Regional P&O Operational Exellence Expert

About Umicore

Reducing harmful vehicle emissions. Giving new life to used metals. Powering the cars of the future. As a global materials and technology group, we pioneer approaches to sustainability that continue to offer customers materials and solutions that are essential to everyday life. We aim to be a clear world leader in materials for clean mobility and recycling and have turned our sustainability approach into an even greater competitive advantage.  To achieve this, however, we know we can’t stand still.  We know we need to find new ways to do things, discover new solutions and develop new ideas. It’s why we invest so much in research & development. It’s why we push ourselves to tackle increasingly complex challenges. It’s why we strive to create a collaborative environment in which we can all succeed. It’s why we are looking for talented individuals to shape tomorrow by leading the way today. In an environment like this, imagine what you could do?

Support Functions

A global organisation. It’s not just those in our industrial sites and technical centres that are vital to Umicore’s growth. Across our support functions we ensure that we continue to grow and evolve – whether it’s by making sure our decisions are commercially viable, enhancing our reputation, building new customer relationships or finding the right people who can build on what we’ve already achieved. The variety of our work means we cannot stand still. We need to find new ways to do things, discover new solutions and develop new ideas. Which is where you come in. 

What you will be doing

Operational Excellence and Process improvement for the Region

•     Proactive and systematic implementation of Operational Excellence practices and engagement toward improvement of processes to better meet objectives

o     Measure and evaluate data, needs and root causes to identify improvements

o     Drive approval process and implementation

o     Monitor the Performance - KPIs and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

o     Coordination of process management and documentation (process maps, procedures, forms, roles and responsibilities alignment), rollout and communication

o     Assure quality of processes and assess risk (reporting, active risk logs, etc.)

o     Drive testing and acceptance, acting as a guardian for Umicore HR processes and tools for the Region

o     Champion efforts around harmonization and standardization

o     Actively identify automation opportunities

•     Manage Umicore HR relationships to ensure results

o     Ensure effective governance by driving operational and steering meetings

o     Work to ensure best set-up of delivery teams and accountabilities

o     Arbitrate major issues related to priorities, requirements and procedures

o     Define/Revise the Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators

o     Ensure that the contract terms are followed as expected

Project management

•     Act as project manager for defined HR projects globally or locally

o     Lead/Coordinate the implementation of automations, harmonizations, partnerships and process improvements

o     Project meetings, follow-ups, presentations and updates, communications

o     Ensure good governance and basics are in place for projects

o     Ensure reporting and data management are kept as high priorities and customer satisfaction is considered and built in.

o     Conduct data analyses and deep dives as needed

o     Ensure proper handover of projects to operations teams after go live.

Active management of relationships

•     Interact with business partners, users and management to ensure ongoing high quality service provision focused on good customer experience

o     Manage expectations

o     Take regular feedback and ensure closed communication loop

o     Handle escalations (resolve escalated issues and control scope)

•     Support the communication of change management

•     Act as the driver of communities to share knowledge & best practices within and across the region in a set of domains. 

•     Address external or significant org/policies issues

•     Work closely together with HR CoEs, Site P&O and HR Technology to ensure

o     Good cooperation to ensure needs and requirements are addressed and expectations managed

o     Strong coordination to ensure that people are kept in the loop and involved

o     Effective delivery on implementations and actions

o     Coordinate testing of periodic new releases (SF,EC,Neocase,etc). Ensure new features that are activated after releases are integrated into the existing processes and training & communication is done well.

o     Strong follow-up communications and ensuring that relationships are maintained and with clear communication and expectation setting with business stakeholders

•     Ensure training and good communication with key experts to ensure alignment and seamless processes

Program management

•     For some projects within HR Operations and potentially beyond, act in a program management role as needed for projects managed by others

•     Take responsibility for the planning of service and projects and process implementations

Partnership excellence

•     Drive Operational Excellence with 3rd party service providers creating true win-win partnerships

•     Ability to bring end to end process transparency and optimization with shared inhouse and 3rd party partner supported processes

•     Ensure harmonization of approach as well as economies of scale

•     Both drive and support negotiations to ensure efficiencies

Technology champion

•     Support the requirements, implementation, testing, rollout and training and adoption of HR technologies and the support of the technologies after implementation for the Region

•     Be the person of reference for the good usage practices and knowledge management connected with good practices around usage of technology

•     Engage and support those within the region with HR technology support needs for the existing solutions and feed needs into the Global HR Technology team.

•     Be a champion for data quality and reporting

Supports on Operations Cares/Talent/ELC Processes

•     P&O APAC dashboard report

•     Site SAP/EC data input and quality check

•     Support on Suzhou site training on ad-hoc case base

•     Support on Suzhou site ELC on ad-hoc case base

•     Support on Suzhou site expat service on ad-hoc case base

Who we are looking for

•     Operational Excellence experience

•     Experience using process tools such as process flow charts, charters, work instructions, value stream mapping, fishbone and brainstorming improvement techniques

•     Project management methodology expertise and experience

•     HR operational and administration knowledge and expertise (talent, hire to retire, rewards, payroll/time)

•     Good level of aptitude with HR technology and reporting both in terms of usage and administration

•     Experience in guiding strong practices around knowledge management, technology usage and data quality stewardship

•     Working effectively with remote / virtual teams (project and direct line) 

To be efficient, following key success factors can be identified:

•     Business and data and process acumen

•     Entrepreneurial mindset; Willing to take healthy business risks and hungry for new challenges

•     Analytical capabilities and problem-solving skills

•     Excellent communication and inspirational skills

•     Able to explain processes and ways of working in a clear and structured way

•     Decisiveness with a strong reality principle

•     Influencing and building impactful and trust-based relationships

•     Prioritization

•     Stress resistance / Resilience

•     Passion and ability to inspire and bring focus

•     Courageous to take initiatives, deal with risk and empowering others

What we offer

We aim to lead the way. Not just for our customers, but for our employees too. That is why we strive to create a collaborative environment in which we can all succeed, and a culture through which we can all share ideas, develop our expertise and advance our careers. We engage in building an inclusive work culture that offers equal opportunities for all employees irrespective of their diverse backgrounds. As you would expect from a world-leading organization, we will also reward your contribution with a competitive salary and benefits. With all this and more, imagine what you could do?