Senior Director, People Relations and Workplace Practices

This is where your work makes a difference.

At Baxter, we believe every person—regardless of who they are or where they are from—deserves a chance to live a healthy life. It was our founding belief in 1931 and continues to be our guiding principle. We are redefining healthcare delivery to make a greater impact today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Our Baxter colleagues are united by our Mission to Save and Sustain Lives. Together, our community is driven by a culture of courage, trust, and collaboration. Every individual is empowered to take ownership and make a meaningful impact. We strive for efficient and effective operations, and we hold each other accountable for delivering exceptional results.

Here, you will find more than just a job—you will find purpose and pride. 

ROLE SUMMARY:

The Senior Director, People Relations and Workplace Practices is a strategic global leader responsible for designing and directing governance, risk management/assessment, and business-facing analytics/insights for Baxter’s global people relations and workplace practices function. This role serves as the organization's foremost subject matter expert in people relations operations and analytics and workforce risk management, ensuring consistent, fair, compliant, and scalable practices across all regions (United States/Canada, Latin America, Europe/Africa/Middle East, and Asia-Pacific).

Working in close partnership with other HR COEs, HR business partners, legal and compliance, HR operations and people analytics, the Senior Director, People Relations and Workplace Practices develops enterprise-wide frameworks, workflows, and governance models that enable efficient and defensible management of investigations, accommodations, leaves, restructures, performance management, employee discipline, and other compliance-related processes. The role also works with Baxter’s people analytics and IT functions to effectuate the transformation of people relations through AI, automation, and advanced case management technologies, creating intelligent tools that improve decision quality, streamline operations, and enhance the employee and manager experience.

In addition, the Senior Director provides strategic leadership in workforce risk identification, predictive analytics, auditing, and organizational insight generation. By leveraging data, technology, and deep expertise in workplace practices, this leader identifies emerging risks, uncovers systemic issues, and delivers actionable recommendations that strengthen organizational effectiveness, inform policy and process improvements, and support business and HR leaders in making sound, equitable, and compliant workforce decisions worldwide.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and maintain dashboards, analytics, and reporting tools to track investigation outcomes, case trends, workplace compliance activity, and key people relations metrics.

• Provide real-time workforce risk and compliance insights to HR and business leaders, enabling timely decision-making and issue resolution.

• Identify and monitor employee relations, labor, and compliance risk hotspots across geographies, business units, managers, and workforce segments.

• Analyze case data to detect “repeat offenders,” emerging trends, systemic issues, and root causes of workplace concerns.

• Design, implement, and continuously enhance predictive models to assess people relations risk, compliance exposure, workplace issues, and attrition drivers.

• Deliver actionable insights and recommendations to HR leadership regarding policy enhancements, operational improvements, intervention strategies, investigation practices, and compliance program effectiveness.

• Conduct audits and assessments of HR processes, including wage and hour compliance, contingent labor classification, leave administration, accommodations, background checks, and other regulatory requirements.

• Design, document, and optimize end-to-end workflows for investigations, accommodations, leave programs, I-9 compliance, background screening, drug testing, performance management, employee discipline, restructures, and workforce reductions.

• Lead the development and administration of AI-enabled solutions, including case intake and triage, automated documentation, decision-support tools, and self-service policy resources.

• Function as the global process owner regarding the use of HR compliance-related technologies, including EthicsPoint, ServiceNow, Workday, and related platforms.

• Lead the implementation of a new people relations management system designed to provide manager self-service capability, streamlined people relations processes, and improved management of people relations matters.

• Establish and enforce governance standards, case management protocols, quality assurance processes, and policy change controls to ensure consistency, fairness, compliance, and legal defensibility.

• Maintain and enhance a centralized knowledge management platform containing HR policies, guidance, decision frameworks, and AI-enabled knowledge retrieval capabilities.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance scalability, efficiency, automation, data integrity, and global process consistency across People Relations and Workplace Practices programs

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree

• Minimum 15 years of HR experience that includes at least 5 years of experience in people relations/employee relations/workplace practices/HR compliance 

• Demonstrated, prior experience working with and safeguarding confidential and sensitive information

• Strong leadership and influence skills, and the ability to drive change

• Demonstrated, prior experience handling people/employee relations or HR compliance issues in at least one of the following global regions:  Latin America, Europe/Africa/Middle East, or Asia-Pacific

• Demonstrated ability to build effective working relationships with management team and to coach and influence decision making of senior leaders

• Good business acumen and judgment

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 7+ years of experience in people relations/employee relations/workplace practices/HR compliance

• Demonstrated, prior experience handling people/employee relations or HR compliance issues in each of the following global regions:  Latin America, Europe/Africa/Middle East, and Asia-Pacific

• Prior experience working in medtech, medical device, or another highly regulated industry

• Prior experience working for a federal contractor and exposure to AAPs and OFCCP compliance

US Benefits at Baxter (except for Puerto Rico)

This is where your well-being matters. Baxter offers comprehensive compensation and benefits packages for eligible roles. Our health and well-being benefits include medical and dental coverage that start on day one, as well as insurance coverage for basic life, accident, short-term and long-term disability, and business travel accident insurance. Financial and retirement benefits include the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), with the ability to purchase company stock at a discount, and the 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan (RSP), with options for employee contributions and company matching. We also offer Flexible Spending Accounts, educational assistance programs, and time-off benefits such as paid holidays, paid time off ranging from 20 to 35 days based on length of service, family and medical leaves of absence, and paid parental leave. Additional benefits include commuting benefits, the Employee Discount Program, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and childcare benefits. Join us and enjoy the competitive compensation and benefits we offer to our employees. For additional information regarding Baxter US Benefits, please speak with your recruiter or visit our Benefits site: Benefits | Baxter

Equal Employment Opportunity

Baxter is an equal opportunity employer. Baxter evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal

Reasonable Accommodations

Baxter is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities globally. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or interview process, please click on the link here and let us know the nature of your request along with your contact information.

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