Company Description
Cathay is a leading premium travel lifestyle brand based in Hong Kong, offering products and services across four lines of business – Premium Travel, Cargo, Low-Cost Travel and Lifestyle. The Cathay Group comprises premium full-service airline Cathay Pacific, cargo business Cathay Cargo, low-cost airline HK Express, express all-cargo carrier Air Hong Kong, and various other subsidiaries.
Cathay Pacific was founded in Hong Kong in 1946. The Group has been deeply committed to its home base, extending to the rest of Greater Bay Area, and making substantial investments to develop Hong Kong as one of the world’s leading international aviation centres.
Role Introduction
The successful candidate will be the principal point of contact for people leadership in the USA providing strategic business partnership for all functions having the single point of accountability for the people strategy and operations within the country. They will lead the drive for employee engagement, development and performance management across the North America region.
Please note this is a temporary position for or up to a 1-year fixed term contract with a possibility to be extended further.
Overview
Lead the Local People Team and Business Partner to Departmental Heads
- Drive the overall country people strategy linking them global people initiatives to deliver improvements in the employee experience and strong Human Resource support
- Advise and guide the line managers to make sound and thoughtful people decisions supported by professional Human Resource advice
- Be accountable for the overall people cost budget and headcount approvals for the country
- Own the country organisational structure and have oversight including being the approver of all country headcount replacements
- Lead the local people team to ensure an approachable, efficient and expert service as well as provide personal and professional development to people team members and build a positive working environment for the team
- Provide clear goals and objectives and role model performance management with own team
Build a High-Performance Culture and Support Leaders Across the Region
- Be directly involved in selection decisions of B+ roles within the country and ensure the recruitment process is managed well to attract the right talent
- Draw upon centrally provided people frameworks and strategies to build capability for performance management within the line managers
- Provide leadership training, coaching and support for managers on both a 1:1 and group level
- Proactively support line managers with performance improvement plans, coaching and formal performance management when required
- Support line managers through alignment and consistency of performance management and manage the annual calibration process to ensure pay for performance philosophies are embedded
- Conduct exit interviews with senior or regretted losses and analyse exit interview and turnover data on a regular basis to identify trends and issues that can be improved on
Stakeholder Management and Collaboration with Functional and Geographic Leaders
- Manage the matrix structure to support all parties to effectively contribute including being an expert in the roles and responsibilities of each party and how to effectively work together
- Be an escalation point for decision making on matrix conflict resolution by utilising strong mediation
Business Continuity
- Be a key leader in the event of crisis management or an Emergency or Accident situation
- Lead in humanitarian responses in the country
- Implement key processes for business continuity of people processes and associated support mechanisms
- Lead in Health and Safety ensuring compliance is achieved and that employee wellbeing is promoted and supported by the people team and leadership team
E&A
- Emergency and Accident and Crisis Response responsibilities as required
Key Responsibilities
Deliver Core People Processes
- Contribute to the global Cathay people strategy and projects and be an active part of the people international community
- Create and manage the people budget ensuring that all budgeting timeframes are met and data integrity is maintained in all core people systems
- Align with the global reward, compensation and benefit frameworks and run the country compensation processes in a timely and efficient manner ensuring that strong controls are in place
- Drive the shift in benefits and reward culture from one of tenure to pay for performance
- Ensure full compliance on all aspects of employment law, health and safety and payroll processes and governance
- Be responsible for the people policy framework and alignment with global policies, local legislation and effective communication of policies
- Manage challenging people issues including employee exits, disciplinary or grievance cases in a professional and mature manner
- Identify key ‘at risk’ or ‘business critical’ roles and ensure that there are plans for coverage in case of absence or turnover
- Establish the employee relations strategy to ensure all employee representative groups are well managed and identify opportunities for further engagement with employees via various channels
- Proactively improve the industrial agreements that are in place to ensure they meet the needs of all parties and ensure we have a bargaining strategy with unions and employee representative groups in place
- Lead the negotiation process for salary increments, collective agreements alongside the Regional General Manager
- Monitoring industrial relations law changes and ensure Cathay has engaged relevant local labour law experts and is utilising their services effectively
- Advise and provide support to all departments to ensure they are operating in a compliant and appropriate manner for the local market and supports the overall success in the location
People Engagement and Development
- Utilise central training and development materials and frameworks to deliver local leadership development activities
- Identify succession plans and work with leaders to develop future successors in a long term and supportive manner
- Lead People Week and workforce planning initiatives for the country and proactively manage talent identified for succession
- Conduct regular Training Needs Analysis for all functions as required including Ground Handling Agents to help ensure required training programmes are effectively delivered and address key performance issues
- Submit the budget for functional and regulatory training to Head Office in a timely manner with accuracy
- Ensure regulatory training is completed and monitor Brushwinger’s completion for eLearning and other safety or induction related training
- Identify opportunities for local government funding and support on training initiatives
- Measure the effectiveness of training efforts and draw on central tools and methodology
- Partner with The Learning Academy and suggest ideas and best practices and provide feedback on how global initiatives fit into the local context
- Work with the Regional General Manager to initiate local communications and engagement initiatives in order to nurture the culture and engagement of the wider team
- Work with the global engagement teams and community to suggest ideas and best practices and provide feedback on how global initiatives fit into local context
- Promote and nurture a customer service mind-set and culture
Requirements
Academic Qualifications
- University Degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience in Human Resources or a closely related discipline is required
Knowledge, Skills, Training And Experience
- 10+ years’ experience in a generalist business partner role
- Practical expertise in all areas of Human Resources
- Skilled at training delivery and facilitation
- Demonstrably passionate about employee engagement with proven successes in delivery of engagement programmes
- Highly approachable with a strong and customer centric mentality
- Solid experience in Human Resource compliance and processes
- Ability to manage competing priorities
- High level of integrity and professionalism
- Demonstrably strong mediation, conflict management, influencing and negotiation skills
- Experience in managing complexity across geographies and hierarchies
- Superior communication skills across multiple channels being mindful of cultural considerations
- Future focused approach with proven ability to successfully drive change
- Must have the right to live and work in the USA
Background & Security
- Certain Employees will be required to obtain a Security Identification Display Area, (SIDA) badge provided by the airport authority and maintain good standing to retain their SIDA badge.
- Employment will require successful completion of a ‘Background Check’ and ‘Drug Free Workplace’ test
Benefits
Cathay Pacific Airways is proud to offer eligible employees competitive Compensation & Benefits package, as varied by location, regularly scheduled hours worked, length of employment and employment status as highlighted below.
- To learn more about Cathay Pacific as a Certified Great Place Employer – Please Click Here’
The estimated salary range for this role is $113,328 to $169,992. Employee pay will vary based on factors such as qualifications, experience, skill level, competencies and work location.
Personal & Application Information
Cathay Pacific Airways is an Equal Opportunity (EOE) and Affirmative Action (AA) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status and other protected status as required by applicable law and will not be discriminated against. Cathay Pacific Airways is an E-Verify participating employer.
If you require assistance or an accommodation in completing any aspect of the application process, please contact the Cathay Americas Recruiting team at: jobs@cathaypacific.com.
