Manager, Employee Engagement

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation.

Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301-acre restored colonial capital with 89 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life. The Foundation also owns and operates two world-class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, The Bob and Marion Wilson Teacher Institute, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library.

Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on-site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes. Each year over five million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

Position Summary:

With the Vice President, HR, Organizational Culture, help lead Colonial Williamsburg's enterprise-wide employee appreciation, recognition, and engagement strategies. The Senior Manager creates meaningful and consistent ways to acknowledge employees for the quality of their service delivery, their contributions, significant achievements, years of service, and retirement. Throughout this job description, references to employees include all categories: full-time, part-time, and casual employees.

The recognition framework operates at distinct local and global levels. Local recognition focuses on the quality of service delivery as demonstrated through Colonial Williamsburg's common purpose (mission), service standards and service behaviors. It includes peer-to-peer and leader-to-employee recognition for outstanding service observed in the workplace, supported by verbal recognition from supervisors, managers, and leaders as an expected daily practice. Global recognition consists of enterprise-wide milestone programs recognizing tenure or years of employee or volunteer service, as well as enterprise-wide recognition of those who are retiring.

The position partners across the organization to make recognition visible and accessible to employees in different roles, schedules, locations, and operations. The Senior Manager also collaborates with the Senior Manager, Learning and Development to help provide and guide orientation programming for new employees and manages employee resource group programs as part of the organization's broader employee engagement efforts. The role strengthens a culture in which appreciation, recognition, connection, and service expectations are reinforced consistently across the employee experience.

Main Duties

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Recognition Strategy and Architecture

Develop and oversee a comprehensive employee recognition and appreciation strategy that provides meaningful recognition throughout the employee experience. Maintain a clear recognition framework that distinguishes local recognition for outstanding service delivery to global recognition for enterprise-wide milestones and retirement. Ensure local programs are grounded in Colonial Williamsburg's common purpose (mission), service standards and service behaviors, and ensure global programs are consistently available to full-time, part-time, and casual employees and appropriately extended to volunteers.

Enterprise-Wide Recognition Programs

Lead major organization-wide recognition programs, awards, ceremonies, and celebrations. Establish clear standards, processes, and criteria that preserve the distinction between local service recognition, global milestone and retirement recognition, and other formal enterprise-wide awards and honors. Ensure enterprise-wide programs are administered consistently and reflect the significance of the recognition being provided.

Local Recognition

Design and manage local recognition programs centered on service delivery and the quality of that service delivery, using Colonial Williamsburg's established common purpose (mission), service standards and service behaviors as the basis for recognition. Provide accessible peer-to-peer and leader-to-employee recognition opportunities for outstanding service observed in the workplace. Ensure these programs supplement, rather than replace, verbal recognition from supervisors, managers, and leaders, which should be practiced daily and should be timely, specific, personal, and connected to the service behavior observed.

Global Recognition

Lead enterprise-wide global recognition programs that recognize tenure or years of service through consistent milestone programs for all full-time, part-time, and casual employees. Extend milestone recognition events to Colonial Williamsburg volunteers in collaboration with the Manager of Volunteers. Manage enterprise-wide recognition for employees and volunteers who are retiring, ensuring that retirement recognition appropriately reflects the individual's service and relationship with Colonial Williamsburg.

Volunteer Recognition

Collaborate closely with the Manager of Volunteers on all local and global recognition and appreciation efforts for the Colonial Williamsburg Volunteer Corps. Ensure volunteers can participate in appropriate local recognition for outstanding service delivery and are included in global milestone and retirement recognition programs. Coordinate recognition events, communications, and other practices so volunteer service is acknowledged consistently and meaningfully.

Guest Recognition

Develop and maintain accessible ways for guests to recognize employees and volunteers who create exceptional experiences or demonstrate outstanding service. Establish processes for collecting, validating, communicating, and celebrating guest recognition with employees, volunteers, and their leaders. Use guest recognition stories to reinforce Colonial Williamsburg's common purpose (mission), service standards and service behaviors across the organization.

New Employee Orientation and Employee Resource Groups

Collaborate with the Senior Manager, Learning and Development to help develop and provide orientation programming for new employees, including content that introduces Colonial Williamsburg's common purpose (mission), culture, service standards, service behaviors, and employee experience resources. Manage employee resource group programs and provide appropriate coordination, support, communications, and program oversight. Work with employee resource group leaders and organizational sponsors to encourage meaningful participation and alignment with Colonial Williamsburg's employee engagement and organizational culture priorities.

Employee Appreciation

Develop and coordinate employee appreciation activities throughout the year, including organization-wide initiatives and resources that divisions can use for their own appreciation efforts. Create opportunities for appreciation that extend beyond formal awards and reinforce a workplace in which employees are regularly noticed and thanked for their contributions and service.

Awards and Honors

Manage formal employee awards recognizing exceptional performance, service excellence, organizational values, innovation, leadership, or other accomplishments identified by the organization. Oversee nomination, selection, communication, and presentation processes, and protect the distinction and credibility of Colonial Williamsburg's highest employee honors through clear eligibility and selection standards.

Peer Recognition

Manage accessible peer-to-peer recognition approaches that allow employees to recognize colleagues for outstanding service delivery observed in the workplace. Ground peer recognition in Colonial Williamsburg's service standards and service behaviors, make recognition easy to provide close to the time of the observed service, and encourage participation across divisions, roles, shifts, and work locations.

Leader Recognition Expectations and Resources

Establish a clear expectation that supervisors, managers, and leaders provide verbal recognition to employees as a regular daily practice when they observe strong service delivery and desired service behaviors. Provide practical tools and guidance that help leaders make recognition timely, personal, and specific. Monitor practices across operating areas to identify where leader recognition is strong, inconsistent, or insufficient, and reinforce that formal recognition tools are intended to support rather than replace direct recognition in the workplace.

Personalized Recognition

Promote recognition practices that reflect individual employee preferences whenever practical, recognizing that meaningful appreciation may differ by employee, work team, contribution, and circumstance. Develop approaches (public and private) that allow recognition to be personal and authentic to the individual employee, rather than uniformly applied, while maintaining appropriate enterprise standards.

Recognition Calendar

Maintain an enterprise-wide recognition and appreciation calendar that coordinates global milestone programs, retirement recognition, major awards, appreciation events, cultural observances, and other appropriate recognition opportunities. Use the calendar to create an intentional rhythm of recognition across the year without allowing local recognition or daily verbal appreciation to become limited to scheduled events.

Recognition Communications and Storytelling

Partner with Internal and External Communications to ensure employee and volunteer achievements, service milestones, retirements, and examples of outstanding service delivery are celebrated visibly and appropriately across relevant communication channels. Capture and share stories that explain why the recognition is significant and how the contribution demonstrates Colonial Williamsburg's common purpose (mission), service standards, service behaviors, or organizational values.

Recognition Experiences and Traditions

Design and coordinate memorable recognition ceremonies, appreciation events, milestone celebrations, retirement recognition, and other experiences that reflect Colonial Williamsburg's history, mission, and culture. Develop meaningful traditions, presentation practices, and symbolic recognition elements that give significant service and achievements lasting institutional importance.

Program Accessibility and Equity

Review recognition practices across the organization to ensure full-time, part-time, and casual employees in different roles, work environments, schedules, divisions, and locations have meaningful opportunities to be recognized. In collaboration with the Manager of Volunteers, consider comparable access for volunteers where programs are applicable. Identify groups that may be unintentionally overlooked and develop appropriate solutions that broaden access without reducing recognition standards.

Recognition and Engagement Partnerships

Work with leaders throughout the organization to identify significant employee accomplishments, strengthen local recognition practices, and determine appropriate forms of recognition. Coordinate with Human Resources, Learning and Development, the Manager of Volunteers, Internal and External Communications, Events, Guest Experience, employee resource group leaders and sponsors, technology partners, and other functions when recognition or engagement initiatives cross organizational boundaries.

Recognition Platforms and Tools

Evaluate, implement, and administer technology and other tools that make recognition easy, immediate, visible when appropriate, and accessible across locations, shifts, and work environments. Ensure recognition tools support local peer-to-peer and leader-to-employee service recognition, guest recognition, global milestone and retirement programs, and formal awards while providing reliable information for program administration and measurement.

Recognition Measurement

Evaluate participation, employee response, program reach, leader participation, peer-to-peer recognition activity, guest recognition, local recognition frequency, global milestone participation, and other indicators to determine whether recognition programs are reaching employees effectively. Monitor recognition patterns across divisions, roles, locations, schedules, and employment categories, including full-time, part-time, and casual employees, and review volunteer participation where applicable. Use employee and volunteer feedback and program information to improve recognition practices over time.

Recognition Standards and Governance

Establish appropriate budget guidelines for employee and volunteer awards, gifts, milestone recognition, retirement recognition, recognition expenditures, nominations, eligibility, and other recognition practices. Maintain governance standards that protect consistency, fairness, credibility, and appropriate stewardship while allowing leaders sufficient flexibility to make local recognition timely and personal.

Core Competencies:

• Recognition strategy and program design.
• Employee appreciation and engagement.
• Local and global recognition architecture.
• Service excellence and hospitality mindset.
• Peer-to-peer, leader-to-employee, and guest recognition.
• Milestone and retirement recognition.
• Awards and honors governance.
• Volunteer recognition partnership.
• Employee resource group program management.
• Recognition experiences and event coordination.
• Recognition communications and storytelling.
• Leader enablement and recognition reinforcement.
• Program accessibility and inclusive recognition practices.
• Cross-functional influence.
• Data-informed decision making.
• Project management and program governance.
• Recognition technology and records stewardship.
• Judgment, credibility, and discretion.

This job description reflects the general responsibilities of the position and is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Duties and responsibilities may evolve over time based on operational needs.

Required Education and Experience

• University degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business Administration, Leadership, Communication, Hospitality Management, Event Management, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum of seven years of progressive experience in employee recognition, employee engagement, employee experience, human resources, organizational culture, hospitality, or a related field.
• Experience designing and managing enterprise-wide employee recognition, appreciation, engagement, or culture programs.
• Experience administering years-of-service, retirement, awards, peer recognition, leader recognition, or comparable programs preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to create programs that reach employees across multiple employment categories, roles, work environments, schedules, and locations.
• Strong understanding of employee recognition practices, service excellence, employee engagement, and the relationship between recognition and workplace culture.
• Experience coordinating recognition events, nomination and selection processes, communications, budgets, vendors, and program logistics.
• Experience with employee recognition platforms, participation data, program reporting, and program evaluation.
• Ability to work effectively with executive leaders, operational managers, Human Resources partners, Learning and Development, Communications, Guest Experience, Events, technology partners, and volunteer leaders.
• Experience supporting employee resource group programs or comparable employee connection and engagement initiatives preferred.
• Experience in a complex service, hospitality, cultural, museum, education, nonprofit, or mission-driven organization preferred.
• Exceptional communication, writing, project management, event coordination, and advisory skills.
• Strong judgment and discretion when working with employee and volunteer information, award nominations and selections, recognition preferences, budgets, and internal communication content.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional certification in human resources, employee experience, employee engagement, project management, or related practice preferred.

Physical and Environmental Demands

Physical Activity	Frequency
Stand	Frequently
Walk	Frequently
Sit	Constantly
Use hands/fingers	Constantly
Climb or balance	Rarely
Stoop/kneel/crouch/crawl	Occasionally
Reach with hands/arms	Occasionally
Talk or hear	Constantly
Lifting up to 10 lbs.	Occasionally
Lifting up to 25 lbs.	Occasionally
Lifting up to 50 lbs. (with assistance)	Occasionally
Lifting up to 100 lbs. (with assistance)	Rarely
More than 100 lbs. (with assistance)	Rarely
Wet/humid conditions	Rarely
Work near moving mechanical parts	Rarely
Fumes/airborne particles	Rarely
Extreme cold	Rarely
Extreme heat	Rarely
Risk of electrical shock	Rarely
Driving requirement	No

Compensation Disclaimer: The compensation listed below for this position represents the anticipated hiring range and is provided in accordance with Virginia pay transparency requirements. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors such as the selected candidate’s skills, qualifications, experience, education, certifications, internal equity, and the specific requirements of the role.

Range: $102,000 - $150,000/year