Sr. Associate, People Operations

Adecco Creative is partnering with a global fashion house to recruit for a Sr. Associate, People Operations role. This position will be open ended contract. Applicants must be able to commute and work in Midtown Manhattan 1-day per week.

Primary Purpose

The Sr. Associate is the primary owner of Tier 3 HR case management and triage for People Operations NA. Our outsourced HR service provider (TPS / Accenture) is employees' first point of contact; this role takes cases escalated from TPS that need a higher level of intervention and drives them to accurate closure. The Sr. Associate also uses what the ticket data shows to reduce repeat tickets and escalations to People Operations, by surfacing trends to the Sr. Manager and Sr. Director, educating TPS, and creating and enhancing SOPs.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency to:

Tier 3 Case Management & Triage

• Own the Tier 3 queue in ServiceNow HR; triage, prioritize and route incoming escalations to the right owner (People Ops, HR COE, LOA, Payroll, OM).
• Resolve escalated TPS cases from employees, managers, HRBPs and COEs across onboarding, employee data and lifecycle changes, leave, benefits, reimbursement programs, employment verification, compliance and offboarding.
• Meet case standards and SLAs, and give TPS clear guidance to ensure proper closure.
• Keep employees and stakeholders informed, and document resolutions clearly in the case record.
• Flag at-risk, aging and sensitive cases to the Sr. Manager, People Operations NA.

Ticket Trends & Insights

• Monitor ticket volumes, categories, aging, reopen rates and repeat escalations.
• Identify root causes such as process gaps, knowledge gaps, system/Workday issues and policy ambiguity.
• Prepare a regular (e.g., weekly/monthly) trend summary with recommendations for the Sr. Manager and Sr. Director, People Operations.
• Track agreed actions through to a measurable reduction in escalations.

TPS Education & Enablement

• Partner with TPS leads to close knowledge gaps identified in escalations.
• Deliver and refresh job aids, quick reference guides and training for TPS advisors.
• Provide feedback on case handling quality and support first-contact resolution.

SOPs & Knowledge

• Create, update and maintain SOPs, work instructions and knowledge articles for Tier 1/2/3 processes and People Operations.
• Keep People Ops content accurate on the intranet and in document management tools (PeopleDoc).
• Recommend self-service and HR system (Workday, HR ServiceNow) enhancements, and support UAT as needed.

Operational Support

• Support People Ops operational work and projects.
• Back up the HR Coordinator/Associate as needed (e.g., employment verifications, employee documents and letters, I-9 audits).
• Perform other duties as assigned.

The accomplished individual will possess:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years in HR operations, HR Generalist or HR shared services
• Hands-on experience with HR case management (ServiceNow HR strongly preferred and Workday HCM (other HRIS acceptable).
• Working knowledge of US (and ideally Canada) employee lifecycle processes and HR compliance basics.
• Experience writing SOPs and knowledge articles and training others.
• Leave of absence experience a plus.
• Strong triage and prioritization skills under fluctuating case volume.
• Analytical ability to pull and interpret ticket data (Excel; ServiceNow reports/dashboards a plus) and turn it into clear recommendations.
• Root-cause problem solving.
• Clear written and verbal communication, and comfort presenting findings to senior leaders.
• A customer-service orientation, sound judgment and the ability to handle confidential information.
• Detail-oriented, organized and proactive, with the ability to get up to speed quickly in a temporary assignment.