Job Details

The Executive Director for Recruitment and Employment Solutions is a direct report to the Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer and leads strategy development for two key HR functions that impact employee experience at Wake Forest. This position oversees both teams and serves as a member of the HR Leadership Team.
 

Essential Functions:

Leadership

• Work collaboratively with the CHRO and their direct reports regarding departmental strategic planning and oversight of daily team workflow.

• Enact innovative strategies that solidify Wake Forest’s ability to recruit and onboard top talent.

• Provide strategic oversight and alignment across Employment Solutions and Recruitment teams, ensuring cohesion between the talent strategy, candidate experience and onboarding experience, including internal promotions/transfers. 

• Recruit, interview, hire, and support the training and strong performance of all staff.

• Lead efforts centered on identifying process improvements, championing innovation, and ensuring that change initiatives are well-executed and sustainable.

• Identify opportunities to streamline Recruitment and Solutions activities in order to establish common user experiences/expectations and capture resource time to pursue strategic innovation.

• Collaborate with HRIS and campus partners to ensure data integrity and usability for leaders across the institution.

Recruitment & Employment Solutions

• Support the directors to establish priorities, evaluate, and implement standards to ensure alignment with department and organization objectives. 

• Support the directors in staying abreast of current practice integration, i.e. social media landscape, use of AI, etc.

• As part of the HR leadership team, develop long-term strategic direction and roadmap for future workforce planning.

• Partner with campus Institutional Talent Partners to understand challenges and opportunities in the Recruitment and Solutions spaces and pursue collaborative opportunities for enhancement.

• Oversee the development of relationships and partnerships with external educational institutions, professional and trade associations, public employment services, community workforce development initiatives, and other organizations.

• Promote consistency of practice, internal and external customer service, and professionalism,  and ensure teamwide support on critical recruitments.

• Provide comprehensive oversight for the administration of the applicant tracking system within Workday. This includes proactively ensuring the system's functionality effectively meets the evolving needs of Recruitment, Solutions, campus partners, and candidates.

• Ensure compliance with all governmental regulations and University policies related to recruitment and employment solutions by researching, monitoring, and tracking new and existing laws and regulations, including out-of-state compliance. Recommend, communicate, and implement required changes.

• Spearheaded end-to-end HR processes encompassing recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and offboarding, ensuring a seamless and positive experience for employees at every stage.

• Use metrics to drive decision-making and performance assessment.

Other Functions:

• Conducts activities in a manner that displays an awareness of the formal and informal chains of command and the culture and politics of the organization.

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Required Education, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources Management, Business Administration,  or a related discipline, plus eight years of combined experience in recruitment and employment/business solutions, with at least five years in a supervisory role.

• Proven success in leading teams, managing complexity, and building trust across diverse stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to manage projects, streamline processes, and improve efficiency to achieve HR objectives.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with various constituencies in a community of different constituent groups. 

• Knowledge of federal and state employment laws, regulations, and private sector employment policies, Human Resources best practices and procedures. 

• Excellent management skills.

• Experience with HRIS (Oracle, Workday, or  a related system) and its connection with the overall employee lifecycle, to include using data to answer questions and troubleshoot issues.

• Ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with employees, boards, officials, directors, and other stakeholders.

• Working understanding of statistical concepts and methods of data collection.

• Ability to compile, research, and analyze information.

• Ability to compose and present comprehensive reports.

• Ability to acquire a thorough understanding of the organization hierarchy, jobs, qualifications, compensation practices, and the administrative practices related to those factors.

Preferred Education, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Relevant Master’s degree. 

• SPHR, PHR, or other related certification. 

• Higher education experience. 

• Workday experience. 

Accountabilities:

•  Serve as manager for the director in each HR area reporting to this position.

•  Work requires contact with staff, faculty, and vendors.

• Accountable for maintaining the security and confidentiality of any proprietary or sensitive information or data in any medium regarding the university or its students, faculty, or staff. Accessing or disclosing such information or data must be deemed necessary for the performance of one’s job responsibilities and must be authorized by the employee’s supervisor.

Physical Requirements:

• Sedentary work. Talking, hearing, and repetitive motions. Close visual acuity.

Environmental Conditions: 

• Not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions. Subject to inside environmental conditions. 

Wake Forest University, formed in 1834, has experienced decades of growth and innovation.  WFU is a distinctive university that combines a liberal arts core with graduate and professional schools and innovative research programs.  The University embraces the teacher-scholar ideal, which prizes the personal interaction between students and faculty.  It is a place where exceptional teaching, fundamental research and discovery, and the engagement of faculty and students in the classroom and the laboratory are paramount.

Wake Forest University is a community that seeks the enlightenment and freedom which come through diligent study and learning. Its higher goal, however, is to give life to the University motto "Pro Humanitate," as members translate a passion for knowledge into compassionate service. The community shares a tradition that embraces freedom and integrity and acknowledges the worth of the individual. The heritage, established by the school's founders and nurtured by succeeding generations, promotes a democratic spirit arising from open-mindedness and discourse. Wake Forest fosters compassion and caring for others. Its collective strength and character are derived from the values and distinctive experiences of each individual; therefore, it affirms the richness of human intellect and culture and its contribution to knowledge, faith, reason, and dialogue. Furthermore, it strives toward a society in which good will, respect, and equality prevail. To that end, Wake Forest University rejects hatred and bigotry in any form and promotes justice, honor, and mutual trust.​

The University is comprised of:  the undergraduate college, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Divinity, School of Law, and School of Medicine (located on the Bowman Gray campus with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) and today enrolls about 4,846 undergraduates and 2,823 students in graduate programs at its principal location, the Reynolda campus.  Students at Wake Forest University enjoy a great deal of access to and interaction with world-class faculty both in and out of the classroom setting with a student-faculty ratio of 11:1.  Wake Forest employs approximately 2,772 full and part-time faculty and staff.

Wake Forest is a collegiate university offering a vibrant, intellectual community with a rich cultural life, an impressive array of facilities, and a strong athletics program competing in the fifteen-team Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).  Since its founding, the university has adopted the motto “pro humanitate,” which is exemplified by a deep institutional commitment to public service and engagement with the world. Wake Forest has a strong commitment to holistic, eight-dimensional well-being for students, faculty and staff as evidenced in the Thrive initiative.