Employee Relations Specialist

Job Description

Term:               Full-time, salaried

Pay:                  $90,000/annual health insurance, paid time off, and other benefits

Location:          San Francisco, CA

Reports To:       Manager, Employee Relations

Organization Description:

Urban Alchemy hires individuals who were once incarcerated and trains them to transform people and places through love and respect. We provide services that heal communities challenged by the intersection of extreme poverty, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. When individuals are suffering in our public spaces, Urban Alchemy offers solutions. When a neighborhood, street, or intersection earns a reputation as a place to avoid, we turn it around. Urban Alchemy staff, known as Practitioners, create a peaceful and supportive presence, helping our communities rebuild a sense of pride one person at a time. Urban Alchemy is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018. We quickly grew from a small program in San Francisco to a thriving social enterprise with over 1,000 staff. We currently operate in California, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, and Oregon. Over 95% of Urban Alchemy employees, including leadership, experienced incarceration and/or homelessness. For more information visit our website.

Position Summary:

The Employee Relations Specialist is a focused practitioner who owns a defined caseload of workplace investigations and employee relations matters with full accountability. In partnership with the Manager, Employee Relations, they are the first point of contact for workplace complaints and grievances, whether filed by employees or arising from guest interactions, and carry each case from intake through findings and documentation.

This is not a generalist role. The Employee Relations Specialist does one thing and does it well: conducts thorough, impartial, legally sound investigations into complaints involving harassment, retaliation, discrimination, and policy violations. They manage their caseload like a project manager, knowing the status of every open matter at all times, moving with urgency, and never letting a case age on their desk in silence.

This work requires the strictest confidentiality and the composure to sit in difficult, high-stakes situations without losing neutrality or professionalism. The Employee Relations Specialist handles matters across multiple regions and must be able to absorb complexity, volume, and surprise without losing rigor. They are essential to maintaining a fair, inclusive, and legally compliant work environment.

Position Duties and Responsibilities:

A Note on the Nature of This Work

Employee relations and investigation work is compliance and risk management at its core. Every complaint, every investigation, every findings report carries legal, operational, and human weight simultaneously. The Employee Relations Specialist is expected to hold all of it at once.

That means understanding that the process matters as much as the outcome. An investigation is not a single event. Getting to findings requires working through the full lifecycle: intake, scoping, interviews, evidence gathering, analysis, and documentation. The Employee Relations Specialist does this work rigorously and completely, delivers findings through a readout with Operations and HR, and can articulate why they reached the conclusions they did. What happens next is a leadership decision. ER’s role is to deliver sound findings, not to determine outcomes.

At the same time, Urban Alchemy is mission driven. We employ people who are justice-impacted, may have experienced homelessness, and may carry histories of addiction. That context shapes how we engage with employee matters. We do not cut corners on compliance, and we do not cut corners on compassion. The Employee Relations Specialist holds both without losing either.

Investigations and Case Management

• Serve as the first point of contact for incoming employee relations calls, complaints, and grievances
• Conduct prompt, equitable, and impartial investigations into complaints involving allegations of policy violations, including harassment, retaliation, and discrimination
• Manage the full investigation lifecycle: intake, scoping, witness interviews, evidence gathering, data analysis, findings, and escalation to the Manager, Employee Relations as appropriate; approach each stage with neutrality, curiosity, and rigor
• Document cases by drafting comprehensive, concise investigation reports that summarize evidence, findings, and conclusions
• Maintain organized, confidential case files within the shared case management tool from intake through final close
• Own your caseload: know the status of every open matter, control your timeline, and never let a case age without action or communication
• Communicate proactively with the Manager, Employee Relations: flag risks before deadlines, surface complexity early, and never let silence substitute for status
• Ensure all investigations are handled in compliance with the organization's policies, practices, and applicable employment laws

Stakeholder Communication and Collaboration

• Communicate effectively and sensitively with all parties involved in investigations, building transparency and trust in the process
• Conduct findings readouts with Operations and HR upon investigation close; ER delivers findings and conclusions only. Post-investigation decisions on corrective action are made collaboratively by HR and Operations leadership, not by ER
• Maintain positive, professional working relationships with leaders and employees that support Urban Alchemy's culture of open communication
• Align and communicate with cross-functional partners including Operations, HR, and Legal as cases require

Policy and Process

• Review employee relations policies and procedures and surface recommended improvements to the Manager, Employee Relations as gaps or opportunities are identified
• Identify recurring patterns across cases and surface them to the Manager, Employee Relations; pattern analysis informs process and policy improvements, not individual case outcomes
• Act as an ambassador of the HR department's mission, vision, and values in every interaction

Conduct and Behavioral Investigations

• Handle workplace conduct and behavioral matters as assigned, approaching each situation with neutrality, curiosity, and rigor
• Conduct investigations into employee behavior and conduct, including complaints, policy violations, and workplace incidents, from intake through findings and documentation
• Manage investigation timelines, witness interviews, and evidence gathering with discipline and objectivity
• Document accurately, thoroughly, and in real time; if it is not written down, it did not happen
• Exercise sound judgment in assessing facts and escalating appropriately
• Understand that investigations at Urban Alchemy are not routine; the complexity of our workforce and the environments we operate in means cases can involve serious behavioral concerns, safety implications, and operational risk simultaneously

Impact Accountability

• Measure your performance on outcomes: what changed, what improved, what problem exists less
• Surface patterns, not just individual cases; when a recurring issue appears, escalate to the Manager, Employee Relations
• Continuously identify opportunities to reduce friction, improve processes, and deliver better service to Operations

General

• Follow all safety procedures and ensure compliance with OSHA, state, local, and Urban Alchemy policies
• Attend orientation and complete all required training mandated by the company or funders
• Wear designated Urban Alchemy uniform and ID badge at all times; HR staff are held to the same uniform standard as Practitioners
• Perform additional duties as assigned by supervisor

Position Requirements:

Technical Requirements

• 3 years of HR experience with proven, hands-on employee relations and workplace investigation experience
• AWI certification preferred
• Broad knowledge of HR principles and best practices, including how HR workflows and systems connect
• In-depth knowledge of employment laws, regulations, and HR compliance requirements; Urban Alchemy operates across multiple states, and the Employee Relations Specialist must either bring working knowledge of multi-state employment law or demonstrate the intellectual agility to rapidly absorb and apply varying state-specific requirements as caseload demands
• Demonstrated ability to write clear, thorough, well-organized investigative reports
• Proficiency in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office; experience with HRIS systems
• Experience with case management tools or shared tracking systems
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent preferred

Character and Judgment

• You move with urgency. You understand that in this environment, delayed action is not neutral. Cases that sit, complaints that go unacknowledged, and investigations that stall all carry risk. You respond quickly, triage accurately, and do not let things age on your desk.
• You own your caseload. You do not wait to be told what comes next. You know what is on your plate, you know the status of every open matter, and you close the loop without being asked
• You hold deadlines as commitments. If you need more time, you say so before the deadline, not after. Silence is never the answer.
• You exercise sound, independent judgment, especially in situations that are confidential, sensitive, or emotionally charged, without losing your neutrality or your professionalism. You know when to escalate and when to hold the line yourself.
• You bring integrity to every case. HR is not an advocacy function, and it is not a hammer. It is the function that protects employees, the organization, guests, and the mission through evidence-based, fair decision-making. That standard lives in you.
• You are emotionally resilient. This work is hard. You will hear things that are heavy. You will sit in conflict and complexity. You will deliver findings that people do not want to hear. You have the constitution for it, and you know how to take care of yourself.
• You are accountable for impact, not just effort. You do not measure your value by how many cases you touched. You measure it by whether the investigation was sound, the findings were defensible, and the outcome was fair.
• You are a disciplined executor. Urban Alchemy has built the infrastructure: the playbooks, the frameworks, the toolkits, the processes. Your value is not in reinventing them. It is in following them rigorously, completely, and without cutting corners when the case gets complicated or the pressure gets high. The system exists to protect everyone involved. Respecting it is part of the job.
• You ask before you miss. If you are stuck or overwhelmed, you surface it early, not after a deadline has passed.
• You document because you understand that if it is not written down, it did not happen, and that documentation protects everyone.
• You spot patterns, ask why, and bring recommendations rather than just observations.
• You prioritize ruthlessly. Not everything on your plate is equally urgent, and you know the difference.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and change, and you adapt without losing your grounding.
• You know who you are in this role. The Employee Relations Specialist is an investigator, not a business partner. That distinction matters. The instinct to help, to weigh in, to build relationships with Operations, to get in the mix of day-to-day HR work, those are generalist instincts, and they are the wrong instincts here. ER’s credibility depends entirely on its neutrality. The moment you start advising, influencing, or inserting yourself into matters outside your caseload, you compromise the function. You do not blur the line between ER and HR Operations. You hold it.

General

• Must be able to work compassionately and respectfully with people from all backgrounds
• Must be prepared to engage with individuals navigating poverty, mental health challenges, addiction, and/or homelessness
• Must be able to pass and maintain background clearance in accordance with Urban Alchemy policy
• Lived experience with incarceration and/or homelessness preferred
• Driver's license and good driving record preferred

Physical Requirements:

• Sitting: 7 hours
• Standing: 1 hours
• Walking: 1 hours
• Bending at waist: less than 1 hour per day

Work Environment:

• Work is typically performed in a standard office setting
• May involve occasional exposure to moderate noise levels from office equipment and open-plan conversations
• When an incident occurs at an Urban Alchemy worksite or in the field, the Employee Relations Specialist may conduct on-site visits within the San Francisco area to observe the scene and gather contextual information relevant to the investigation; this is a standard part of investigation practice, not a travel requirement.

In-Office Requirement:

• This position requires full-time in-office presence five days per week during the 90-day introductory period. Following successful completion of the introductory period, the schedule transitions to three days per week in the San Francisco headquarters office.

Statement of Non-discrimination:

Urban Alchemy shares a special bond with society’s most vulnerable because we see ourselves in their struggle. When doing our work, we recognize the humanity in those who are struggling and treat them how we once wished others had treated us. People who have been incarcerated, experienced homelessness and/or come from marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply because we believe they have unique skills and abilities to engage with people who are struggling. Urban Alchemy provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Urban Alchemy prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

How to Apply:

If you have questions, please email hr@urban-alchemy.us and indicate the position you are interested in. You can apply for this position by visiting: https://www.paycomonline.net

Salary : $90,000