Senior Human Resources Analyst - Labor Relations

Are you looking for a challenging career opportunity where you can collaborate with professionals at all levels within the agency?  We are looking for a detail-oriented labor relations specialist with a passion for creating a fair and positive working environment by facilitating effective communication between employees and managers. Your interpersonal communication skills will allow you to establish and maintain effective working relationships with union organizations that represent VTA employees, negotiate and manage administration of labor agreements, and provide guidance and consultation to management on a variety of labor relations matters.  You will have the opportunity to show your passion for writing by serving as a Hearing Officer in discipline and contract grievance hearings. Beyond this, your involvement in training initiatives, labor-management committees and special projects is essential for fostering effective contract administration and nurturing positive relationships with our four unions.  This position follows a hybrid work schedule with one remote workday per week and four in-office days.

We are looking for someone who can:

• Communicate effectively both orally and in writing, and with mutual trust and respect.
• Conduct business in a professional and ethical manner.
• Focus on developing, maintaining, and improving employee relationships with effective written and oral communication. 
• Provide leadership and support with training, coaching and performance management that aligns with VTA’s mission. 

• Experience with Workplace Investigations
• Experience working in a Union Environment
• Experience with Grievance and Conflict Management

Definition

Under direction, a Senior Human Resources Analyst supervises the work of professional level analytical staff and carries out senior-level professional human resources work involving a wide variety of human resources functions.

Distinguishing Characteristics

Senior Human Resources Analysts are assigned broad human resources program responsibilities and are expected to demonstrate a high level of technical expertise. Discretion is required in applying general goal and policy statements and in resolving organizational and service delivery problems. Latitude is necessary in administering a complex and sensitive area of responsibility. This level is characterized by assignments and responsibility that require an incumbent to perform duties involving establishing and implementing policy, procedures, and legislative mandates.

Senior Human Resources Analysts are generally responsible for formulating operational policy at the section level. Incumbents are responsible for a program or function(s). These programs are typically complex in nature, where an understanding and expertise in laws, rules, and regulations is critical to the success of the program. Incumbents work with a high degree of independence and are expected to carry out necessary activities without direction, except as new or unusual circumstances require. This level exercises supervision over professional level employees.

This class is distinguished from Human Resources Manager and Organizational and Human Capital Manager in that the latter classes have full managerial responsibility for a department. This class is distinguished from the next lower level of Human Resources Analyst in that it has a higher level of independence, a higher level of complexity of assignment, greater responsibility for program outcomes, and supervises and/or trains professional-level staff.

Employment Standards

Sufficient education and increasingly responsible experience to demonstrate possession of the required knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Development of the required knowledge, skills, and abilities is typically obtained through a combination of training and experience equivalent to graduation from an accredited college or university with a four-year degree; and four (4) years of increasingly responsible experience performing journey-level human resources management and analysis for a public or private sector organization, with at least two years at the level of Human Resources Analyst, or equivalent.

Experience in a lead or supervisory capacity is desirable.

Knowledge of:
•    Human resource systems, techniques, practices, and functions, including employee relations, recruitment, classification, testing, selection, placement, career development, training and organizational development, equal opportunity programs, and employee and retiree benefits management;
•    Standard office practices and procedures, including automated human resource and word/data processing systems;
•    Principles and practices of public personnel administration, management analysis, organization, budget, supervision, and communication;
•    Applicable state, federal, and local laws, rules, regulations, and court decisions;
•    Principles, practices, techniques, and methods of planning, developing, and administering training and employee and organizational development programs;
•    Job analysis, recruiting and examining strategies and plans, position classification, position control, wage and salary administration;
•    Employee benefit programs, including health plan administration, and cost containment measures;
•    Public sector employee relations, typical provisions of collective bargaining agreements and public employee labor laws;
•    ADA, Title VI, and Title VII regulations applicable to public transit systems;
•    Principles and methods of civil rights compliance program development;
•    Current labor relations practices, trends, and major problems in the public sector;
•    Techniques for investigating, analyzing, and resolving internal and external complaints and employee grievances;
•    Principles of supervision, training, motivation, performance evaluation, and discipline;
•    Principles, practices, techniques, and methods of planning, developing, and administering equal employment opportunity programs;
•    Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;
•    Procedures for grievance/arbitration proceedings;
•    Applicable FTA regulations and guidelines relating to employment;
•    Collaborative problem solving.

Ability to:
•    Use initiative and good judgment;
•    Consistently apply concepts, laws, methods, techniques, approaches and other guidelines of professional work in the human resources management field;
•    Persuade, justify, and project the consequences of decisions and/or recommendations;
•    Communicate clearly and effectively, both orally and in writing;
•    Collect, interpret, and evaluate data of a complex and specialized nature;
•    Define problem areas and evaluate, recommend, and implement alternative solutions to complex issues and problems;
•    Work effectively under stressful situations involving confrontation and conflict;
•    Organize and analyze varied and complex data and cost out various proposals;
•    Develop and implement policies, procedures, and guidelines consistent with Authority policies and interpret these to staff, other agencies, and the public;
•    Interpret and apply federal, state, and local policies, laws, and regulations;
•    Be sensitive to cultural, racial, economic, and ethnic diversity;
•    Consult with and advise management on a wide variety of issues;
•    Deal tactfully and persuasively with others in controversial situations;
•    Reason logically and creatively and utilize a variety of analytical techniques to resolve complex and specialized human resources problems;
•    Represent management in dealing with other employees, departments, boards, commissions, and outside agencies and groups;
•    Establish and maintain effective working relationships with employee associations, community groups, and individuals at all levels in a large, complex organization;
•    Operate a computer and perform standard word-processing, spreadsheet, database, and human resources applications;
• Effectively supervise subordinate staff.