States Newsroom HR Assistant

Join States Newsroom as HR Assistant and work with a skilled, collaborative team to support our award-winning journalists and staff.

States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, is seeking an HR Assistant to support a wide range of personnel tasks, including recruitment, onboarding and offboarding, internal communications, systems and process training, and other HR initiatives. You’ll be responsible for drafting and distributing important employee letters, answering employee inquiries promptly and efficiently, approving staff reimbursement requests, and organizing and maintaining HR records.

The ideal candidate is organized and self-motivated, knowledgeable and curious, self-directed and flexible. Strong communication skills are a must, as is the ability to multitask. This is a flexible, hybrid full-time role that is based at our headquarters offices in Washington, DC.

If you’re interested in people, politics and journalism and looking to start your career or gain more experience in nonprofit human resources in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, this is the job for you.

Job Responsibilities

The responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:

• With Sr HR Generalist and HR Manager, manage the HR inbox and field employee questions around payroll, benefits, and other HR-related inquiries
• Work with HR/Ops team members to update and maintain employee resources, including Employee Handbook and staff portal
• Support recruitment efforts by posting job ads and scheduling interviews
• Draft offer letters and other employee communications (COLA/salary increase letters, change of supervisor memos, etc.)
• Manage the new hire onboarding process to ensure the timely submission of new employees’ paperwork
• Review and approve staff expense reimbursement requests
• Organize and maintain personnel records
• With HR/Ops team, help create and implement new processes for employee data collection and other HR initiatives
• Assist employees with using States Newsroom systems, including Paychex Flex, Zoho Expense, Slack, Microsoft Office, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, the employee portal and other new systems and processes
• Other tasks as directed by the HR Manager

Qualifications and Compensation

We’re looking for someone who demonstrates:

• 1-2 years of Human Resources and/or Operations work experience (can be gained through a combination of full-time work experience and internships)
• Experience in HR/Operations/Program Management at a startup or nonprofit organization preferred
• Strong communication and writing skills
• Proficiency with Google suite
• Familiarity with MailChimp, Paychex Flex, SurveyMonkey and Zoho Expense a plus
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail
• Self-motivation and strong organizational skills

Authorization to work in the United States is required. At this time, States Newsroom is unable to provide visa sponsorship.

The minimum salary for this position is $55,000 and rises with experience. Our generous benefits package includes:

• Premium-free platinum healthcare for employees and their families (i.e., nothing comes out of your paycheck!)
• 4 weeks of vacation per year
• 2 weeks of personal leave per year
• 11 paid holidays per year
• 20 hours of paid volunteer time per year
• $75 monthly cell phone reimbursement
• $200 cell phone replacement benefit every two years
• $75 monthly fitness benefit
• 401K with up to 3% match
• 12 weeks of parental leave
• Full-service EAP

States Newsroom will provide all necessary equipment.

About Our Culture

States Newsroom is dedicated to producing journalism at all levels — from quick hit to investigative — but we also aim to be supportive, exciting, welcoming and positive. We believe in creating sustainable careers for journalists on the crucial state government beat.

States Newsroom’s mission is to connect people to the power that shapes their daily lives through relentless reporting and incisive commentary on state government and policy. Journalism is a powerful force for social change, uniquely suited to challenging systemic inequality and racism. Our goal is to build an organization that fulfills that mission. At States Newsroom, we believe we strengthen our work and improve our insights when we incorporate the perspectives of people who come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences.

We are committed to diversity and prioritize equity in all recruiting and hiring. We are always working to better represent our communities and are supported in these efforts by a network-wide Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice committee.

How to apply

Please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@statesnewsroom.com, attn: Tonya Khakazi, HR Manager. Applications will be reviewed as they arrive.