This role serves as a senior subject matter expert in global employee relations, ensuring adherence to company policies and local labor laws across international markets. The position involves strategic partnership with legal, HR, and business leaders, providing guidance on performance management, reorganizations, and investigations, while developing tools for scalable support and risk mitigation.
About This Role
As the Global Markets Lead, you will be a senior subject matter expert in global employee relations, ensuring that Biogen’s principles, policies, and processes are executed successfully across Biogen's global markets and aligned with both market-specific labour requirements and Biogen's operational ethos. Your global experience will be pivotal in providing strategic and proactive thought partnership with Legal, HR, and business leaders across various markets, delivering both a local and global perspective.
In this role, you will collaborate with your PR and HR colleagues in various countries to maintain visibility of cross-jurisdictional actions and market-specific practices. Leveraging your knowledge of labour practices across global markets, you will consult, provide guidance, engage stakeholders, and develop tools to scale PR support and knowledge across various jurisdictions. Additionally, you will monitor and assess employee relations trends, utilizing both internal and external data to provide guidance to HR and business leaders and develop proactive risk mitigation initiatives.
This role is a hybrid role in Biogen’s Baar International Headquarters.
What You’ll Do
- Act as a global subject matter expert and trusted advisor on employee relations policies, procedures, and best practices with respect to issues including performance management, reductions in force, reorganizations, M&A integrations, investigations of alleged employee misconduct, grievances, escalated leave of absence and disability accommodation/workplace adjustment matters, and other employee relations issues.
- Collaborate with the PR lead for Organizational Changes & Operations and HRBPs across various jurisdictions to plan, implement, and track reductions in force, reorganizations, and M&A integrations.
- Advise on performance management issues in various jurisdictions, providing guidance and coaching to HR and business leaders to ensure capability and best practices in performance management and corrective actions.
- Collaborate with the PR Investigations and Performance Team Lead to align global performance management principles with local practices and legal requirements.
- In conjunction with Legal counsel and the PR Investigations and Performance Team Lead, conduct or assist with misconduct investigations, including complaints of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and other issues, ensuring alignment with Biogen’s global investigations protocol and market-specific labour considerations.
- Prepare investigative documents, including interview notes and investigation reports summarizing findings and recommendations.
- Monitor and analyse global and market-specific employee relations trends and partner with Biogen’s legal department to guide HR and business leaders on proactive actions in response to legal updates that impact People Relations policies and processes.
- Establish credibility, maintain relationships, influence, and ensure visibility across relevant HR and business stakeholders.
- Deploy technology and the compliant use of AI to implement process improvements, tools, and trainings to ensure scalability, proactive risk mitigation, and enhance PR capability.
Who You Are
You possess an insightful understanding of global labour practices and regulations and bring a wealth of experience in diagnosing complex issues and implementing effective solutions. Your outstanding interpersonal skills enable you to interact effectively with employees at all levels, external stakeholders, and vendors. You are adept at influencing and guiding executive leaders on sensitive issues while considering diverse viewpoints. You can effectively translate complex risks into clear findings and actionable recommendations.
Required Skills:
- Bachelor’s Degree required, HR related Master’s or legal degree preferred
- Minimum of 7 years of progressive employee relations experience, including experience within a complex, global organization.
- Demonstrated ability to successfully manage a high-volume workload and complex employee relations matters across diverse geographies, balancing competing priorities with resilience, adaptability, and sound business judgment in a fast-paced environment while maintaining discretion and confidentiality.
- Excellent interviewing, investigation, analytical, and writing skills.
- Experience identifying complex employee relations risks, providing clear summaries and recommendations, and implementing practical resolution strategies.
- Extensive knowledge of employment regulations in multiple markets, including EMEA, LATAM, Canada, and/or APAC.
- Experience leading and collaborating on projects spanning multiple jurisdictions.
- Experience leveraging data and technology to enable innovative improvements to employee relations processes.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and preferably at least one other language.
Preferred Skills
- Proven track record in developing and implementing effective training programs.
- Experience with works councils or other employee representative bodies.
- Fluency in multiple languages (e.g., English, German, French, Spanish).