The posting
Overview
The Labor Relations Americas team partners with leaders across Microsoft to navigate labor and workforce-related challenges, strengthen employee and union relationships, and help shape labor strategies that support business success across the region.
Working closely with HR, Legal, Employee Relations, and senior business leaders, the team plays a critical role in some of Microsoft's most important people and organizational priorities, including workforce transformation, labor strategy, organizing activity, collective bargaining, contract administration, and employee experience.
The Opportunity
The Labor Relations Americas team is hiring a Senior Labor Relations Manager to join the team. The Senior Labor Relations Manager is a strategic and influential leadership role that partners across Microsoft on some of the company's most important people, workforce, and business priorities.
This leader serves as a trusted advisor to senior business leaders, HR, Legal, and key stakeholders across the organization, helping shape labor relations strategies that enable business success while fostering positive employee and union relationships. The role offers a unique opportunity to influence high-impact decisions, partner on complex workforce challenges, and help leaders navigate an evolving labor landscape.
From collective bargaining and contract administration to workforce transformation initiatives and complex employee matters, this role helps guide the organization through critical moments that have lasting business impact. The Senior Labor Relations Manager plays a key role in balancing business priorities, employee experience, compliance, and labor strategy while helping leaders make thoughtful, informed decisions.
Beyond day-to-day labor relations work, this leader will have the opportunity to build scalable programs, strengthen leader capability, influence organizational strategy, and develop innovative approaches that drive consistent, values-based outcomes across Microsoft.
🌟 Why this role matters:
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys solving complex workforce challenges, partnering with senior leaders, influencing strategy, and creating meaningful impact across the business. The individual selected will help shape the future of labor relations at Microsoft while driving positive outcomes for employees, leaders, and the organization as a whole.
If you're passionate about navigating complexity, building trusted partnerships, influencing high-impact decisions, and helping leaders and teams thrive, this role offers a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact while helping shape the future of labor relations at Microsoft. We'd love to hear from you!
Responsibilities
Building Labor Relations-Related Capability
- Identifies the appropriate approach and leverages resources to enhance manager capability by conducting one-on-one consulting/coaching with business leaders, or by engaging relevant Human Resources partners to advise and guide them on labor issues, regulations, and best practices.
- Identifies and aggregates labor relations-related training needs within the business, region, or geography supported. Develops implementation plans to address identified labor relations-related training needs, develops relevant trainings, and coordinates and/or delivers training sessions on effective labor relations practices and topics to management, business leadership and relevant Human Resources partners and leadership.
Contracts and Compliance
- Enforces labor laws, regulations, contractual obligations, and collective bargaining agreements and ensures that all contact between business and ERBs is underpinned by appropriate security principles.
- Partners with Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs in labor contract and collective bargaining negotiations and labor arbitrations. Interprets and administers labor contracts in partnership with Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs and relevant business and Human Resources partners tied to contractually obligated terms and conditions of an employee representative body's (e.g., union) or members' employment (e.g., compensation, scheduling, hours, union practices).
- Engages with employee representative bodies (e.g., unions) and management as part of the Labor Management Committee to resolve issues. Negotiates with employee representative bodies on mid-term bargaining issues in partnership with Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs.
HR Project and Programs
- Partners with Centers of Excellence on implementing and capitalizing on scalable labor relations programs and processes (e.g., Rhythm of Business (ROB)/performance and development cycle, management excellence communities, employee movement, ad-hoc projects).
- Manages labor relations processes for a business, region, or geography by reviewing progress and making recommendations on project/program management, integrating security best practices in all key processes.
- Leads the design and implementation of local labor relations and/or Human Resource (HR) projects or programs that require information and consultation with employee representative bodies (e.g., reduction of force, changes to benefits) based on unique needs for a business, region, or geography.
- Provides project guidance related to prioritization, timelines, budget, resourcing, and impact.
- Leverages, aligns, and integrates communication strategies and messages from the Center of Excellence (CoE); guides others in the implementation of communication messages; manages all communications in alignment with Microsoft's security principles; collaborates with peer disciplines (e.g., Human Resources Business Partnership) to gain buy-in on programs and processes from business stakeholders.
HR Solutions Consulting
- Identifies and presents trends and insights on organizational health solutions from Employee Relations (ER) and Global Employee Relations (GER) data and recommends a solution to appropriate stakeholders.
- Provides expert consulting services to managers and employees related to labor relations programs, processes, and initiatives.
Maintaining Positive Labor Relations
- Proactively seeks to strengthen positive relationships with employee representative bodies (e.g., union) representatives and leaders. Works with employee representative bodies to determine the scope of potential bargaining units and manages organizing activity.
- Maintains and utilizes a feedback loop with Human Resources (HR) and Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) to ensure awareness of, and advise on any business decisions that may impact employee representative bodies represented employees and acts as Labor Relations Representative on Labor Management Committees (LMC).
- Improves relationships with managers and business stakeholders to consult and inform on decisions that impact business units. Maintains relationships with external stakeholders (e.g., employee associations, government institutions, union federations) to maintain continuous communication and engagements on complex recurring and/or ad hoc programs related to labor forces.
- Ensures that Collective Bargaining Agreements and/or company agreements contain relevant, up to date and agreed methods for managing data/information security and are aligned to Microsoft’s policies. Coaches team members to align with Microsoft’s security principles in all Employment Relations Board (ERB) engagements.
- Directs the diagnostics and resolution of issues with high-level complexity, visibility, and risk related to labor laws and regulation or contractual concerns/violations, both independently and by collaborating with employee representatives, managers, and peers in Human Resources and Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs as appropriate.
- Leads the mediation of discussions between employee representatives and the company to resolve conflict and address and resolve labor disputes and grievances. Implements solutions to address issues based on labor laws and regulations, contractual obligations, and established principles and culture, while prioritizing employee and labor experiences to maintain a safe and professional work environment.
- Interprets trends in labor relations, legislative, and regulatory environments that may impact labor relations and makes recommendations on changes within Human Resources policies to align with external expectations. Implements solutions to facilitate an open, inclusive, Microsoft values-based environment that enables effective labor relations for an assigned business, region, or geography, and incorporates security principles in stakeholder communications throughout solution implementation. Understands precedence that has been set and anticipates long-term impacts of short term decision-making.
- Collaborates with Human Resource Consulting and Human Resources Business Partners to administer and investigate potential and/or actual labor dispute and employee representative bodies (e.g., union) grievance cases and implementing appropriate remediation or dispute resolution in conjunction with a business, region, or geography, and other Human Resources peers (e.g., Human Resources Business Partners, Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs, Public Relations, Global Security, Benefits) in accordance with applicable labor laws and regulations, union contracts, and collective bargaining agreements. Partners with relevant internal parties (e.g., Workplace Investigation Team [WIT], Business and Regulatory Investigation [BRI], Labor Management Committee, Corporate, Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs, Global Employee Relations [GER]) in parallel investigations. Ensures appropriate documentation of issues with a focus on maintaining security and confidentiality of sensitive labor relations data. Establishes and advocates for application of security principles in all disputes/grievances.
Queue Management
- Manages, distributes, and oversees queries or requests through relevant channels (e.g., Customer Relationship Management [CRM], queue management system) for a business, region, and geography. Assesses severity levels of queries or requests and determines management approach.
Strategy Development
- Co-creates an overall strategy for labor relations within local area by incorporating security-first considerations and working in partnership with regional peers, team and local HR leaders, that is relevant to Microsoft’s context of rapid innovation, hybrid work and a highly skilled, diverse, workforce and that contributes positively to our culture.
- Collate meaningful insights on market trends and external factors from local geographical region, that will inform a more proactive approach to labor relations. Develops recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of operating model that ensures productive and positive labor relations.
- Creates a Labor Relations Community of Practice of Country Labor Relations Specialists, in local geographical region or market, accountable for delivering the Labor Relations strategy, and enabling a listening system to identify associated risks and priorities. Builds a mentoring partnership with local Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs (CELA) and labor relations subject matter experts.
- Coordinates scalable local HR and Product teams in consulting on commercial or cultural matters with relevant unions, works councils, or employee representatives.
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
- Master's Degree in Business, Labor Relations, Human Resources, Law, or related field AND 4+ years experience in human resources operations, labor relations or related field OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Labor Relations, Human Resources, or related field AND 7+ years experience in human resources operations, labor relations or related field OR equivalent experience.
- 5+ years handling complex labor relations matters independently and influencing senior leaders OR equivalent experience.
Additional or preferred qualifications
- Master's Degree in Business, Labor Relations, Human Resources, Law, or related field AND 8+ years experience in human resources operations, labor relations or related field OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Labor Relations, Human Resources, or related field AND 12+ years experience in human resources operations, labor relations or related field OR equivalent experience.
- 3+ years experience resolving employee-related issues tied to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement or union contract (e.g., contract negotiations, mediation).
- 3+ years experience leading and executing projects in a complex and matrixed organization.
- Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) or Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification.
Labor Relations IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,400 - $203,600 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $137,600 - $222,600 per year.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.
