Senior Director, Strategic Workforce Planning & Analytics

Primary Role

This position will have overall responsibility for workforce planning, organizational effectiveness and design, skills and competencies, HRIS and HR analytics, and project management for HR initiatives. The role will manage and support the strategic work force planning process. Through comprehensive research and data analysis, this role will define the current and future workforce needs of the organization and work with leaders across the business to deliver a strategic workforce plan. This entails converting American Water’s strategy into a workforce plan that anticipates future needs across the business, assesses the readiness of current employees to meet future demands, and establishes talent strategies to shape skills for the future. The role will also ensure the organization is designed to be agile and can effectively and efficiently meet the current and future needs of the business. Reporting directly to the SVP, CHRO, this role will work closely with leaders across the business, the HR Leadership Team and the HR Centers Of Expertise to ensure our workforce is prepared for the future.

Key Accountabilities

• Analyze American Water's workforce and deliver data-driven insights and strategic recommendations to prepare for future staffing needs.
• Develop and manage the planning of strategic, tactical, and financial goals of the workforce planning process.
• Research, analyze, and identify skill gaps and root causes in the organization, and recommend strategies to reduce gaps in workforce positions
• Work with HR and business operation leaders to ensure the appropriate workforce is in place to accomplish American Water's strategic plan goals and objectives
• Understand the strategies of our business and the impact of emerging technology, market shifts, and workforce changes to identify talent needs for the future and establish a strategy to ensure the right mix of talent, technologies, and employment models to reach our goals.
• Implement and regularly update an end-to-end workforce planning process, including design, plan, and deployment of the workforce strategy with relevant tools and frameworks.
• Leverage internal and external data, trends, analytics, and insights to assess talent gaps, forecast resource needs, and model future scenarios to accurately identify and prioritize talent risks and opportunities.

Key Accountabilities Continued

• Validate findings and design solutions with stakeholders, including finance, talent acquisition, business leaders, and L&D to improve and achieve our strategic workforce plan.
• Inform and engage SVP CHRO, HRLT, business, and functional stakeholders as partners throughout this journey to scale workforce planning and help leaders guide company’s future talent investments across our footprint.
• Identify and communicate risks and adjustments to the overall program.
• Empower team to define and document the end-to-end business processes currently used and identify where and how tooling solutions will aid with streamlining and scaling the process – optimization is key.
• Help create and manage the vision and strategy to take the workforce plan to the next level of industry leadership.
• Understand, collaborate and influence across cross-functional organizations.
• Understand business needs, and work with Digital HR team to ensure HRIS supports leaders with simplified processes and meaningful, accurate people metrics.
• Ensure HR initiatives prioritize and align with business needs and company strategy, are properly documented, and appropriately resourced.
• Provide expertise during M&A activity, including utilizing workforce projections and evaluating skill gaps or needs for acquired employees.

Knowledge/Skills

• Ability to establish, maintain, and enhance effective working relationships with executive leadership and management.
• Ability to think strategically, analytically, and proactively about diverse business solutions incorporating the best practices of industry.
• Ability to consider issues from multiple perspectives and connect the dots on seemingly disconnected ideas.
• Proven experience developing and implementing workforce plans
• Proven experience aligning organizational structure to the future needs of the business
• Highly analytical and understand how to link data with the strategy and weave compelling stories
• Experience being a thought leader within the organization and who can help internal solution strategy and challenge others in the organization to change
• Analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and organizational experience
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix function and organization
• Strong strategic thinking, communication and collaboration skills

Experience/Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration/Program Management or related field of business required. An MS/MA is highly desired.
• 10+ years of professional experience in progressive talent management, workforce planning, resource management, or human resources. Equivalent experience as well as credit for relevant academic degrees will be included in required years experience qualification. Exceptional background will be considered.
• MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, Project, PowerPoint, SharePoint, etc.), Google Applications Suite.

Competencies