HR Business Partner - Manufacturing
Location - North
Position Overview
The HR Business Partner (HRBP) will partner with plant leadership and functional managers to align people strategies with operational and business objectives. This role is responsible for employee relations, workforce planning, performance management, talent development, organizational effectiveness, and compliance across the manufacturing site.
The successful candidate will combine strong HR expertise with a practical understanding of manufacturing operations, including shift-based workforces, production demands, safety requirements, and labor relations.
Reports To
HR Director
Key Responsibilities
HR Business Partnership
- Serve as a trusted HR advisor to plant leadership, production managers, and functional heads.
- Translate business priorities into practical workforce and people-management plans.
- Provide guidance on organizational structure, staffing, productivity, employee engagement, and change management.
- Use workforce data and HR metrics to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
Employee Relations
- Advise managers on employee relations matters, including conduct, attendance, grievances, performance concerns, disciplinary action, and conflict resolution.
- Conduct fair, timely, and confidential workplace investigations.
- Promote consistent application of HR policies, procedures, and employment practices.
- Build positive relationships with employees across production, maintenance, quality, engineering, supply chain, and support functions.
- Support labor relations and collective bargaining activities where the workforce is unionized.
Workforce Planning and Recruitment
- Partner with operations leaders to forecast workforce requirements based on production volumes, shift patterns, overtime, turnover, and business plans.
- Coordinate with recruitment teams to fill hourly, technical, supervisory, and professional roles.
- Support headcount planning, succession planning, internal mobility, and retention initiatives.
- Improve onboarding and integration for new employees, especially plant-floor and shift-based employees.
Performance and Talent Management
- Facilitate goal setting, performance reviews, talent assessments, and succession-planning processes.
- Coach managers on providing feedback, handling underperformance, and developing employees.
- Identify capability gaps and work with leaders to implement training and development plans.
- Support the development of frontline supervisors and emerging leaders.
- Promote career development and internal progression within the manufacturing workforce.
Employee Engagement and Culture
- Develop initiatives that improve engagement, retention, communication, and workplace culture.
- Maintain a visible presence on the manufacturing floor and build credibility across all shifts.
- Support employee recognition, wellbeing, inclusion, and communication programs.
- Analyze engagement surveys, exit interviews, absenteeism, and turnover data, then coordinate action plans with management.
Compensation and HR Operations
- Support annual salary reviews, incentive processes, job evaluations, promotions, and compensation benchmarking.
- Partner with payroll and benefits teams to resolve employee concerns accurately and promptly.
- Help maintain accurate employee records and HR information systems.
- Ensure HR processes are administered consistently across departments and shifts.
Compliance, Safety, and Risk Management
- Ensure HR practices comply with applicable employment laws, labor regulations, company policies, and ethical standards.
- Partner with Environmental, Health, and Safety teams to reinforce a strong safety culture.
- Support return-to-work, workplace accommodation, occupational health, and attendance-management processes.
- Maintain accurate and confidential documentation for audits, investigations, and regulatory requirements.
- Identify workforce-related risks and recommend appropriate corrective or preventive actions.
Change and Continuous Improvement
- Support organizational changes, restructuring, technology implementation, and operational improvement programs.
- Apply continuous-improvement principles to simplify and strengthen HR processes.
- Participate in plant leadership meetings and contribute to site-level business planning.
- Lead or support HR projects across the plant or broader organization.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial Relations, Psychology, or a related field.
- Typically 5-8 years of progressive HR experience, including experience in an HR Business Partner, HR Generalist, or plant HR role.
- Experience in a manufacturing, industrial, engineering, logistics, or similarly operational environment is strongly preferred.
- Professional HR certification is an advantage.
- Working knowledge of applicable employment legislation and employee-relations practices.
- Experience supporting hourly, shift-based, and salaried employee populations.
- Union or labor-relations experience is preferred where relevant.
- Proficiency in HR information systems, Microsoft Office, and workforce reporting tools.
Skills and Competencies
- Strong business partnering and stakeholder-management skills.
- Sound judgment and the ability to handle sensitive matters with discretion.
- Excellent coaching, influencing, negotiation, and conflict-resolution abilities.
- Practical understanding of manufacturing operations and frontline workforce challenges.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to convert HR data into actionable recommendations.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills across all organizational levels.
- Ability to balance employee advocacy with operational and commercial priorities.
- Resilience and adaptability in a fast-paced, production-focused environment.
- Strong organization and project-management skills.
- Commitment to safety, ethics, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
