HR Administration Team Lead

The team lead role sits in the HR Global Service Delivery (GSD) L2 Team and plays a critical leadership role in enabling the effective delivery of global People Services by working closely with both L1 operational teams and business stakeholders. This role acts as a problem solver, escalation owner, and service integrity leader, ensuring complex, cross‑functional, or high‑impact HR issues are resolved efficiently and sustainably.

This role is accountable for triaging complex cases, identifying root causes, identifying continuous improvement, and safeguarding process quality and compliance.

About RWS HR 

Our business is nothing without our people. As part of our global Human Resources team, you will be supporting over 8,000 people, across 100 legal entities in 43 different countries. We have a vibrant and nurturing culture where everyone can learn, grow, and thrive. We also love ideas and exploring new ways of doing things, united by our love of language.  

Responsibilities 

• Act as a primary escalation point for complex, sensitive, or high‑impact HR People Services issues raised by the L1 team or business stakeholders.
• Proactively engage with regional HR partners, Payroll, HRIT, Talent Acquisition, Compensation, and other relevant stakeholders to resolve escalations and problem‑solve end‑to‑end.
• Apply a holistic, “big‑picture” view to resolve issues that cut across systems, processes, or teams, rather than addressing symptoms in isolation.
• Provide clear guidance, direction, and decision support to the L1 team to enable timely and consistent resolution of cases.
• Partner with L1 team and translate complex HR policies, process requirements, or stakeholder expectations into practical processes.
• Use service metrics, trend analysis, root cause analysis (RCA), and qualitative insights to identify recurring issues, process gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Partner with GSD leadership to track service performance, escalation themes, and risk areas.
• Identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on efficiency, quality, and customer experience.
• Actively explore and apply AI‑enabled tools to support service delivery optimization, issue analysis, knowledge management, and process improvement.
• Support the documentation, standardization, and improvement of SOPs by leveraging data and AI‑based insights where appropriate.
• Triage incoming escalations and complex issues to determine priority, risk, ownership, and required stakeholder involvement.
• Support internal audits, spot‑checks, or quality reviews of People Services transactions to ensure compliance, data accuracy, and process adherence.
• Identify control gaps or risk areas and work with stakeholders to define corrective actions.
• Ensure proper documentation of issues, decisions, and resolutions for audit and governance purposes.
• Escalate material risks or systemic issues to GSD leadership in a timely and transparent manner.
• Maintain a high standard of confidentiality and professionalism when handling sensitive employee data.

Skills & Experience:

• Strong end to end understanding of HR People Services / HR Shared Services operations.
• Proven experience handling HR escalations and complex case resolution across multiple stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to see patterns, connect issues, and resolve problems holistically.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience using data, metrics, and insights to support decision making.
• Experience working closely with cross functional partners such as Payroll, HRIT, TA, and regional HR teams.
• Excellent communication skills, with confidence engaging business stakeholders at varying seniority levels.
• Strong problem solving and issue triage capability.
• High attention to detail, with the ability to balance multiple priorities and timelines.
• Experience handling sensitive and confidential HR information with discretion.
• Familiarity with HR systems such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 HR, iCIMS, or equivalent HRIS platforms.
• Experience supporting or participating in internal audits, quality reviews, or compliance checks.
• Experience working in an SLA driven, customer focused service environment.
• Strong preferred: Exposure to AI assisted tools or automation in HR service delivery or process improvement contexts
• Proficient using Microsoft Office.
• A college degree is required.

Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for This Role

• Escalation Resolution Effectiveness: Timeliness, quality, and sustainability of escalation outcomes; reduction in repeat escalations and improved first‑time resolution.
• Data Quality & Compliance: Accuracy and integrity of HR data and audit outcomes.
• Process Improvement Impact: Measurable efficiency, quality, or customer experience improvements driven by L2 initiatives.
• Stakeholder Satisfaction: Feedback from HR partners and business stakeholders.
• Risk Management: Early identification and mitigation of operational or compliance risks.

Our purpose is to unlock global understanding. This means our work fundamentally recognizes the value of every language and culture. So, we celebrate difference, we are inclusive and believe that diversity makes us strong. We want every employee to grow as an individual and excel in their career. 

In return, we expect all our people to live by the values that unite us: to partner, putting client’s fist and winning together, to pioneer, innovating fearlessly and leading with vision and courage, to progress, aiming high and growing through actions and to deliver, owning the outcome and building trust with our colleagues and clients.

RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics. 

RWS Values 

Get the 3Ps right – Partner, Pioneer, Progress – and we´ll Deliver together as RWS