Vice President, People, Values and Culture

Reporting to and working closely with the Chief Operations Officer, the VP will create and implement a multi-faceted vision and strategy for the organization’s culture, equity work, and talent, results and performance management work.

Vice President, People, Values and Culture

About StriveTogether
StriveTogether is a national movement with a clear purpose: helping every child succeed in school and in life from cradle to career, regardless of race, ethnicity, zip code or circumstance. We refuse to settle for a world where a child’s potential is dictated by the conditions into which they are born. We work to break down barriers, change systems and improve outcomes for as many families as possible.

The StriveTogether team is passionate, talented and dedicated to achieving our mission. We seek and value all kinds of diversity and work hard to eliminate inequities in ourselves, our organization and our communities. Our goals are bold, so we support each other to try new things, have tough conversations and push for change. As we work, we share learning and progress, use data to make decisions and celebrate our wins.

As part of StriveTogether’s bold new strategic plan, we envision both expanded impact and significant organizational growth over the next five to seven years.  The Vice President of People, Values and Culture will be a thoughtful problem solver who supports this organizational growth and builds and implements a talent strategy. This includes, but is not limited to, considerable work developing and driving the staffing plan, conducting a compensation review, developing clear competency assessments at each level within the organization, creating and implementing a plan to train and support managers, and fine tuning team-building systems, ranging from recruiting to onboarding. 

About you

You are a champion of equity, committed to ensuring all children succeed regardless of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or zip code. You are skilled at building relationships and dedicated to building community at the organization level. You are a passionate and engaged leader and ensure managers throughout the organization feel supported and guided by personalized professional development programs you develop. You have human resources experience and use that to guide, coach and mentor People, Values and Culture team members. You do all this amazing work while also monitoring and working to improve organization-wide systems.

At StriveTogether, we are dedicated to achieving more equitable outcomes. To be successful in this role, you must understand the challenges faced by marginalized communities — including but not limited to barriers of race, ethnicity, class, ability, immigration status, gender and their intersections.

About the position
Reporting to and working closely with the Chief Operations Officer, the VP will create and implement a multi-faceted vision and strategy for the organization’s culture, equity work, and talent, results and performance management work.

Responsibilities and duties

Culture and Equity

• Foster a culture of accountability, trust, recognition and results among team members at all levels consistent with the short and long-term objectives of StriveTogether.
• Develop annual People, Values and Culture goals and plans aligned with StriveTogether’s commitment to create a welcoming, inclusive and empowering organizational culture.
• Track and assess the progress to organizational culture goals, as well as analyzing, troubleshooting and building processes for ongoing systemic learning and continuous improvement.
• Develop, direct and monitor strategies aimed at maintaining a healthy workplace culture including:
• Programs and initiatives related to employee communications in partnership with the leadership team.
• Engagement and relations across all of the organization’s programs and offices, including addressing components of workplace culture that impede organizational and individual effectiveness.
• Lead the organization’s employee engagement and retention initiatives to increase organizational, programmatic and individual performance and ensure team members feel engaged, recognized, valued and supported.

Talent Management

• Implement our organizational staffing plan which includes significant staff growth within the next three years in support of StriveTogether’s 2030 strategic plan.
• Lead our talent management strategy to ensure a successful talent pipeline and onboarding process including staff training and development, building racial equity skills and competencies.
• Oversee, develop, and execute talent acquisition and retention strategies including the creation of job descriptions, compensation systems, hiring processes, professional development, diversity and inclusion strategies, and measurement programs to successfully enter a period of team growth and expansion.
• Update our compensation policies and implement changes necessary to ensure an equitable and sustainable compensation package for all team members.
• Design and implement integrated talent management solutions including, executive coaching, individual development planning, talent reviews, succession planning and leadership development.
• Guide and monitor progress of high potential employees and identify positions that provide quality developmental opportunities; fostering a culture that integrates succession planning across the organization.
• Lead and develop results-driven performance management tools and processes that integrate with the organization’s values and core competencies.
• Oversee, develop and implement a progressive total rewards program balancing organizational resources with the need to maintain the organization’s competitive position in the marketplace.

Results and performance management

• Improve performance management systems.
• Provide leadership to critical and organization-wide initiatives including organizational structure changes and counseling leaders on change management.
• Invoke organizational performance through leadership – linking strategy to structure, building transformational change approaches and facilitating complex organizational issues.
• Identify and recommend opportunities to improve and align supporting systems; creates and implements an integrated approach to talent and culture management.
• Influence organizational decision-making with the use of relevant, value-added metrics. Analyze and report on the same in a manner aligning with and supporting the organization’s strategic, short- and long-term business objectives.

Other Responsibilities

• Provide active, intentional leadership to the People, Values and Culture team; provide timely positive and constructive feedback; monitor the accomplishment of team and individual goals and objectives; and foster an environment of continuous learning consistent with the needs of the organization, team and the individual team members.
• Advise the leadership team on the full range of People, Values and Culture oversight and effectively implement strategies and action steps for new or improved programs, policies and processes to affect defined organizational outcomes and mitigate risk.
• Lead efforts to streamline People, Values and Culture workflows, data collection and analysis, communications, and reporting to increase the efficiency of the function.
• Partner with the Chief Operating Officer on special projects and organizational-wide priorities.
   

Qualifications and skills

 
We will consider a variety of personal and professional experiences; however, a successful candidate will be able to demonstrate past experience in the majority of areas of responsibility outlined above. Please review them for job requirements.

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience including as an organizational talent and culture leader for a social impact or non-profit organization or in a significant role that had decision-making authority around culture policies and practices
• Demonstrated ability to support executive leadership
• Experience in the social service sector, results orientation and strong commitment to racial equity required
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including experience communicating complex topics to audiences with a range of familiarity
  Ability to think strategically, translate thoughts to action and follow-through with all details
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and large projects with organizational-wide impact
• Strong problem-solving and interpersonal skills; ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Ability to be self-directed and independent, with a track record of taking initiative and “managing up”
• Ability to work on several tasks simultaneously, with experience organizing and prioritizing work quickly in response to changing needs
  Experience crafting and/or implementing an equitable pay/compensation program a plus
• Approximately 25% travel required

Position details

This is an exempt position with a salary of $128,000 - $192,000. StriveTogether offers competitive salary and benefits, commensurate with experience, skills and location. This position can be remote or work out of the Cincinnati, Ohio, office.

Benefits, perks and flexibility

• Paid time off: sick, vacation, personal,
• floating/wellness holiday, bereavement, jury duty, 11 paid company holidays and a paid winter break. 
• Medical and dental plans
• 100% paid vision, short-term and long-term disability and basic life insurance.
• Cell Phone and internet stipend
• Competitive retirement plan with automatic employer contribution and a match
• Paid parental leave
• Professional development
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid sabbatical
• Remote work opportunities available
• Affinity groups for our community
• Choice of Mac or PC
• Bi-annual cross-organization pay equity analysis and adjustments

Headquarters:

• Hybrid work model – two work from home days each week
• Dog friendly office
• Roof top deck
• Snacks and beverages

Applications and cover letters are due by May 22, 2023. 

StriveTogether is an equal opportunity employer.