Associate Director - Workplace Relations Advisory

As an Associate Director in KPMG’s Workplace Relations Advisory team, you’ll work across a diverse range of clients and industries to deliver tailored solutions that address complex workforce and industrial relations challenges. Your work will span industrial environment assessments, including awards, enterprise agreements, union relationships, and workforce demographics; the design of consultation and communication frameworks that meet industrial relations obligations while supporting organisational change; and the development of enterprise agreement strategies aligned with future workforce needs. You’ll also support wage compliance reviews by interpreting industrial instruments and identifying risks, provide subject matter expertise on broader transformation projects such as restructures and mergers, and collaborate with consulting colleagues on initiatives involving change management, communications, and workforce capability uplift. This is a dynamic role where no two engagements are the same, offering the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on how organisations shape and manage their workforce.

Your Opportunity

Forming part of the Workforce and HR Advisory team, this role will see you working with a range of clients, industries and teams across KPMG, where no two engagements are the same.

Typical examples of the type of work we deliver include;

• Current state assessments of organisations’ industrial environment (think their awards, enterprise agreements, union relationship and employee demographics – instrument coverage, classification, tenure, engagement.
• Stakeholder consultation and communication frameworks to help organisations sell their vision in a way that meets industrial relations requirements (think consultation clauses, redundancy requirements and tricky transfer of business rules) while winning people’s hearts and minds.
• Developing all things enterprise agreement: long-term strategies, negotiation planning, campaign planning and tactical advice about aligning an enterprise agreement with a client’s future workforce strategies.
• Supporting wage compliance reviews by providing the data experts with key industrial relations intel (reviewing employee classifications, providing interpretations of how to apply instrument clauses and sharing your insight into common pitfalls in instrument application).
• Industrial relations subject matter expertise advice for projects led by other parts of KPMG. This might include organisational restructures, mergers, acquisitions and demergers, or payroll system configurations.
• Working closely with our consulting colleagues on other assignments involving broader transformational change.

How are you extraordinary?

• You are passionate about the importance of fantastic communication to share ideas, inspire, and create change. You are able to digest, distil, and communicate complex concepts in both written and verbal forms.
• You enjoy working in the details, with a proactive attitude towards accuracy and deadlines.

Your Experience

At KPMG, we believe diversity of thought, background and experience strengthens relationships and delivers meaningful benefits to our people, our clients, and communities. To be considered for this opportunity, your qualifications, skills & experience could include:

• Understands Australian industrial relations, such as:
  • the fundamentals of Australian industrial relations – the Fair Work Act and national employment standards, modern awards, enterprise agreements, and the interaction of state industrial relations systems
  • who the key stakeholders are (employees, FWC, FWO, unions, employer associations)
  • the process for making and varying industrial instruments.
• You can translate industrial relations into practical, actionable advice.
• Can lift themselves out of the detail to see the bigger picture e.g. how industrial relations might impact clients, business, employees and regulators.
• Is interested in broadening their expertise in more than industrial relations (think communications and engagement, change management, learning and development and talent management).
• Is proficient in the MSWord suite or willing to learn, particularly PowerPoint and Excel.
• Has high attention to detail.