead expertise in high-growth environments - no matter the challenge, you bring thought leadership and take ownership in dealing with ambiguity and shifting priorities in a scaling, global team and you are ready to take your existing experience to the next level.
• Subject matter expert in employment law and ER advice: Senior Leadership will look to you for sound advice on a variety of complex cases
• Strong growth mindset: being resilient to and excited about change in a hyper-growth environment, with the opportunities it brings and the multiple projects you’ll be involved with simultaneously.
• Data driven: you always start with data, facts and insights to help inform your approach through storytelling to solving problems and analysing needs.
• A heap of empathy and emotional intelligence: you’ll need to be able to communicate effectively and inclusively, both in person and in writing, and deal with confidential information in a professional manner.
• Adaptable and resilient: you’ll be as comfortable working with ambiguity as you are with certainty, as we need someone who can be agile enough to respond to changing priorities, but be able to have big-picture proactive thinking for the long-term path ahead.
• Collaborative: with tested mediation skills, you guide a vast variety of stakeholders, building and fostering relationships over time, but also not afraid to challenge through healthy discussions.
• Initiative and tech savvy - we’re not about “one size fits all” or looking for off-the-shelf solutions; we need you to think creatively and customise your outlook.

Some extra skills that would be great:

• Employment law degree 
• Financial services experience: you possess deeper insight to empower our team further with our commercial strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.