Human Resources & Academic Affairs Business Partner

Human Resources Role

Operating since 1927 on a strong foundation of multidisciplinary clinical and academic excellence, the University of Chicago Department of Surgery's mission is to meet the most challenging and complex health problems on both a local and global scale. Many of our faculty members are known for their contributions to the advancement of groundbreaking surgical procedures and techniques, including minimally invasive surgery. In addition to our department's clinical work, our scientists pursue a diverse range of basic, translational, and clinical research projects, including studies on the gut microbiome, tissue bioengineering, stem cell research, cancer, and immunotolerance. This ongoing work and achievement would not be possible without the cohesive effort and commitment of the faculty and staff. We are looking for high energy, collaborative individuals who share our commitment to improving the health of patients in the community and beyond.

The job performs a broad range of operational activities to design, implement, and monitor a variety of human resource and academic affairs programs for the Department of Surgery and Neurological Surgery.

Responsibilities include :

• Providing HR leadership, expertise, and solutions throughout the Department in functional areas including talent management, compensation, training, operations, and strategy.
• Acting as a primary liaison between the Department and Biological Sciences Division Office of Academic Affairs, University HR, Office of International Affairs, Occupational Medicine, and the Medica Staffing Office across all job types.
• Maintaining in-depth knowledge of HR best practices and legal requirements.
• Managing day-to-day staff performance management and complex employee relations matters by conducting thorough and timely investigations through to resolution including coaching and counseling leadership and staff as well as implementing practice solutions that mitigate future concerns.
• Supporting HR process improvements and ad hoc reporting.
• Performing staff compensation analysis for new hires, ensuring competitive and equitable pay. Identifying compensation issues / trends for staff and academics and developing recommendations to resolve them.
• Analyzing staff and faculty trends and metrics in collaboration with University of Chicago, University of Chicago Medical Center, and functional leadership to develop and implement solutions, programs and organizational practices.
• Providing guidance regarding visa materials for staff and academics, working with the University's Office of International Affairs.
• Coordinating, documenting, and facilitating faculty and other academic appointee searches using the University's applicant tracking system ensuring compliant search processes.
• Responsible for comprehensive drafting, review, assembly, and submission of electronic and paper materials in support of departmental appointive actions.
• Onboarding staff, faculty, other academic appointees, postdoctoral researchers, and academic visitors.
• Acting as a resource to faculty and faculty administrative leaders on University policy and processes and BSD's academic guidelines.
• Drafting correspondence for faculty and other academic appointee matters on behalf of the department chair and / or section chiefs.
• Coordinating the Medical Staffing Office credentialing and re-credentialing process, ensuring compliance with institutional and state regulatory requirements.
• Maintaining accurate documentation and tracking expiration dates for licenses, certifications, and academic appointments to ensure continuous compliance.
• Addressing and resolving any credentialing delays or discrepancies to prevent disruptions in provider deployment to off-site locations.
• Supporting staff hiring processes, including developing job descriptions, interviewing and reference checking, handling employment offers, and conducting orientation. Drafting templates and routine offer letters. Maintaining appropriate human resources data and records, solving a range of straightforward problems using standard procedures.
• Counseling employees on benefits and compensation. Coordinating with managers and senior colleagues to determine employee compensation. Analyzing data and preparing charts, graphs, and trend lines for management review with a moderate level of guidance.
• Performing other related work as needed.

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in a related field and knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline. Preferred qualifications include a Masters degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field, experience in an Academic Medical Center or related field, experience with core HR processes including talent acquisition, performance management, compensation, and employee and labor relations, and licenses and certifications such as PHR / SPHR / SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP.

Preferred competencies include exceptional interpersonal and customer service skills, experience in handling sensitive and confidential situations and information with absolute discretion, ability to proactively contribute in a continuous improvement growth environment and achieve results while working with shifting priorities, experience providing relevant direction, coaching, and responding to inquiries effectively with limited guidance, ability to influence others without formal authority by building positive working relationships, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and proficiency with HRIS systems like Workday.

Application documents required include a resume and cover letter. When applying, the documents MUST be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.