HR Manager - New Hotel Openings

Partner with the Senior Director, J&M HR and Director of HLG (Hotel Life cycle & Growth) to lead and coordinate people-related activities across the hotel lifecycle, including new developments, conversions, transitions, openings and post-opening support for managed and franchised hotels in Japan. Ensure successful organizational activation, workforce planning, implementation of IHG Ways of Working, HR systems and people processes, while integrating short- and long-term Human Resources strategies to drive business readiness, operational excellence and sustainable growth.

Key Accountability

Hotel Lifecycle HR Support

• Lead and coordinate HR activities across new developments, conversions, pre-openings and post-opening support for managed and franchised hotels in Japan.

• Maintain and enhance HR opening/conversion toolkits, best practices and project governance, while partnering with hotel leadership, owners and HLG to ensure successful delivery.

Workforce Planning, Talent & Recruitment

• Support workforce planning, talent readiness and critical-role recruitment to ensure operational readiness of new and transitioning hotels.

• Coordinate leadership hiring, onboarding and talent deployment activities (including Hotel ExCom and HR Lead recruitment, internal talent reviews and succession planning discussions).

Organizational Activation & Ways of Working

• Drive organizational activation and support the implementation of IHG Ways of Working, HR policies, people processes and operating standards.
• Facilitate knowledge transfer and capability building to ensure hotels are effectively integrated into the IHG operating environment.

HR Systems & Operational Readiness

• Coordinate the implementation of HR systems, digital tools and people processes to support readiness, compliance and standardization.
• Monitor project progress, provide reporting and insights, and identify opportunities to improve HR practices and ways of working across the portfolio.

Opening Readiness & Stakeholder Management

• Partner with Learning & Development, Design & Engineering and other stakeholders to support opening readiness activities and colleague experience initiatives.

• Coordinate colleague-related opening requirements (including BOH space planning, colleague accommodation and training readiness) and maintain effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

HR Operations support

• Also support operating hotels in delivering strategic HR initiatives, people processes, organizational effectiveness and operational priorities in alignment with IHG standards together with HR team in the BU

Required Education, Experience, Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Minimum of 4 to 7 years of experience in HR with a preference of at least 3 years at Human Resources Manager level

• Good understanding of Employee Relations practice in the Japan markets, in particular Labor regulations, payroll systems and recruitment

• Ability to deal effectively with key stakeholders and colleagues across diverse cultures and geographies

• Strong project management and organizational skills

• Evidence of involvement in and leading change management, process innovation practices

• High level of business savvy, solution focused mindset

• Verbal and written language capability in both Japanese and English at Business Level