HR Generalist – Employee Relations Focus (Tokyo-based)

About Agoda

At Agoda, we bridge the world through travel. Our story began in 2005, when two lifelong friends and entrepreneurs, driven by their passion for travel, launched Agoda to make it easier for everyone to explore the world.  

Today, we are part of Booking Holdings [NASDAQ: BKNG], with a diverse team of over 7,000 people from 90 countries, working together in offices around the globe. Every day, we connect people to destinations and experiences, with our great deals across our millions of hotels and holiday properties, flights, and experiences worldwide.

No two days are the same at Agoda. Data and technology are at the heart of our culture, fueling our curiosity and innovation. If you’re ready to begin your best journey and help build travel for the world, join us.

Get To Know Our Team:

The People Team is a purveyor of opportunity, searching the globe for the most talented individuals and offering them an open, collaborative workplace. By prioritizing skill and potential, we have cultivated a powerful assembly of professionals through our drive for equal opportunity and diversity. We make the move to Agoda a breeze with assisted onboarding programs, and we continue to support and enrich our thousands of Agoda employees through individual growth with outstanding learning programs and various means of assistance. Our development of incredible benefits has ensured everyone can stay strong, healthy, and happy during their time at Agoda. Leading ambitious changes and making a positive impact in the lives of our employees, the People Team is a crucial and rewarding part of the Agoda family. 

The Opportunity:

We are looking for someone to be part of our Global Employee Relations Team based in Japan as a Consultant, Employee Relations. Our Employee Relations team works closely with key stakeholders including our Legal/Compliance team, People Services Team, HR Business Partners and the Senior Management Team to support employees in challenging circumstances, and we seek to identify trends and share insights to adjust our people management practices to get the best talent outcomes. We advise and enable managers to make the best possible decisions, challenging practices that go beyond legal obligation to protect our unique culture at Agoda.

We are looking for someone who combines great execution, can effectively handle multiple competing priorities, with the intellectual disposition to challenge current practices.

In this Role, you’ll get to:

• Act as the subject matter expert on compliance and company policies and procedures, providing advice to managers and employees.
• Coach, counsel, and guide managers in managing employees with poor performance and handling misconduct cases.
• Support managers in the execution and tracking of disciplinary actions according to the local laws and regulations.
• Handle terminations, ensuring the right steps are taken, and the right documentation is used so that the risk of labor claims is minimized.
• Conduct impartial investigations into grievances and serve as a dedicated Employee Relations partner, identifying trends and insights to inform procedural improvements.
• Manage employee relations with case timelines and deliverables, ensuring timely stakeholder updates and high-quality documentation.
• Analyze performance management data and past misconduct cases to develop recommendations for capability building policy revisions, training enhancements, and more effective management practices.
• Act as an HR Business Partner to a dedicated Department to share actionable insights and trends.
• Spearhead automation and improvements towards internal processes such as (but not limited to) performance management, offboarding, etc.

To be successful in this position it will help you to have:

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources, Law, or related field.
• Minimum 6-8 years’ experience in Employee Relations or HR Business Partnering/Generalist roles, with demonstrated knowledge of employment law, workforce reduction projects, and handling complex ER issues.
• Strong understanding of Japan labor law and employee relations best practice.

Skills & Attributes

• Strong problem-solving, sound judgment, and decision-making abilities.
• Adaptable, curious, and willing to challenge current practices.
• High attention to detail, ownership, reliability, and ethical standards (discretion, confidentiality).
• Ability to cope well with ambiguity and change
• Humility, flexibility, and strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills.
• Timely task execution and ability to manage competing priorities.

Communication

• Fluency in written and spoken, Japanese and English.

It’s Great if you Have:

• Curiosity, ready to challenge current practices and perspectives
• Great attention to detail
• Great sense of ownership and reliability
• Multicultural or International Experience
• Humility, flexibility, good interpersonal skills

Please review our Hiring Process Guidelines before your interview - click here to learn how interviewing at Agoda works.

Discover more about working at Agoda

• Agoda Careers https://careersatagoda.com
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/agodacareers/
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/agoda
• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/agodalife

Equal Opportunity Employer 

At Agoda, we pride ourselves on being a company represented by people of all different backgrounds and orientations. We prioritize attracting diverse talent and cultivating an inclusive environment that encourages collaboration and innovation. Employment at Agoda is based solely on a person’s merit and qualifications. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, age, race, color, national origin, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, citizenship, veteran or military status, and other legally protected characteristics.

We will keep your application on file so that we can consider you for future vacancies and you can always ask to have your details removed from the file. For more details please read our privacy policy.

Disclaimer

We do not accept any terms or conditions, nor do we recognize any agency’s representation of a candidate, from unsolicited third-party or agency submissions. If we receive unsolicited or speculative CVs, we reserve the right to contact and hire the candidate directly without any obligation to pay a recruitment fee.