Description
About the Department of Employee Wellness
The Employee Wellness team at Mount Royal University supports the well-being, safety, and inclusion of all employees. Through programs focused on accommodation, ability management, psychological health and safety, and workplace wellness, the department fosters a culture where employees are supported to perform their best work while maintaining balance and safety. Employee Wellness collaborates with Human Resources, Environmental Health & Safety, associations, leaders, and employees to ensure a compassionate, consistent, and legally compliant approach to medical leaves, return to work planning, and workplace accommodations. The team also provides guidance and education to promote a healthy, respectful, and inclusive work environment.
About the Role
Reporting to the Manager of Employee Wellness, the Accommodations Business Partner will work at a strategic level as a highly valued business partner to the University’s operational areas. The Accommodations Business Partner will demonstrate a proactive and solution-oriented approach and excel in the competency areas of: advanced accommodations subject matter expertise; accurate, targeted and concise communication and proactive collaboration.
This position will work with other University partners to design and deliver quality training and services to support faculties and departments. This position will also provide proactive leadership and guidance to management in maintaining a positive relationship with the Mount Royal Faculty and Staff Associations.
This position plays an important role in ensuring the University’s accommodation efforts meet the obligations under the Alberta Human Rights Act.
This position is a full-time role working 35 hours per week.
Responsibilities
- Manage a diverse portfolio of workplace accommodation cases related to protected grounds, including disability, family status and religious beliefs.
- Develop, implement and monitor individualized accommodation and return to work plans in collaboration with employees, leaders, HR stakeholders and healthcare providers.
- Measure, monitor, and improve the provision of accommodations processes to enhance productivity, efficiency, customer service or overall university and faculty/departmental performance.
- Provide accommodation and complex disability management advice and support that complies with appropriate legislation, other governing documents and collective agreements, and university priorities and values.
- Guide leaders through complex and sensitive decisions, including situations where accommodations may be unreasonable, documentation is insufficient, or performance issues intersect with disability.
- Reduce institutional and faculty/departmental risks associated with formal legal processes such as Human Rights Commission related complaints and potential grievances by identifying, investigating, proposing and implementing appropriate solutions.
- Work closely with functional areas of HR, senior leaders, internal legal counsel, and employees to reflect institutional needs and understand/implement collective agreement and legislative processes and obligations.
- Design and deliver training for leaders on accommodation principles and related human rights obligations.
Requirements
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources or a related field
- Minimum of 6 to 10 years of strong HR, labour relations or legal experience with proven expertise in managing complex accommodation and disability cases. Experience working in a unionized and/or post-secondary environment is strongly preferred.
- Deep understanding of human rights, duty to accommodate obligations and privacy legislation.
- Strong communication skills to clearly convey messages and explore diverse points of view.
- Ability to use critical thinking skills to evaluate and interpret complex information and determine appropriate accommodation solutions.
- Demonstrated skill in the ability to build trust and collaborate effectively with employees, leaders, HR and associations.
- Ability to demonstrate deep empathy while maintaining objectivity.
