Job Overview
We are seeking an energetic and strategic Human Resources Manager to lead our HR initiatives and foster a vibrant, compliant, and high-performing workplace. In this role, you will drive talent acquisition, employee development, and workforce management strategies that align with organizational goals. Your leadership will ensure a positive employee experience while maintaining adherence to employment laws and HR best practices. This is an exciting opportunity to shape our company culture, implement innovative HR solutions, and support our team’s growth and success.
Duties
- HR Strategy and Business Partnership
- Develop and implement a U.S. HR strategy aligned with Cortland International’s operational and financial objectives.
HR Team Leadership
- Lead, develop, and support the U.S. HR team, including the HR Generalist in Anacortes and the remote HR support resource.
- Clearly define roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and service expectations within the HR organization.
- Provide coaching, direction, performance feedback, and development opportunities for HR team members.
- Ensure consistent HR practices, policies, documentation, and employee support across both locations.
- Maintain an effective balance between centralized HR leadership, local site support, and shared administrative services.
- Continuously improve HR processes, responsiveness, accuracy, and internal customer service.
Employee Relations and Engagement
- Serve as the primary HR contact for Stafford employees and provide oversight for employee relations matters in Anacortes.
- Coach managers and supervisors on employee relations, communication, corrective action, conflict resolution, attendance, workplace conduct, and performance concerns.
- Conduct or oversee workplace investigations and ensure findings, documentation, and actions are fair, consistent, and legally compliant.
- Promote a respectful, safe, and productive workplace culture.
- Develop and support employee engagement, recognition, communication, and retention initiatives.
- Monitor workforce trends and recommend actions to reduce turnover, absenteeism, employee relations concerns, and reliance on temporary labor.
- Ensure employees have appropriate channels to raise concerns and that issues are addressed promptly and professionally.
Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning
- Lead workforce planning and recruiting strategies for hourly, technical, professional, and leadership positions.
- Partner with operational leaders to identify staffing requirements, critical skills, succession needs, and anticipated workforce gaps.
- Oversee job requisitions, sourcing, interviewing, selection, pre-employment activities, offers, and onboarding.
- Develop recruiting approaches suited to the labor markets in Stafford and Anacortes.
- Monitor recruiting effectiveness, vacancy levels, time to fill, quality of hire, turnover, and temporary labor utilization.
- Ensure job descriptions, job classifications, and position requirements remain current and accurate.
- Develop retention strategies for critical and difficult-to-fill roles.
Performance Management and Organizational Development
- Manage the company’s performance management process for U.S. employees.
- Coach managers in setting expectations, providing feedback, documenting performance, and addressing performance deficiencies.
- Support performance improvement plans, development plans, succession planning, and leadership development.
- Identify organizational capability gaps and coordinate appropriate training and development solutions.
- Partner with operations leaders to strengthen frontline leadership, supervisory effectiveness, accountability, and communication.
- Support organizational changes, restructuring, workforce transitions, and change-management activities.
Compensation and Benefits
- Oversee compensation practices for U.S. operations, including pay structures, salary ranges, wage administration, market reviews, promotional increases, and compensation recommendations.
- Support the development and administration of equitable and competitive compensation programs.
- Review compensation decisions for internal consistency, market alignment, affordability, and legal compliance.
- Provide oversight of employee benefit programs and related communications.
- Ensure enrollment, employee changes, eligibility, deductions, and vendor coordination are administered accurately through the HR support function.
- Partner with Finance and corporate leadership on annual compensation planning, benefit renewals, workforce budgets, and labor-cost analysis.
- Monitor pay practices for compliance with applicable state and federal requirements.
Payroll, HRIS, Data and Reporting Oversight
- Provide leadership and oversight for payroll administration while ensuring appropriate review controls, accuracy, timeliness, and confidentiality.
- Ensure employee time records, payroll changes, deductions, and reconciliations are processed accurately.
- Maintain accountability for the integrity of employee information within the HRIS and related systems.
- Establish standards for employee records, data entry, document retention, reporting, and audit readiness.
- Develop and monitor key HR metrics, including headcount, turnover, absenteeism, vacancies, labor utilization, recruiting performance, employee relations activity, training completion, and workforce costs.
- Provide meaningful analysis and recommendations to operational and executive leadership.
- Identify opportunities to automate and improve HR workflows, reporting, and administrative processes.
Policies, Compliance and Risk Management
- Ensure compliance with applicable federal, Texas, and Washington employment laws and regulations.
- Maintain current knowledge of employment requirements affecting both operating locations.
- Develop, review, communicate, and consistently administer HR policies, procedures, handbooks, and employment practices.
- Ensure appropriate administration of leave programs, workplace accommodations, wage-and-hour requirements, recordkeeping, and employment documentation.
- Coordinate with legal counsel, benefit providers, insurance carriers, and external HR specialists as necessary.
- Support audits, investigations, claims, and regulatory inquiries.
- Maintain complete, accurate, confidential, and legally compliant employee records.
- Partner with Safety and Operations leadership on workers’ compensation, return-to-work programs, workplace investigations, training, and employee safety matters.
HR Administration and Continuous Improvement
- Establish scalable HR processes appropriate for a two-plant, approximately 100-employee manufacturing organization.
- Standardize forms, templates, approval processes, documentation, and reporting across both plants.
- Clarify accountability between HR, Operations, Finance, Payroll, and corporate support functions.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of HR programs and recommend practical improvements.
- Manage HR vendors and external service providers within approved budgets.
- Ensure HR activities are performed efficiently, accurately, consistently, and with appropriate internal controls.
- Serve as the principal HR business partner to the Vice President of U.S. Operations and the U.S. leadership team.
- Translate business requirements into workforce plans, organizational priorities, talent strategies, and HR initiatives.
- Advise leaders on organizational structure, staffing, employee performance, succession planning, workforce capability, and employee engagement.
- Participate in operational planning and leadership reviews to ensure people-related risks and requirements are addressed.
- Establish HR priorities, service levels, standards, and performance measures across both U.S. locations.
Organizational Relationships
The U.S. HR Manager:
- Reports to the Vice President of U.S. Operations.
- Leads the HR Generalist located in Anacortes, Washington.
- Oversees the remote HR support resource responsible for payroll administration, HRIS and data management, benefits administration, HR administration, documentation, and reporting.
- Partners closely with plant leadership, department managers, supervisors, Finance, Safety, Quality, Operations, and corporate leadership.
- Serves as the primary U.S. HR point of contact for external vendors, employment counsel, benefit providers, and other HR partners.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field.
- Minimum of seven years of progressive Human Resources experience.
- At least three years of HR leadership, management, or senior HR business-partner experience.
- Broad working knowledge of employee relations, recruiting, performance management, compensation, benefits, payroll, HRIS administration, and employment compliance.
- Experience supporting multiple locations or geographically dispersed teams.
- Demonstrated experience working directly with operational leaders and frontline employees.
- Strong knowledge of federal employment laws and the ability to manage differing state requirements.
- Experience conducting employee investigations and advising managers on sensitive employee matters.
- Strong written, verbal, analytical, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to manage confidential information and exercise sound judgment.
- Proficiency with HR information systems, payroll systems, Microsoft Office, and HR reporting tools.
- Ability to travel periodically between company locations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Human Resources experience in manufacturing, industrial, distribution, or another operationally intensive environment.
- Experience supporting both hourly and salaried employee populations.
- Experience with Washington and Texas employment practices.
- Professional certification such as SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR.
- Experience building or improving HR processes within a growing or changing organization.
- Experience managing payroll, benefits, HRIS, compensation structures, and workforce analytics.
- Demonstrated success improving employee retention, leadership capability, engagement, and recruiting performance.
Leadership Competencies
- Business and operational acumen
- Strategic thinking with hands-on execution
- Employee advocacy and sound judgment
- Leadership and team development
- Accountability and follow-through
- Clear and credible communication
- Conflict management and problem solving
- Data-based decision-making
- Consistency and attention to detail
- Change leadership
- Integrity and confidentiality
- Practical, service-oriented approach
Measures of Success
Performance in the role will be evaluated through measures such as:
- Workforce stability and employee retention
- Recruiting effectiveness and reduction in vacancy duration
- Employee relations responsiveness and resolution quality
- Consistency of HR practices across both plants
- Leadership and supervisory effectiveness
- Payroll, HRIS, benefits, and employee-data accuracy
- Timeliness and quality of HR reporting
- Completion of performance reviews and employee-development activities
- Compliance, documentation, and audit readiness
- Employee engagement and communication effectiveness
- HR team capability, responsiveness, and service quality
- Progress toward reducing unnecessary temporary-labor dependence and associated workforce cost
Pay: From $78,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- Your notice period (if applicable): ______
- Expected Annual Base Salary:_________
Education:
Experience:
- Human resources: 5 years (Preferred)
Ability to Commute:
- Stafford, TX 77477 (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
