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