Senior Human Resources Specialist

HQ
11100 WILDLIFE CENTER DRIVE
RESTON, VA 20190, USA

HQ
11100 WILDLIFE CENTER DRIVE
RESTON, VA 20190, USA

The National Wildlife Federation is on an essential journey to become a durable organization that champions belonging, where we act as bridge builders to unite people to do big things for wildlife and the communities we serve. By honoring our essence, living our core values and committing to this vision, the Federation can become the model wildlife organization that fully welcomes, retains, and celebrates staff, volunteers, and supporters from all backgrounds – while achieving big things.

NWF’s People Team is executing a three-year strategy to build a modern, high-impact People function for a remote and hybrid, multi-state workforce, grounded in three pillars:
Trust, Well-Being, and Community.

This role is the People Team’s primary employee relations practitioner managing employee issues both proactively and reactively, and partnering with staff, managers, and senior leaders across the organization. The person in this role is equally comfortable coaching a manager through a difficult conversation and consulting with an executive on a sensitive personnel matter. In addition to owning employee relations, this role supports select Employee Experience (EX) programs such as onboarding, performance evaluation, engagement, and culture that intersect with and are strengthened by a strong employee relations practice.

It partners closely with Talent Acquisition, Equity Inclusion & Belonging (EIB), Learning & Development, and Compliance & Total Rewards (CTR).

• Trust —by resolving employee concerns fairly and consistently, and by delivering onboarding, performance evaluation feedback, and survey processes employees can count on regardless of where or how they work.
• Well-Being —by identifying and addressing workplace friction before it escalates, and by building feedback loops (pulse surveys, stay interviews, skip-levels) that surface workload and burnout signals early.
• Community —by modeling fair, transparent conflict resolution and by supporting the connection and culture touchpoints that build belonging across a distributed workforce.

• Monitor organizational health indicators (engagement data, turnover patterns, exit interview themes) to flag emerging ER risks before they become formal issues.
• Coach managers on early intervention: setting expectations, giving feedback, and addressing performance or conduct concerns before they require formal action.
• In partnership with the Director, Learning & Development, build manager capability through training, toolkits, and just-in-time guidance on employee relations fundamentals.
• Partner with leadership to identify team or organizational dynamics that could create risk (e.g., unclear roles, team dysfunction).

• Serve as the first point of contact for employees and managers to address concerns, complaints, and workplace conflicts; conduct thorough, neutral intake and investigation and close-out.
• Guide managers through corrective action processes, including performance improvement plans and separations.
• Recommend and document resolutions that are fair, consistent, and legally sound.
• Support sensitive situations such as leave-related conflicts, interpersonal disputes, in coordination with the Legal team.

• Act as an HR resource for staff, managers, and senior leaders alike adjusting tone and approach appropriately
• Ensure consistency between policy, practice, and lived employee experience across the organization.
• Help maintain onboarding and EX-related content in the employee handbook, in coordination with AVP, Total Rewards multi-state compliance work.

• Support the ongoing evolution of the performance evaluation and feedback program, including rollout communications and staff support materials.
• Contribute an employee relations lens to onboarding design and early-tenure feedback, helping reduce friction and set new hires up for success.
• Assist with employee listening efforts such as stay interviews, and survey…