IHR Employee Relations Associate At Médecins Sans Frontières

Organization

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian organization that delivers impartial medical care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care in over 70 countries.

We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s common mission.

Department

The Field Human Resources Department (Field HR) is responsible for recruitment, selection, placement, and retainment of qualified and well-suited field staff to meet the growing needs of MSF field operations.

Project

The IHR Employee Relations Associate provides administrative support to our field staff of 300+ employees in all areas of HR including recruitment, payroll and benefits administration, training, and coordinating staff events.

Tasks

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

Payroll & Benefits Administration (50%)

• Works with senior staff to develop, review and maintain appropriate content for briefing packages for Expatriate staff
• Contacts new Expatriate as assigned to explain MSF-USA’s compensation package, and all contents of briefing packages; ensures that new staff complete all relevant paperwork
• Ensures that departing staff complete all relevant paperwork; follows up for any missing paperwork
• Assists senior staff with the preparation of payroll and benefits information for international staff so that Finance can process and execute payroll, reconcile benefits statements and account for all expenses promptly and accurately
• Assists with conducting Briefings and Debriefings for field staff leaving for and returning from the field.
• Works with senior staff to develop, review and maintain comprehensive new hire and termination check lists for both departing field staff and for internal use on briefings and debriefings
• Processes benefits enrollments and changes for current staff and assists staff to make changes for themselves on vendor websites.
• Able to liaises with benefits vendors to facilitate good customer service for field staff and ensure MSF is handling enrollments and transactions correctly.
• Supports Expatriate staff when applicable to ensures they have proper documentation for release of bulk medical prescriptions.
• Provides direct support to Expatriate staff regarding payroll and benefits issues.
• Manages payroll files that are stored in the digital filing system.
• Analyzes salary discrepancies and calculates salary amount owed to staff member or to MSF prior to Manager or Director approval.
• Calculates and processes salary adjustments for staff when applicable.
• Maintains employees seconded by Operational Centers, including their differing salary grid and benefits offerings.
• Conducts annual Paid Family Leave and Affordable Care Act reporting and audits.
• Maintains trainings for all Expatriate staff with Field HR admin team.
• Maintains and analyzes employees utilizing Unemployment benefits.
• Prepares employment verification, malpractice insurance, health insurance and custom employment letters for former expatriate staff.

Human Resources Systems (30%)

• Maintains and updates ADP and HRIS systems with expatriate new hires, rehires, terminations, demographic information, and payroll information.
• Works with the IHR Employee Relations Specialist on updating the international database, including occasional overhauls to check at information has been correctly entered.
• Identifies systems that can be improved, proposes changes to the IHR Employee Relations Specialst and implements new system.
• Assists the IHR Employee Relations Specialist with any movement wide systems changes by providing administrative support.

General Administrative duties (20%)

• Updates and maintains electronic employee files and records in accordance with HR best practices and legal requirements.
• Assists with updates and maintenance of HR records.
• Attends regularly scheduled staff meetings and contributes to the creation of the FHR Annual Plan
• Attends Field HR meetings with admin team and FHR Officer team to discuss both urgent and long-term projects and to discuss week’s departures and returns.
• Creates and maintains blueprint for Employment Equity & Accountability team processes and workflow.
• Provides support on long-term HR department projects.
• Provides full coverage for IHR Employee Relations Specialist during absences.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

Can supervise one or more office volunteers or interns who work on specific clerical, administrative projects in support of the department. Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws. Works with IHR Employee Relations Specialist to maintain the IHR Employee Relations internship integrity, including the creation of weekly HR problems for intern to develop higher-level problem-solving skills and management of real-life scenarios.

Fiscal Responsibility:

Supports the record-keeping for all payroll and benefits for US Expatriate staff, as well as for US Domestic staff.

Extent of Public Contact:

Routinely interacts with and represents MSF to domestic and international staff, interns and volunteers during recruitment, onboarding and at departure. Works with US benefits vendors to answer questions and resolve problems for employees.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years relevant administrative work experience, preferably in Human Resources, plus a Bachelor’s Degree, or equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Proven time management and organizational skills including keen attention to detail and the ability to prioritize ongoing vs. immediate needs appropriately.
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills, including ability to effectively present information to job applicants, vendors, and other employees of the organization.
• Strong computer literacy, including ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook
• Previous experience working with HRIS systems.
• Ability to write business correspondence, and internal memos.
• Strong motivation for working in a non-profit environment

We do not accept phone calls during the recruitment process. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Please note that neither relocation assistance nor visa sponsorship will be offered for this position.

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled.

Expected to work in a hybrid remote work environment with the ability to come into either the NYC office or regional hub (Washington, DC or Oakland, California) a minimum of 2 times a week.

MSF-USA/Doctors Without Borders is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No employee, or applicant for employment, shall be discriminated against in any term or condition of employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law. We are constantly striving to make our organization anti-racist. Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values. As an employee, you become part of that mission. We expect this same commitment from our staff.