People Director

OVERVIEW

Part of The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC), we’re the earned-first global communications agency, led by world-class strategic thinkers and creative activators. We create shared and sustainable value for businesses, people, and society. We energise the right mix of talent, using the right platforms and latest technology to choreograph stories that make a real and meaningful impact for some of the world’s leading brands and businesses.

Our game-changing work is recognised by some of the most prestigious industry awards bodies, and we have won more than 135 Lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. We’re also PRWeek’s 2024 Global Agency of the Year as well as being listed on the Ad Age A-List 2024 and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2024.

About the opportunity:

We are looking for a passionate and experienced HR practitioner who thrives in a fast-moving, highly energetic environment. This role demands a personality that is comfortable to engage and partner with leadership and can connect with employees across all levels of the business. The generalist role includes oversight of all human resource processes and systems and demands strong human resources acumen to be able to enhance existing processes.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Play a lead role in building and developing a solid HR team & function in Seoul, South Korea
• The role sits on the Executive Leadership Team of the South Korea office, and has a strong voice and collaborative role with senior leadership including the South Korea Managing Director and Exco Members as well as all practice leaders
• Partner closely with the business to ensure solid talent retention programs are in place, bringing an innovative approach to staff career development and incentive programs – integrating the activities with L&D to support development of career paths within the businesses
• Ensure full compliance of all HR policies, and legal requirements within South Korea market regulations
• Take ownership and process manage the performance review process across the brands (with support of team)
• Address staff performance issues across the businesses as required, minimizing terminations and legal exposure wherever possible
• Ensure relevant market data on remuneration is formalised and used to build reliable models for remuneration for all levels in South Korea
• Partner closely with APAC regional HR and Talent Acquisition leads, with regards to global and regional initiatives, policies, procedures, and requirements
• Collaborate on global and regional team activities in areas of recognition and reward strategies and initiative motivational programs for employees.

PERSON PROFILE

• Proven background in in-house Human Resources in the South Korea market, with the ability to provide strategic counsel while taking a long-term perspective, and to dive in operationally as and when needed, including providing guidance on Korean Labour Law
• Proven ability to hire and develop an on-the-ground strong team encompassing the full human resource employee cycle
• Build and lead initiatives to enhance employee experience in collaboration with Korea leadership team
• Work closely with MD and finance to align on business priorities and map back with people strategy
• Ability to manage complex relationships diplomatically and consultatively
• Ability to manage teams live and remotely and individuals to enable them to perform to their fullest potential
• Confident and clear communicator, with strong English language skills and the ability to work across markets as needed
• Ability to think creatively, strategically, strong negotiation skills, in-depth analytical skills
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal and relationship building skills
• Ability to prioritize and organize workload effectively, within a deadline-driven and changing environment, using initiative to make decisions in complex situations
• Ability to challenge the status quo and strive for continuous improvement
• Ability to grasp issues and business realities quickly and establish a rapport with all stakeholders at all levels.

SKILLS YOU WILL NEED

• Leading creativity and Innovation – fosters imagination, creativity and experimentation, takes and promotes considered risks, celebrates creative successes and learns from failure, shows openness to alternative ways of doing things
• Collaborating across boundaries – challenges systems, processes and people that block collaboration, connects people, ideas, processes, and issues, sets an example by sharing resources, knowledge ideas and skills across the businesses, builds helpful, productive relationships across the organization
• Analytical thinking – able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts and be able to explore and evaluate the systematically
• Planning and Organization – able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritizes and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines and resources
• Resilience – ability to maintain personal effectiveness by managing emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations
• Influencing and Persuading – ability to present sound and reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behavior change
• Providing direction through change – open to change and responds in a flexible manner to new challenges; shares and communicates the IPG DXTRA vision with passion and clarity, articulates a compelling case for change, provides momentum when driving change, involves others in building plans for change
• Flexibility – adapts and works effectively with a variety of solutions. Able to understand and appreciate different and opposing perspectives on an issue, to adapt and approach as the requirements of situation change, and to change or easily accept changes in one’s own organization or job requirement

Note from the team

 Weber Shandwick is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Weber Shandwick is committed to building a culture where all employees are seen as equal, are respected and where all opinions are heard.

We take pride in our inclusive hiring, as well as our diverse workforce and we welcome applications from all qualified candidates. Personal data held by Weber Shandwick relating to employment applications will be used in accordance with our Privacy Statement, which is available on our website.

Due to the large number of applications received, we apologize if we are unable to provide a response or feedback on unsuccessful applications. We appreciate the time taken to apply for the role and your recent interest in Weber Shandwick.

#LI-LW1