Ilness Manager Headoffice

As Illness Manager, you will play a critical role in shaping and driving the health, workability and absence agenda for our Head Office employees in Amsterdam. You act as the organisation's subject matter expert for workability, absence management and reintegration, ensuring managers, employees and HR stakeholders receive expert guidance while safeguarding compliance, sustainable employability and business continuity. 

In this role, you combine strategic leadership with operational excellence. You oversee complex workability and absence cases, advise senior stakeholders on health-related matters and translate workforce health insights into initiatives that strengthen organisational performance. You drive continuous improvement of absence practices, governance and reporting, ensuring a consistent and future-proof approach to employee health and wellbeing across Head Office. 

Working closely with HR Advisory, HR Business Partners, Centres of Expertise, People Managers, Occupational Health providers and external specialists, you establish a compliant, data-driven and people-centred approach to health and employability. Through your expertise and influence, you help build an organisation where wellbeing, sustainable performance and proactive absence management are embedded in the employee experience. 

Together, we create a healthy working environment where people can thrive, perform at their best and continue to grow with heart and soul.

In this role, you will:

• Own and continuously develop the Head Office approach to workability, absence management and sustainable employability.
• Act as the senior subject matter expert on absence, reintegration and workforce health, advising HR leadership, HR Business Partners and people managers on complex and sensitive cases.
• Lead and oversee complex workability and absence cases, ensuring sustainable and compliant solutions while balancing employee wellbeing and business needs.
• Analyse absence trends and workforce health insights, translating data into strategic recommendations for HR and business leadership.
• Drive continuous improvement of absence processes, systems, governance and manager capability to strengthen organisational effectiveness and employee experience.
• Establish and maintain strong partnerships with Occupational Health providers, UWV, legal specialists and external stakeholders to ensure effective case management and compliance.
• Lead initiatives that promote sustainable employability, early intervention and prevention, reducing absence risk and supporting organisational resilience.
• Influence and support decision-making by providing expert guidance on legal obligations, reintegration pathways and health-related workforce risks.
• Design and deliver tools, frameworks and training that strengthen leadership capability in managing health, wellbeing and absence-related topics.
• Collaborate across HR and the wider business to embed a proactive and preventative approach towards employee health, wellbeing and workability.
• Act as a key contributor to the development of health-related policies, standards and strategic priorities for the Head Office population.

You enjoy combining strategic thinking with people-focused conversations and analytical problem-solving. You are comfortable navigating complex and sensitive situations and are recognised as a trusted advisor who can balance employee wellbeing, business needs and legal obligations.

You naturally build credibility with senior stakeholders, influence decision-making through expertise and data, and connect people across functions to create sustainable solutions. You enjoy taking ownership of challenging topics, identifying patterns and opportunities and translating insights into meaningful organisational improvements.

You thrive in a fast-paced environment where no two days are the same. One moment you are advising senior leaders on a complex reintegration case, the next you are analysing organisational absence trends, shaping a prevention strategy or leading an improvement initiative that positively impacts employees across the organisation.

To be successful in this role, you:

• Have 7+ years of experience in workability, absence management, occupational health, employability or a related HR specialist field.
• Have extensive experience advising managers, HR Business Partners and senior stakeholders on complex absence and reintegration matters.
• Possess deep knowledge of Dutch employment legislation related to absence and reintegration, including the Wet verbetering poortwachter.
• Have proven experience leading complex stakeholder landscapes and influencing decisions in a matrix organisation.
• Demonstrate strong analytical capabilities and experience translating workforce data into strategic insights and recommendations.
• Have experience driving process improvements, governance frameworks and organisational initiatives.
• Build credibility and strong partnerships with stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Communicate fluently in English, both verbally and in writing. Dutch is considered a strong advantage.
• Bring empathy, resilience, sound judgement and a strategic mindset when handling sensitive and business-critical situations.

At Rituals, we are committed to care for everyone and strive to create a diverse workplace where all employees belong and have equal opportunities to succeed. Read more about our commitment here: https://careers.rituals.com/en-NL/work-with-heart-and-soul/diversity-and-inclusion/. We believe in the value of in-person collaboration and teamwork. Therefore, we work predominantly from the office.

The next steps are

• Apply via our website (make sure you meet the requirements and tell us why you apply).
• Our recruiter will contact you within 10 working days.
• A first interview follows in our Central Head Office in Amsterdam.
• You do an online assessment.
• You have the second interview.
• In the event of a positive outcome, you will receive a proposal with the terms of employment.
• Please note that applications via e-mail and LinkedIn are not taken into consideration.
  

We kindly ask recruitment agencies to refrain from acquisition efforts. Unsolicited CVs or resumes will not be taken into consideration and will be treated as not received.