Director, HR Business Partner - Japan

The Company and Business

Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is a global, integrated healthcare services and products company, providing customized solutions for hospitals, health systems, pharmacies, ambulatory surgery centers, clinical laboratories, and physician offices worldwide. 

The company provides clinically proven medical products and pharmaceuticals and cost-effective solutions that enhance supply chain efficiency from hospital to home. Cardinal Health connects patients, providers, payers, pharmacists and manufacturers for integrated care coordination and better patient management. Backed by nearly 100 years of experience, with approximately 50,000 employees in 46 countries, Cardinal Health ranks among the top 25 on the Fortune 500. 

Led by CEO Steve Mason who oversees more than 17,000 employees, the GMPD (Global Medical Products and Distribution) is a global $15B provider of medical products and supply chain services across the health care continuum from hospitals to laboratories, physician offices, surgery centers, and patients in the home.

The Position

Reporting functionally to VP, International Human Resources and operationally to the President, Japan, the Human Resources Director plans and leads the Japan Human Resources function for both the Commercial and Manufacturing sites of the medical products businesses. The HRD partners the country president in aligning business objectives with developing and implementing strategies and design plans focused on human capital management, employee engagement and business performance.

The HRBP maintains an effective level of business literacy about the business unit’s financial position, its business plans and directions, its culture, and its competition to influence business decisions in an impactful way.

The Individual

We are looking for a seasoned HR professional with experience overseeing a large and complex organization of approximately 500 employees and managing an HR staff.  We are seeking depth of experience working in a complex and matrixed environment with a focus on enhancing the organization through differentiated capabilities, change management and developing an engaged and high-performing culture.

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Effectively balances business partner responsibility with employee advocacy, fosters a positive culture and high performing work environment.

Demonstrates a relentless approach to talent:

1. Strategic workforce planning
2. Talent development
3. Capability gap assessments
4. Organizational design and structure

• Serves both as a change agent and as a curator of culture.
• Collaborates with HR Centers of Expertise to execute enterprise-wide programs and solutions that advance the business, including annual performance management, compensation review and advocacy for our leaning and development programs.
• Develops and implements plans and actions involving President and managers to improve employee engagement and leadership effectiveness.
• Supports leaders as strategist, coach, change agent, curator of culture and architect.
• Partners with assigned business leaders & HR teams to set both long term and short-term organization strategy and implement strategic HR initiatives to ensure the effectiveness of the organization.
• Balances business partner responsibility with employee advocacy; builds a positive employee relations culture and work environment.
• Develop communication plans and actions to improve employee engagement and manager effectiveness, and foster diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Champions talent development and movements to build organization overall capabilities and bench strength.
• Influences the leadership team and acts as change agent in support of business evolution and transformations. 
• Influences and supports President and local leadership team in making key people or HR related decisions.
• Partners with other Japan Human Resources Team and build a professional and high performing HR team. 
• Leads negotiation of agreements with union representatives and build harmonious working relationship to improve work relationships, build morale, and increase productivity and retention.
• Participates and influences decision making on hiring of key positions and talents.
• Develops and directs implementation of compensation and benefits programs that provide a competitive level of pay, motivation, and reward to employees.
• Works closely with Global and Regional HR team and establish strong network and ties within the Global and Regional HR network.
• Leads and participates in local/regional/global HR initiatives/projects as required.
• Leads to create the company’s value proposition and showcase it to retain and attract talents.

Key Experiences / Requirements

• A minimum of a Bachelors’ degree in Human Resources or related discipline is required.
• A minimum of 12+ years of directly related Human Resources business partner experience is required.
• Prior supervisory and union management experience is key.
• Previous experience working in the healthcare or medical device industry is preferred.
• Fluency in Japanese & English is required. 
• Must be able to demonstrate time management, priority management, planning and coordination, multi-tasking skills and attention to details.
• Versatility, flexibility, and a willingness to work within constantly changing competing priorities and fast-paced work environment.
• Ability to work independently with a high level of discretion and confidentiality required.
• Strong computer skills and experience with HRIS software (Workday) is required.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Strong ability to develop working relationships with others and understanding employee needs.
• Working in matrix organization, influencing others without reporting relationships
• Strong change leadership and influencing skills.

Cardinal Health Leadership Behaviors

Invites Curiosity

• Openly shares ideas and best practices, across the enterprise, as well as lessons learned, so that others may benefit from experience. Promotes a culture of open communication, learning, diverse perspectives, and creativity. 
• Leads and acts as a role model for having open dialogue on solution and idea creation for organizational impact.  Quickly dismisses talk that focuses on the past or shuts down idea exploration. 
• Holds team accountable for making decisions using data and existing boundaries.  Allows freedom for others to experiment and balances this against calculated, acceptable risk. 
• Scans and connects with the broader healthcare market and non-traditional areas. Brings back findings and discusses with colleagues to stimulate ideas and considerations for how to better serve our customers. 

Builds Partnerships

• Creates an atmosphere of trust and collaboration among teams to accomplish common goals. Openly commits to and role models the enterprise viewpoint of “We succeed together or fail together.” 
• Uses effective storytelling to help others at all levels see connections to the company and how they add value to the broader vision. 
• Facilitates effective dialogue across groups, building bridges across the enterprise with differing points of views and/or goals. Creates forums both externally and internally for idea sharing and exploration to enhance organizational impact. 
• Effectively summarizes and translates the ideas of various external and internal groups into actionable solutions to accomplish company goals and priorities. 

Inspires Commitment

• Leads and models a relentless drive for accomplishing company goals. Seeks out thinking and ideas that help the company go beyond “good enough” to accomplish greater organizational outcomes. 
• Inspires others to commit to the company’s priorities even when the specific plans and tasks may change.  Delivers messages in a way that builds confidence and action in others. 
• Quickly addresses setbacks to maintain focus on company-wide goals.  Encourages leaders to help team members look ahead to identify potential issues and adjust early. 
• Rewards team members who demonstrate a devotion and perseverance for excellence, a passion for our priorities, and accomplishment of results with organizational impact. 

Develops Self and Others

• Champions a culture across their team and across the enterprise to continually learn, develop, and grow. Models and leads others on how to seek feedback from a variety of stakeholders to gain personal insights as well as ways to advance or evolve their ideas. 
• Gains followership and attracts talent that want to work closely with and for them due to their ability to grow and develop others.  Demonstrates servant leadership to encourage others to be their best. 
• Provides individuals with development opportunities to test and expand their capabilities and achieve higher levels of performance. 
• Takes a proactive and enterprise approach to succession planning and team development, which considers both short and long-term plans. Enables the contributions of less tenured leaders and helps new leaders onboard quickly.