HR Programs Partner-Specialist

Description

Summary

The HR Programs Partner administers Sunward’s performance management cycle and owns leave administration and employee movement, interpreting and applying HR practices and employment law to resolve routine to moderately complex issues independently. 

Working under general guidance from the Director, Talent & Performance Management, this role exercises independent judgment and discretion on matters of significance, including leave eligibility determinations, FMLA designations, accommodation recommendations, and policy interpretation for managers. This role escalates the highest-risk or precedent-setting situations. The role also supports succession planning and leadership development by preparing leaders, delivering training, and following through on outcomes.

This role is a strategic partner to the managers it supports, helping them connect individual people decisions to Sunward’s broader deliverables. It brings a growth mindset to the work, treating every performance cycle, leave case, and talent conversation as a chance to improve how Sunward does it.

Success in this role requires sound judgment, discretion with confidential information, and the ability to manage competing priorities across multiple HR functions.

Essential Functions:

Performance Management

• Administer the performance cycle within the approved framework and timeline: launch each phase, monitor progress, and keep goal setting, check-ins, and year-end reviews on schedule.
• Serve as the first point of contact and strategic partner to managers during the cycle, resolving questions on process, content, and appraisal quality.
• Coach managers on writing clear, specific, and defensible feedback, and translating department priorities into measurable deliverables their teams can act on. 
• Review submitted appraisals for completeness, consistency, and appropriate performance language. Resolve routine issues directly with managers and escalate rating concerns, potential bias, and calibration questions.
• Identify patterns across the cycle, including missing documentation, inflated ratings, and vague goals, and bring them forward with recommended fixes.
• Recommend refinements to forms, timelines, and job aids based on what each cycle surfaces.
• Support performance improvement plans in partnership with Employee Relations, advising managers on process and documentation.

Succession & Talent Planning

• Partner with managers to maintain the critical role list and keep succession and readiness data current and accurate, surfacing the capability gaps that put a critical role at risk.
• Prepare readiness data and successor timelines for talent review conversations, and ensure leaders are prepared.
• Document talent review outcomes and follow through on the development actions leaders commit to.
• Maintain the career path and internal mobility documentation that shows employees what growth looks like at Sunward. 

Leadership Development

• Build participant materials, slides, handouts, and workbooks in partnership with the Director and the Learning & Development team. 
• Compile participation and feedback data, identify the themes worth acting on, and recommend adjustments to session materials.
• Keep the leadership hub resource library up to date and prepare communications.

Leave & Accommodation Management

• Own the leave process end to end: FMLA, short-term disability, personal leaves, and military leave, deciding routine cases independently and escalating denials and higher-risk matters.
• Determine eligibility, designate leave, and decide return-to-work timing, guiding employees through the process with clarity and care, including those who do not qualify for FMLA. 
• Send required notices within legally mandated timeframes and maintain accurate case tracking. 
• Lead the ADA interactive process and recommend accommodations, partnering with Employee Relations. 
• Direct Payroll on leave-related pay and accrual treatment.

Employee Movement & Job Changes

• Advise managers on the timing, sequencing, and communication of promotions, transfers, lateral moves, and title changes. 
• Partner with Compensation on pay decisions for job changes and recommend the approach where the situation is not covered by an existing structure.
• Own separations end to end: conduct exit interviews, read the trends worth acting on, and bring recommendations forward.

HR Team & Process Improvement

• Resolve escalated employee and manager questions related to performance, leave, and job changes, interpreting policy to reach the answer and escalating anything precedent-setting.
• Own, document, and revise the standard operating procedures for the processes this role runs, testing improvements and measuring whether they worked.
• Contribute to HR initiatives such as engagement work, new technology rollouts, and cross-department projects. 
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications

Experience

• Two to four years of progressive, programmatic HR experience, with hands-on work in performance management administration, HR program support, or leave administration. 
• Experience with HRIS (Paylocity a plus). 
• Practical experience using AI tools for everyday work such as drafting, summarizing, or organizing information, and the judgment to keep confidential employee information out of them. 
• Credit union or financial services experience is a plus, not a requirement. 

Education

• Bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field. Equivalent experience will be considered. 
• PHR, SHRM-CP, or similar certification preferred. 

Knowledge

• Working knowledge of employment law, including FMLA, ADA, and USERRA, and the judgment to apply it in real situations. 

Skills/Abilities

• Straightforward communicator who can explain a process clearly to someone hearing it for the first time. 
• Comfortable working with leaders at every level, answering questions directly and knowing when to escalate. 
• Detail-oriented, the kind of person who catches a missing signature or an inconsistent date before anyone else does. 
• Discreet with confidential information, always. 
• Organized under pressure, able to move between a leave case, a training roster, and a talent review packet in the same afternoon. 
• Strong Excel skills
• Growth mindset. Curious and improvement-minded, more interested in building the better process than defending the current one, and open to feedback.

Physical Requirements/Work Environment

• Hybrid work schedule, with regular in-office presence required to support in-person employee and leader interactions and maintain access to confidential records and systems.
• Standard indoor office environment with moderate noise levels; standard business hours with occasional flexibility needed to meet deadlines.
• Ability to communicate clearly in person, by phone, and virtually with employees and leaders at all levels, including sensitive conversations.
• Regular use of a computer, keyboard, and phone, with visual acuity sufficient to review documents, data, and system screens for extended periods.
• Primarily sedentary office work; requires sitting for extended periods at a desk and computer workstation.
• Occasional travel between Sunward locations for in-person meetings.
• Regular handling of confidential employee information, requiring discretion in a shared office workspace.
• Occasional lifting and carrying of files, binders, or other materials up to 15lbs.