Employee Relations & Development Manager - West Des Moines IA

Employee Relations & Development Manager
- West Des Moines IA

Full Time Silver

2 days ago Requisition

IOWA SELECT FARMS JOB DESCRIPTION

TITLE: Employee Relations & Development Manager

REPORTS TO: Vice President of Human Resources

LAST REVISION DATE: 05/20/2026

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

The Employee Relations & Development Manager builds the capability, confidence, and judgment of leaders across the organization to effectively lead people. Serving as a trusted coach, educator, and strategic partner, this role designs and delivers leadership development programs while equipping supervisors, managers, and leaders with the skills, tools, and support to confidently navigate people leadership challenges and foster a respectful, engaged, and high-performing workplace.

Unlike a traditional employee relations role focused primarily on resolving workplace issues, this position emphasizes developing leaders who can effectively prevent, address, and manage employee situations with increasing independence over time. Through coaching, training, consultation, and practical resources, the Manager strengthens leadership capability while providing guidance on complex or high-risk employee relations matters when needed. As a player-coach, the Manager also leads and develops the Employee Relations team while partnering with more than 200 leaders across 55 counties in Iowa.

Success in this role is measured not only by effective employee relations outcomes, but by the growth and confidence of leaders throughout the organization. By empowering leaders to make sound people decisions and resolve challenges independently, this role strengthens leadership effectiveness, enhances organizational culture, and builds a proactive, consistent approach to people leadership across the organization.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Build Leader Capability

• Serve as the organization's primary coach and advisor for people leadership practices.
• Develop the confidence and capability of more than 200 supervisors, managers, and leaders to effectively manage employee situations.
• Coach leaders through challenging conversations while teaching them how to independently navigate similar situations in the future.
• Help leaders strengthen judgment, decision‑making, communication, and accountability in managing their teams.
• Foster a culture where leaders view people management as a core leadership responsibility rather than an HR function.

Leader Development & Training

• Facilitate and update HR training days for new leaders with the support of the HR team
• Administer and interpret Predictive Index behavioral assessments, facilitating individual and team sessions that help employees and leaders increase self‑awareness, strengthen communication, and improve collaboration and team effectiveness.
• Evaluate and update existing leadership development programs on soft skills and core leadership competencies and then facilitate training across the organization on it
• Create, update and facilitate developmental action plans and follow up for leaders to utilize within their teams
• Enhance and facilitate succession planning tools and resources
• Manage our performance management platform and routines around annual reviews and routine 1‑on‑1 feedback and development statuses
• Continue to develop existing toolkits, guides, templates, and other resources that enable leaders to confidently apply what they learn.
• Enhance and facilitate practical, engaging learning opportunities that strengthen day‑to‑day leadership skills, including:
• Providing effective coaching, feedback, and recognition
• Employee engagement and accountability
• Providing de‑escalation and conflict resolution skills
• Documentation and HR forms
• Determining appropriate or progressive disciplinary responses and…