People and Culture Director

We are searching for a People and Culture Director to help us establish Middle Seat as the number one employer of choice for progressive digital strategists. As a director, you are responsible for cultivating an inclusive workplace culture, improving team member retention, and building support structures that allow Middle Seat staff to thrive.

We understand that workforces across the country are in a time of transition. People are demanding more from their employers, and rightfully so. Middle Seat wants to be on the cutting edge of responding to this transition by providing exceptional pay and benefits; building a diverse workforce and inclusive team culture; and addressing the root causes of burnout in an industry where it is all too prevalent.

This role is not part of the bargaining unit.

Responsibilities

Administrative and Human Resources

• Oversee new employee onboarding processes
• Setup new employees in Justworks including filling out employee I9 forms
• Onboard new staff and provide access to necessary technology, including new accounts, laptops and materials for employees
• Lead HR and security orientation for new hires
• Serve as the lead for new employee questions or issues around organization policies and benefits
• Select and manage benefits systems and compliance including but not limited to: HRA, FSA, 401k, health insurance, vision insurance, and dental insurance and other organizational benefits
• Includes coordinating with PEO to ensure that plan documentation is accurate, that all participants receive an up to date Summary Plan Description and required plan notices, and that annual 5500 returns, and Summary Annual Reports are filed and distributed as appropriate.
• Coordinate with PEO and Accounting to ensure that taxable and nontaxable fringe benefits are reported and taxed accurately.
• Maintain survey data on staff demographics
• Track employee discipline records and keep them up to date in Google Drive alongside team leads
• Advise managers on employee and labor policies, such as ADA, FMLA and OSHA
• Ensure that company policies align with the collective bargaining agreement
• Research, develop and update company policies and edits to the employee handbook as needed
• Devise communications plans for rolling out new or updated policies to staff
• Ensure team member adherence to company policies and procedures
• Oversee security policy and ensure highest level of compliance
• Serve as the go-to resource for dispute resolution and problem solving

Recruitment

• Support hiring and recruitment efforts, including drafting and posting jobs, screening resumes, scheduling interviews, and coordinating skills assessments.
• Identify new hiring sources and develop monthly recruitment strategies to support a diverse talent pipeline, using data analyses to inform recruitment plans.
• Participate in interviewing and vetting processes for new hires
• Responsible for offer letter creation in coordination with team leads and directors and leading front-facing salary negotiations
• Alert union representatives of plans to hire new staff or plans to engage with new independent contractors when appropriate

People Success

• Create professional development opportunities, leadership pathways and mentorship to help develop and retain staff, including managers
• Set up structures for people-focused areas, for example:
• Here’s how we onboard
• Here’s how we hire
• Here’s how we roll out new processes
• Here’s how we onboard people onto new clients
• Research, develop and implement organizational priorities to improve employee retention
• Lead team member orientation, including working with managers to ensure training is completed for all new hires
• Work with managers to refine, standardize, and manage performance review process
• Help maintain a database for managing staff (including manager’s) capacity and workforce planning by creating, maintaining, and analyzing key reports and queries (for example, total emails sent per month, ad spend per month etc)
• Help managers establish effective supervisory relationships and leadership skills

Culture

• Counsel the management of different departments by providing advice on managing employees and cultivating better culture
• Foster and implement internal equity and inclusion strategies, regularly reviewing current policies for improvement
• Strive toward structures, processes, and policies that remove racialized barriers, resulting in more inclusive participation in institutional and structural power-building, -sharing, and -wielding for traditionally marginalized racial groups
• Strengthen working relationships between staff and help set successful culture of communication, including guiding Middle Seat culture as we transition to a majority-remote staff
• Monitor People and Culture suggestions and/or contact boxes
• Coordinate staff appreciation efforts including end-of-year gifts and organize staff bonding activities such as virtual happy hours, virtual game nights, etc.
• Plan team building activities and events, including annual end-of-year get together

Requirements

• Experience working in a human resources or people & culture management capacity, ideally at an agency or political organization
• Experience working with a PEO like JustWorks, PayChex or Rippling
• Experience working with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds
• Experience managing performance evaluations
• Experience with salary negotiations and terminations a plus
• Ability to incorporate an anti-racist and anti-oppression lens into Middle Seat’s people-focused operations
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to draft and publish internal policies
• Understanding of labor laws or experience at a unionized workplace a plus

Benefits

• Salary starts between $90,000 – $105,000
• Profit sharing plan: share in the growth and success of Middle Seat
• $50 mobile phone subsidy monthly
• Regular raises
• 100% premium coverage for health, dental, and vision, with deductibles paid on a Middle Seat funded flex card up to $3,000 per individual and $6,000 per family
• $100 monthly student loan reimbursement
• $550 monthly mental health reimbursement
• $1,000 annual professional development reimbursement
• 6% employer match on your 401k retirement account
• 20 paid vacation days off, plus your birthday and work anniversary off
• Unlimited sick leave
• Commuter benefits for public transportation
• Flexible work from home schedule (or work in our D.C. office)
• 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents

Middle Seat Digital