About the Role
We are seeking a hands‑on Plant HR Manager to lead people operations in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment. This role blends strategic HR leadership with day‑to‑day execution–supporting leaders and frontline teams across talent acquisition, onboarding and training, employee relations, compliance, and workforce analytics. You'll be a visible presence on the plant floor, translating operational needs into practical people solutions that strengthen performance, engagement, and retention.
What You'll Do
- Partner with operations leaders by maintaining a strong plant‑floor presence — listening, observing, and helping resolve workforce issues with operators, supervisors, and leaders.
- Use people data to identify trends, recommend actions, and drive accountability to results.
- Build trusted relationships with leaders and employees to improve communication, engagement, and retention.
Talent Acquisition, Onboarding & Training
- Develop and execute recruiting strategies for hourly and salaried roles in a competitive labor market (trade schools, universities, community partnerships, and creative sourcing channels).
- Own and continuously improve onboarding, delivering an effective in‑house orientation and ensuring rapid integration into production environments.
- Lead and execute continuous training and cross‑training initiatives, including development and maintenance of training materials and manuals.
Compensation & Workforce Analytics
- Support compensation planning processes aligned to market benchmarks and internal equity, including salary bands, merit increases, and pay‑for‑performance programs (within approval frameworks).
- Maintain employee census data and deliver workforce analytics to support leadership decision‑making.
Employee Relations & Culture
- Serve as the primary point of contact for employee relations, including conflict resolution, investigations, coaching, and performance management.
- Lead disciplinary actions and terminations with thorough documentation in alignment with policy and employment law.
- Strengthen a positive, high‑performance culture aligned with operational excellence.
Compliance & Safety
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment regulations.
- Partner with safety leadership to support incident investigations, corrective actions, and ongoing compliance.
- Own and continuously update the employee handbook and HR policies to reflect legal compliance and organizational standards.
Leave Administration
- Manage leave of absence programs including FMLA, ADA, workers' compensation, and CT state‑specific leaves.
- Ensure documentation accuracy and coordinate effectively with payroll and benefits partners.
Labor Reporting & Operational Support
- Build and maintain dashboards and recurring reports (daily/weekly/monthly) for operations leadership.
- Track and analyze key labor KPIs (overtime, headcount, attendance/absenteeism, turnover, productivity, and labor efficiency) and highlight meaningful variances.
- Identify trends and root causes; translate findings into clear recommendations and action plans that improve labor performance.
- Support labor planning and forecasting by partnering with operations on staffing needs, schedule changes, and workload drivers.
- Partner with operations leaders to identify cost drivers and improvement opportunities.
Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree and 5–8+ years of progressive HR experience in a manufacturing or light industrial environment.
- SHRM‑CP or PHR certification preferred.
- Fluency in Spanish preferred.
- Strong knowledge of OSHA, FMLA, ADA, and employment laws.
- Experience supporting production environments required; with direct hands on production experience preferred.
- Strong analytical skills and HRIS/reporting capability.
- Accountability mindset‑sets clear priorities and measurable goals, follows through on commitments, and uses KPIs and metrics to drive results.
- Process‑ and systems‑oriented problem solver‑comfortable using data, root‑cause thinking, and simple, repeatable workflows to improve outcomes.
- Working knowledge of Lean/continuous improvement concepts and structured quality management practices (standard work, document control, audits, corrective actions) within a manufacturing environment.
Key Strengths for Success
- Operational acumen and experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Strategic, forward‑looking business partner who anticipates people and operational needs and helps leaders drive change and growth.
- Employee‑centered leadership with a proven ability to engage, develop, and support employees while partnering with leaders to build a high‑performing culture.
- Data‑driven decision making and strong follow‑through.
- Conflict resolution and employee relations expertise.
- Compliance and risk awareness.
- Influential communication and professionalism at all levels.
- Continuous improvement mindset.