Geico

Senior Director, Head of Associate Relations

Geico$195K — $315K *
Business Services
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
  • 12+ years of progressive leadership experience in various HR disciplines, especially Associate Relations.
  • Proven success in managing large-scale transformations and operating model redesign.
  • Experience influencing senior executives and aligning diverse stakeholders in complex organizations.
  • Ability to leverage data and associate insights for decision-making and continuous improvement.
  • Exceptional communication skills and commitment to ethical leadership.

Responsibilities

  • Define and execute a multi-year strategy for Associate Relations aligned with organizational objectives.
  • Evolve operational governance, processes, and service standards for Associate Relations.
  • Modernize the function using technology and analytics to enhance operational excellence.
  • Analyze workforce data to identify trends and provide actionable recommendations.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to executives on workplace concerns and organizational health.
  • Establish governance standards for investigations and workplace issues.
  • Lead and develop a high-performing Associate Relations team.

Benefits

  • Flexible hybrid work location with required onsite presence 3 days a week in select cities.
  • Comprehensive health and wellness plans.
  • Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.
  • Engagement in a culture that fosters innovation and operational discipline.
Full Job Description

Role Overview:
GEICO is seeking an experienced, strategic people leader to serve as Head of Associate Relations. This leader will own the enterprise strategy, governance, operating model, and transformation of the Associate Relations function. This role is critical to GEICO as it has direct influence and impact to while helping shape the broader associate experience.

The leader in this role will serve as a key enterprise partner connecting Associate Relations with strategy, insights and execution of broader organizational effectiveness, which might include workforce insights, and leadership capability. The ideal candidate brings meaningful Associate Relations or Employee Relations depth, broader experience across HR disciplines, and the ability to influence executives, lead organizational change, improve operating models, and connect workforce insights to business outcomes.

Location: Hybrid, with an onsite presence of 3 days per week at our Bethesda, MD; New York, NY; Dallas, TX; Tampa, FL; or Chicago, IL office.

Reports to: Head of Associate Experience

Success in This Role:
The successful leader will strengthen the quality, consistency, and credibility of the Associate Relations function while helping GEICO better understand and address the conditions that shape the associate experience.

Key Responsibilities:

Associate Relations Strategy and Transformation

  • Define and execute a multi-year Associate Relations strategy and roadmap aligned with GEICO's Associate Value Proposition, culture, business objectives, and the needs of a large, evolving workforce.

  • Evolve the operating model across organizational design, governance, processes, decision rights, service standards, and escalation pathways.

  • Modernize capabilities through technology, analytics, process improvement, and scalable frameworks that strengthen consistency, transparency, fairness, and operational excellence across business units and locations.

Organizational Health, Trust, and Workforce Insights

  • Use associate concerns, investigations, feedback, and workforce data to identify emerging trends, risks, root causes, and opportunities.

  • Translate qualitative and quantitative insights into actionable recommendations and sustainable solutions for business and People Group leaders.

  • Monitor organizational health and connect individual concerns to broader opportunities to strengthen trust, engagement, accountability, leadership effectiveness, and workplace experience.

Enterprise Leadership and Influence

  • Serve as a trusted advisor to executives and senior leaders on workplace concerns, leadership effectiveness, organizational risk, culture, and associate experience.

  • Influence enterprise decisions and represent Associate Relations in executive discussions, transformation initiatives, and working groups, balancing associate impact, business objectives, culture, and risk.

  • Build strong partnerships across Legal, Compliance, Operations, Communications, HR Business Partners, HR Operations, and the broader People Group to advance enterprise people strategies.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

  • Establish and oversee enterprise standards and decision frameworks for investigations, workplace concerns, policy interpretation, corrective action, and related processes.

  • Ensure consistent, fair, defensible, and accountable application of policies and practices across the organization.

  • Partner with Legal and Compliance to identify and mitigate workforce-related risks and prepare for evolving employment requirements and workplace expectations.

Leadership and Capability Building

  • Lead and develop a high-performing Associate Relations leadership team grounded in sound judgment, collaboration, accountability, empathy, and continuous learning.

  • Build manager and organizational capability through quality standards, coaching, and development frameworks that strengthen investigative rigor, consistency, and associate-centered judgment.

  • Foster a culture of innovation, curiosity, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.

Cross-Functional Associate Experience Leadership

  • Partner across Associate Listening, Associate Experience Consulting, Workplace Experience, Community and Engagement, HR Operations, HR Business Partners, and other People Group functions to identify and address systemic issues across the associate lifecycle.

  • Support enterprise efforts to improve engagement, trust, retention, leadership effectiveness, cultural health, and operational consistency.

  • Help shape the long-term Associate Experience strategy and champion solutions that balance associate needs, operational realities, business performance, fairness, and accountability.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Leadership, Psychology, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.

  • 12+ years of progressive leadership experience across multiple people disciplines, with meaningful Associate Relations or Employee Relations experience spanning workplace concerns, investigations, employment practices, and workforce risk management.

  • Demonstrated leadership beyond traditional employee relations, such as HR operations, business partnership, organizational effectiveness, workforce transformation, employee experience, or enterprise change.

  • Proven success leading enterprise-scale functions, transformations, operating model redesigns, process modernization, or service delivery improvements.

  • Experience influencing senior executives and aligning diverse stakeholders in complex organizations.

  • Ability to use data, associate feedback, workforce insights, and qualitative themes to drive decisions and continuous improvement, supported by strong business acumen.

  • Exceptional communication, executive presence, judgment, relationship-building, and commitment to fairness, integrity, inclusion, accountability, confidentiality, and ethical leadership.

Preferred Candidate Attributes:

  • Brings the credibility to lead Associate Relations from day one and the breadth to contribute across the larger Associate Experience portfolio as a strategic partner to senior business leaders.

  • Understands how organizational design, leadership behavior, manager capability, processes, workplace norms, and associate sentiment interact, and can move comfortably between strategy and execution.

  • Views Associate Relations as both a risk management function and a source of insight into organizational health, trust, and associate experience.

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Annual Salary

$195,000.00 - $315,000.00

The above annual salary range is a general guideline. Multiple factors are taken into consideration to arrive at the final hourly rate/ annual salary to be offered to the selected candidate. Factors include, but are not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the role, the selected candidate27s work experience, education and training, the work location as well as market and business considerations.


At this time, GEICO will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

About Geico

GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company) is an American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that provides coverage for more than 24 million motor vehicles owned by more than 15 million policy holders as of 2017. GEICO writes private passenger automobile insurance in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The insurance agency sells policies through local agents, called GEICO Field Representatives, and over the phone directly to the consumer, and through their website.
Learn more about Geico
Size
40,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1936

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