Workforce Services Lead

At Astellas, we strive to become a cutting-edge, value-driven life science innovator. This means working at the forefront of healthcare change to turn innovative science into VALUE for patients.

What sets us apart is our focus on patients, our pioneering innovation, our collaborative culture, and the passion of our talented people.

Making a positive impact on patients' lives is the purpose behind everything we do. At Astellas, we are relentless in our pursuit of scientific progress and in tackling unmet medical needs, demonstrated by our legacy in oncology, overactive bladder and transplant and our impressive pipeline in women's health, blindness and regeneration, genetic regulation, immuno-oncology, mitochondria and targeted protein degradation.

About Us:

We are a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, with a team of more than 14,000 managing operations in approximately 70 countries around the world. We are in the Top 30 global biopharma company based on global revenues and are predicted to be one of the Top 10 Cancer Drug Makers of 2024 by Fierce Pharma.

We are growing to meet the exciting opportunities realized by our legacy brands and rich pipeline of innovative treatments.

We are looking for candidates who will thrive in our entrepreneurial and empowering environment where talent and leadership flourish. Do your values align with our Astellas Way - patient focus, ownership, results, openness and integrity? Then we would love to hear from you.

From the first day in role, everyone at Astellas has a responsibility for creating a brighter future for patients around the world. We nurture exceptional relationships with our employees to allow them to thrive, foster innovation, and deliver exceptional business results. We work to create a culture where our people feel empowered to pursue brave ideas and ambitious outcomes, to have the confidence to be accountable for a higher standard of performance and embody a competitive and solutions-oriented mindset.

Our expertise, science and technology make us a pharma company. Our open and diverse culture is what makes us uniquely Astellas.

Purpose and Scope::

• The Workforce Services Lead is responsible for the effective and efficient execution of the Workforce Services team.

• Responsible for the Global outsourcing of HR queries and end-to-end employee lifecycle administration to Astellas' Global Workforces Service Delivery Partners as well as managing the service provided by a retained Workforce Services team.

• Responsible for ensuring the provision of exceptional services of Global Workforce Service team with overall accountability for services provided by third parties and retained Global Workforce Services teams globally.

• The role will sit in the People Services Leadership Team and report to the Head of Global Peoples Services working closely with the third parties, other People Services teams, across the broader HR function and directly with the business.

Essential Job Responsibilities::

• Accountable for establishing the Global Workforce Services Model across all geographies at Astellas including both:

• Globally outsourcing of HR queries and end to end employee lifecycle administration to Astellas' Service Delivery Partners

• The establishment of the retained Global Workforces Services Team to support with future Astellas expansions.

• Accountable for the development and execution of the Global Workforces Services Change and Communications Strategy

• Accountable for the provision of exceptional Global HR Services from the Workforce Services team including those delivered by third party partners and the retained Workforce Services Team

• Accountable for the Global provision of Payroll including the management of two Global payroll providers and the leadership of the retained teams.

• Accountable for robustly managing the performance of Global HR Service Delivery Partners to ensure that objectives are met and SLA's and KPI's are achieved.

• Accountable for the high performance of the Global Workforce Services Team; providing leadership, role clarity, career development and coaching in addition to monitoring the team's performance.

• Accountable for developing the annual Workforce Services budget globally and ongoing management of the budget provided by the People Services function.

Deliverables:

• Implementation of Global Workforce Services Model:

• Collaboratively create and deliver a fit for purpose implementation strategy globally, understanding the complexities delivery of the local HR Services today and develop plans to transition further activity to third party providers, the retained Workforce Services team, or other areas.

• Engage with key global stakeholders to articulate the implementation strategy including gaining buy-in

• Act as a 'Change Champion' supporting the business to embrace change and ensure that change limits as much disruption to the organisation as possible whilst being truly adopted.

• Work in partnership with Astellas' HR Service Delivery Partners to standardise HR processes with the aim of making interactions with HR simpler, smarter and better for the business.

• Ensure that all key transition timelines are met and delivered to the appropriate standard.

• Development and Execution of Global Workforce Services Business Engagement and Communications Strategy:

• Develop the Global Workforce Services Business Engagement and Communications strategy including the establishment of a robust voice of the customer channels; change roadmap that limits disruption to the organisation and allows Global stakeholders to understand and buy in

• Develop the Global Workforce Services Engagement and Communications strategy ensuring that all Global stakeholders have clarity on key performance and improvements and are adopting the ways of working.

• Delivery of Exceptional Global Workforce Services Provision:

• Drive improvements across the Astellas' Global HR Service Delivery Partner against SLA's including the monitoring, tracking and reporting of SLA's for all countries, regions and geographies.

• Meet regularly with Astellas' Global HR Service Delivery Partners to continue to build collaboration and drive a high level of service.

• Monitor the performance of Astellas' retained Global Workforce Services Team ensuring that a high level of service is provided to customers and all SLA's and KPI's are achieved.

• Monitor metrics to ensure that escalated issues about Global Workforce Services are dealt with in an effective and timely manner and there is full transparency and understanding across the business.

• Maintain and improve quality standards within the team as well as identifying and bringing forward opportunities for improvement as appropriate.

• Collaborate with the Projects and Continuous Improvement Team and Global Relationship Manager to identify opportunities to drive efficiencies, drive continuous improvement and continue to enhance the level of service provided by HR.

• Work across HR to add and or modify the suite of services provided driving through any changes to scope using appropriate governance and change request processes.

• Management of Global Workforce Services Delivery Budget:

• Development of the annual Global Workforce Services budget

• Ensure proper budget performance and alignment.

• Identify opportunities to create efficiencies and economies of scale.

• Leadership and Management of the Global Workforce Services Team:

• Develop capability across the Global Workforce Services Team and establish a programme to enhance skills and service levels, in partnership with Managers.

• Support third party partners in developing the capability of third-party resource.

• Direct management responsibility for multiple members of the retained Workforce Services Team across the globe

• Provide coaching and mentoring opportunities to support in career and capability development

• Promote a culture of continuous improvement to encourage all team members to look out for opportunities to enhance the quality of the service provided by HR Operations

• Provide support as they start to adopt more global ways of working - encouraging the team to think global and act local.

Ways of working:

• Provide guidance, support and insight to direct reports.

• Work supportively and collaboratively with other teams

• Manage the ongoing performance of HR Service Delivery Team

• Build relationships and trust with key stakeholders

• Seek opportunities to grow services provided by HR Operations

• Strive for consistency in the provision of services provided by HR Operations

• Encourage a growth mind-set across HR Operations to develop greater depth of capability

Qualifications:

Required:

• Chartered MCIPD or equivalent qualification, or equivalent HR experience.

• Substantial experience of leading and managing complex operations within large multinational organisations

• Experience in setting up and running Global / Multinational HR Shared Service Centres

• Extensive experience working with third party providers

• Experience of working in a hybrid model involving outsourced and in-house resource

• Significant experience across core HR functions (e.g. Compensation, Benefits, Performance Management, etc.) with proven extensive experience in HR process design, transaction support and employee administration

• Extensive HR process and transaction management experience

• A significant knowledge of HR metrics and their applicability

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Additional languages are desirable.

• Significant experience of leading the development and implementation of a range of continuous improvement projects, including both technology and process improvement

• Demonstrated knowledge of Project Management Tools and Techniques

• A broad understanding of the HR employee lifecycle

• Good understanding of employment law, its application and best practice including implementing significant change in countries with work councils; trade unions and/or social partners.

• Proven excellent people manager with an ability to lead and motivate a large team in a global and virtual environment.

• Experience of coaching employees and managers on employee lifecycle processes

• Track record of effectively delivering large scale HR services through a shared service team

• Experience of delivering to customer service targets within a complex environment

• Ability to multi-task and alter direction easily to accommodate changing priorities

• Proven experience of managing conflicting priorities and manage client expectations.

• Significant experience of creating and managing a budget

Category People Services

Astellas is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment.

EOE including Disability/Protected Veterans