Senior Employee Relations Specialist

Empower Pharmacy is a visionary healthcare company dedicated to making quality, affordable medication accessible to millions of patients nationwide. As the nation’s most advanced 503A compounding pharmacy and FDA-registered 503B outsourcing facility, we’re redefining what’s possible in personalized medicine and pharmaceutical manufacturing. We’re proud to be recognized as one of Houston’s fastest-growing private companies and ranked #116 in Healthcare & Medical on the Inc. 5000 List for 2025.

Our strength is built on four core values: People, Quality, Service, and Innovation. Guided by these principles, we’ve created a uniquely integrated healthcare platform powered by advanced technology, operational excellence, and a relentless commitment to patient care. From manufacturing and quality control to distribution and customer experience, our teams work together to raise industry standards, expand access to critical medications, and improve outcomes for patients and providers across the country.

At Empower, joining our team means more than starting a new role. It means becoming part of a mission-driven organization that’s transforming healthcare at scale. We invest deeply in our people, encourage bold thinking, and create opportunities for growth, leadership, and innovation at every level. Your ideas matter here, your development is supported, and the work you do has a direct impact on the lives of millions.

If you thrive in a fast-moving, purpose-driven environment where innovation, collaboration, and ambition come together, Empower Pharmacy is the place for you. Let’s transform healthcare together.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Employee Relations Specialist strengthens organizational effectiveness by resolving complex workplace matters, advising leaders, and ensuring fair, consistent employment practices across Empower Pharmacy. Operating in a hyper-growth, highly regulated 503A/503B environment, this role owns sensitive investigations, employee relations case management, leave administration, and accommodation processes while balancing business needs, employee experience, and legal compliance. The specialist translates employment regulations and company policies into practical guidance, strengthens leadership accountability, and identifies patterns that inform preventive action. Success requires strategic thinking, disciplined execution, sound judgment, discretion, and the agility to navigate evolving business priorities. Through effective cross-functional partnerships, accurate documentation, and proactive risk identification, this role supports operational continuity, reinforces a respectful workplace, and enables leaders to make timely, defensible decisions that sustain organizational performance and employee trust.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Employee Relations and Investigations

• Complex Investigations: Lead sensitive workplace investigations involving misconduct, policy violations, interpersonal conflict, and employee complaints, ensuring timely fact-finding, objective analysis, thorough documentation, and defensible resolutions.
• Conflict Resolution: Resolve complex employee relations matters through structured interventions, balanced assessments, and practical recommendations that protect employee trust, reinforce accountability, and minimize organizational risk.
• Performance Guidance: Advise leaders on performance management, corrective actions, disciplinary decisions, and terminations, ensuring consistent application of policies, appropriate documentation, and compliance with applicable employment requirements.

Employment Compliance and Risk Management

• Regulatory Compliance: Interpret and apply federal and state employment requirements, including EEO, ADA, FMLA, and PWFA, to support compliant decisions and reduce employment-related exposure.
• Case Documentation: Maintain accurate, confidential records of investigations, corrective actions, accommodation requests, and employee relations cases, ensuring documentation supports consistent decisions and legal compliance.
• Risk Assessment: Identify emerging employee relations risks, evaluate policy application and workplace practices, and recommend corrective measures that strengthen organizational consistency and operational stability.

Leave Administration and Accommodations

• Leave Administration: Manage the full life cycle of employee leave requests, including FMLA, parental leave, and discretionary leave, coordinating timely determinations, communications, and documentation.
• Accommodation Management: Facilitate ADAAA interactive processes by evaluating medical documentation, assessing reasonable accommodation options, and partnering with stakeholders to identify compliant, practical solutions.
• Vendor Coordination: Partner with UNUM, employees, and business leaders to coordinate leave and accommodation cases, resolve administrative issues, and support accurate, timely case management.

Leadership Advisory and Organizational Effectiveness

• Leadership Coaching: Equip managers with practical approaches to employee concerns, difficult conversations, corrective action, and conflict management, strengthening leadership judgment and consistent workplace accountability.
• Training Delivery: Develop and facilitate employee relations training that improves manager capability, reinforces policy understanding, and enables proactive management of workplace concerns and performance issues.
• Change Support: Support organizational changes by anticipating employee relations implications, advising stakeholders on potential risks, and recommending communication approaches that promote clarity and employee trust.

Workplace Culture and Continuous Improvement

• Trend Analysis: Analyze employee relations cases, investigation outcomes, and recurring workplace concerns to identify actionable trends, recommend preventive interventions, and improve organizational decision-making.
• Process Improvement: Evaluate employee relations workflows, documentation standards, and policy application to identify inefficiencies, strengthen consistency, and improve responsiveness without compromising confidentiality or compliance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with HR leadership, managers, and business stakeholders to align employee relations practices with operational priorities, reinforce workplace standards, and support sustainable growth.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Advanced knowledge of employment laws, including EEO, ADA, FMLA, PWFA, and applicable state requirements, with practical expertise in workplace compliance.
• Strong investigative capabilities, including interviewing, evidence evaluation, objective documentation, conflict resolution, and sound judgment when handling sensitive employee matters.
• Proven ability to influence and coach leaders, communicate difficult decisions, and balance employee advocacy with business requirements and organizational risk.
• Proficiency in employee relations case management, leave administration, accommodation processes, trend analysis, and continuous improvement of HR policies and practices.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Minimum seven years of progressive experience in employee relations, human resources, or related functions, including complex workplace investigations and conflict resolution. Required.
• Bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field; equivalent combinations of education and relevant practical experience considered. Preferred.
• Demonstrated experience advising managers and senior leaders on employee performance, corrective actions, policy interpretation, and sensitive employment decisions. Required.
• Practical knowledge of federal and state employment regulations, including experience managing leave requests, disability accommodations, and confidential employee relations documentation. Required.
• Professional HR certification such as PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP, with experience supporting employee relations in a growing organization. Preferred.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

• Customer Focus: Builds trust through customer-centric solutions.
• Strategic AI: Guides responsible AI adoption and adaptation.
• Optimizes Work Processes: Drives efficiency with continuous improvement.
• Collaborates: Partners effectively to achieve shared goals.
• Resourcefulness: Secures and deploys resources efficiently.
• Manages Complexity: Simplifies and solves complex challenges.
• Ensures Accountability: Delivers on commitments with integrity.
• Situational Adaptability: Adjusts approach to shifting conditions.
• Communicates Effectively: Tailors messages to diverse audiences.

VALUES:

• People: Empowering people defines who we are.
• Quality: Excellence in every product, every time.
• Service: Serving others is our highest purpose.
• Innovation: Advancing care through technology and discovery.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, HEALTH AND WELLNESS:

We offer comprehensive benefits to support your health, well-being, and future, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, 401(k) matching, wellness perks, IV therapy, and compounded medications. Learn more: https://careers.empowerpharmacy.com/benefits/

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to remain in a stationary position for a significant amount of the workday and frequently use their hands and fingers to handle or feel in order to access, input, and retrieve information from the computer and other office productivity devices. Employees are regularly required to move about the office and around the corporate campus. The employee is regularly required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, climb or balance, and to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.