Sr Manager, Employee Experience in Forest City, Iowa at Winnebago Industries Inc

The Sr. Manager of Employee Experience serves as the architect and steward of the Winnebago employee experience—from first candidate contact through career growth, leadership development, and community connection. This role integrates Talent Acquisition, Internal Communications, Inclusion & Belonging, Community Engagement, and Employee Experience into a single, unified strategy designed to create a distinctive and consistent Winnebago experience. The role is responsible for translating the principles of the Winnebago Welcome System and The Winnebago Way into daily employee experiences that strengthen culture, improve engagement, increase retention, and accelerate business performance.

This leader views employee experience as a business system—not an HR program—and applies the same rigor, intentionality, and continuous improvement mindset used in manufacturing excellence to how employees experience life at Winnebago. The Sr. Manager partners closely with business leaders to ensure every employee interaction communicates what matters most: safety, quality, accountability, leadership, belonging, and purpose.

Key Responsibilities

Employee Experience Strategy

• Develop and execute a comprehensive employee experience strategy aligned to business objectives and the Winnebago Way.
• Define and continuously improve the key employee moments that matter, including:
  • Recruiting
  • Pre-hire
  • Onboarding
  • Promotions
  • Team transitions
  • Leadership assimilation
  • Recognition
  • Career development
  • Retirement and alumni engagement
• Establish experience standards that create consistency across functions, locations, and leadership teams.
• Utilize employee feedback, engagement data, onboarding audits, retention trends, and pulse surveys to identify improvement opportunities.

Winnebago Welcome System Ownership

Serve as executive owner of the Winnebago Welcome System.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining and evolving the pre-hire through Day 1+ experience.
• Ensuring onboarding remains leader-owned and experience-driven.
• Establishing standards for candidate experience, manager involvement, and assimilation.
• Measuring onboarding effectiveness through retention, speed to productivity, engagement, and new hire feedback.
• Maintaining leader playbooks, onboarding experiences, communication content, and experience standards.
• Ensuring every employee enters Winnebago with a strong understanding of:
  • Who we are
  • What we build
  • Why it matters
  • What great leadership looks like
  • How they contribute to customer success

Internal Communications

Lead the organization's employee communication strategy.

Responsibilities include:

• Developing annual communication plans aligned to business priorities.
• Ensuring consistent messaging across all employee audiences.
• Overseeing leadership communication strategies, town halls, business updates, change communications, and major organizational announcements.
• Ensuring communication is timely, transparent, authentic, and aligned with Winnebago values.
• Partnering with senior leaders to improve communication effectiveness and leadership visibility.
• Building communication capabilities that strengthen trust, clarity, and engagement throughout the organization.

Inclusion, Belonging & Culture

Serve as the strategic leader responsible for creating a culture where every employee feels valued, respected, and connected.

Responsibilities include:

• Advancing inclusion initiatives that strengthen belonging and engagement.
• Building systems that ensure equitable employee experiences.
• Supporting employee resource groups, community partnerships, and culture-building initiatives.
• Ensuring inclusion is embedded into recruiting, onboarding, leadership development, and employee communications.
• Establishing measurable outcomes that improve engagement and strengthen organizational culture.

Community & Employer Brand

Lead the organization's employee-facing and community-facing culture initiatives.

Responsibilities include:

• Designing community engagement strategies that strengthen employer reputation.
• Building partnerships with schools, workforce development organizations, veterans' groups, technical programs, and community organizations.
• Creating volunteer and service opportunities aligned with company values.
• Enhancing the Winnebago employment brand throughout the communities in which the organization operates.
• Ensuring employees experience pride in both the company and its impact on the community.

Talent Acquisition Leadership

Provide strategic leadership for talent acquisition as an employee experience function.

Responsibilities include:

• Establishing recruiting practices consistent with the Winnebago Welcome System.
• Ensuring a professional, responsive, and candidate-centered hiring experience.
• Overseeing recruitment marketing and employer branding efforts.
• Improving quality of hire, diversity of candidate slates, recruiting efficiency, and candidate satisfaction.
• Partnering with business leaders to proactively address talent needs.
• Creating recruiting processes that reflect the company's commitment to respect, professionalism, and inclusion.

The Winnebago Way Stewardship

Serve as the organizational champion for The Winnebago Way.

Responsibilities include:

• Translating leadership expectations into observable behaviors.
• Embedding leadership principles into:
  • Onboarding
  • Performance management
  • Talent reviews
  • Leadership development
  • Manager training
  • Coaching practices
• Ensuring leaders understand their role in shaping employee experience.
• Creating tools, resources, and experiences that reinforce leadership accountability and consistency.
• Measuring adoption and effectiveness of Winnebago Way behaviors across the organization.

Leadership Expectations

The Sr. Manager of Employee Experience will model and reinforce the behaviors expected through the Winnebago Way:

Be Intentional: Design experiences rather than allowing them to happen by accident.

Be Visible: Create meaningful connections between leadership and employees.

Be Clear: Communicate expectations, priorities, and decisions with transparency.

Create Belonging: Foster an environment where employees feel respected, valued, and connected.

Develop Others: Build leaders who build leaders.

Lead Through Service: Put employees and customers at the center of decision-making.

Drive Consistency: Reduce variability in employee experience while maintaining flexibility where needed.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in employee experience, communications, talent acquisition, culture, organizational effectiveness, or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-wide culture and employee experience initiatives.
• Strong executive communication and storytelling capabilities.
• Experience building scalable systems and processes.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally and influence senior leaders.
• Passion for creating environments where employees can thrive.