Director Employee Relations

At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota we are committed to paving the way for everyone to achieve their healthiest life. We are looking for dedicated and motivated individuals who share our vision of transforming healthcare. As a Blue Cross associate you are joining a culture that is built on values of succeeding together finding a better way and doing the right thing. If you are ready to make a difference join us.

The Impact You Will Have

The Director Employee Relations (ER) is a handson working leader responsible for both personally managing complex employee relations matters and leading a team of Employee Relations and Leave of Absence (LOA) professionals. This role provides enterprise operational governance and risk leadership for ER execution translating ER strategy into disciplined daytoday decisionmaking and applying advanced judgment critical thinking and risk assessment to highstakes cases investigations and employment actions.

The Director Employee Relations independently leads the most complex and sensitive ER and LOA matters while also setting standards guiding team capacity and ensuring consistent defensible outcomes across the ER and LOA functions. Serving as a primary escalation point for HRBPs and leaders this role balances speed consistency legal defensibility and reputational considerations delivering clear wellreasoned recommendations to employment counsel and senior HR leadership.

Collaboration is central to the role. The Director Employee Relations works closely with Legal HR Business Partners Total Rewards Talent Acquisition People Analytics Organizational Development Compliance and Enterprise addition to team leadership and direct case execution the role owns ER and LOA governance and infrastructure manages compliance hotline issues identifies patterns and systemic risk strengthens leader capability and leads updates to HRrelated policies and practices to improve upstream prevention decision quality and enterprise stability.

Your Responsibilities:

• Provides daytoday leadership for the Employee Relations and LOA functions while personally handling complex highrisk ER matters setting priorities capacity plans quality expectations and holding accountability for consistent enterprise practice.
• Owns and executes enterprise ER work including direct management of sensitive investigations and employment actions as well as intake triage prioritization assignment and execution across misconduct performance issues ADA/LOA intersections and policy violations.
• Defines and enforces escalation thresholds decisionrights and role clarity between HRBPs and Employee Relations ensuring disciplined consistent and defensible application of policy and judgment.
• Leads and oversees complex highrisk investigations (e.g. protected class retaliation senior leader systemic issues) applying critical thinking to assess facts credibility impact and risk and producing highquality legally sound written outcomes.
• Owns ER governance including investigation frameworks associate handbook documentation standards case management processes government reporting response timelines decision consistency and audit readiness.
• Applies analytical and strategic thinking to monitor ER performance and enterprise risk indicatorsincluding case volume cycle time repeat patterns and risk hotspotsand uses insights to reduce recurrence and strengthen prevention.
• Translates ER case data and investigation trends into actionable enterprise insights that inform policy updates leader capability gaps training priorities and emerging people risks; partners with HR Legal and Compliance on upstream mitigation strategies.
• Serves as a senior escalation and advisory partner to HRBPs and leaders on highimpact employment decisionsincluding corrective action PIPs terminations and RIF planningstrengthening leader decisionmaking while preventing risk drift inconsistency or unnecessary enterprise exposure.
• Acts as a key advisor during highvisibility or enterpriseimpacting ER matters considering legal regulatory cultural and reputational risk in recommendations and outcomes.
• Provides strong people leadership by hiring developing and retaining talent; setting clear expectations; coaching employees through ongoing performance management; delivering timely constructive feedback; and modeling organizational values and behaviors
• Leads process improvement by identifying streamlining and implementing more efficient and effective ways of working.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Accepting this director level position at BCBSMN requires signing an Agreement Regarding Non-Disclosure of Confidential Information and Non-Competition as a condition of employment.
• Bachelors Degree in Human Resources Business Administration Legal Studies Industrial-Organizational Psychology or related field.
• 7 years of progressive HR experience with at least 3 years in leadership / management roles.
• Strong enterprise judgment with the ability to assess risk and make sound recommendations.
• Proven expertise in complex employee relations matters and investigations including protected class retaliation senior leader and systemic issues.
• Ability to analyze information solve problems and work collaboratively with others to address difficult highstakes decisions.
• Exceptional written verbal and analytical communication skills including the ability to produce clear legally sound documentation and executivelevel insights.
• Ability to communicate clearly and respectfully actively listen and adapt messages to the audience to support collaboration and results across the organization.
• High school diploma (or equivalency) and legal authorization to work in the U.S.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Masters degree in Human Resources Business Administration Legal Studies Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Certification PHR/SPHR
• 10 years of Employee Relations and/or broader HR experience including enterpriselevel risk exposure and leadership or peoplemanagement responsibilities.

Anchored in Connection

Our hybrid approach is designed to balance flexibility with meaningful in-person connection and collaboration. We come together in the office two days each week most teams designate at least one anchor day to ensure team interaction. These in-person moments foster relationships creativity and alignment. The rest of the week you are empowered to work remote.

Pay is based on several factors which vary based on position including skills ability and knowledge the selected individual is bringing to the specific job.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package which may include:

• Medical dental and vision insurance

• Life insurance

• 401k

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO)

• And more

To discover more about what we have to offer please review our benefits page.

At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota we are committed to paving the way for everyone to achieve their healthiest life. Blue Cross of Minnesota is an Equal Opportunity Employer and maintains an Affirmative Action plan as required by Minnesota law applicable to state contractors. All qualified applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to and will not be discriminated against based on any legally protected characteristic.

Individuals with a disability who need a reasonable accommodation in order to apply please contact us at:

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and Blue Plus are nonprofit independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.