People Partner

Reports to: Suffolk HR Manager / Head of HR North America

Location: Suffolk, VA (Suffolk Factory), hybrid | Job Type: Permanent, Full-time | Travel Required: Limited

The role

The People & Organization (P&O) Specialist is a hands-on, customer-focused HR role supporting the day-to-day people agenda for the Suffolk factory’s hourly and salaried employee population. Reporting to the Suffolk P&O Manager, this role acts as a trusted partner to front-line leaders and employees, providing practical HR support across employee relations, workforce administration, and people processes in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

In addition to site responsibilities, the P&O Specialist will provide administrative and operational HR support to employees based in the Hoboken, NJ office and remote corporate population. This support will primarily focus on transactional and coordination activities such as policy guidance, process navigation, documentation support, and liaison with shared services and Centers of Expertise, ensuring timely resolution of employee queries and consistent application of processes.

This role is well suited for an HR professional who enjoys being close to the business, working with blue-collar populations, and improving how HR services are delivered through strong fundamentals, standard work, and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities

Factory HR operations & employee support
- Serve as the first point of contact for employees and front-line leaders on HR-related topics, including policies, procedures, and people processes.
- Support a high-volume hourly workforce, ensuring consistent, fair, and compliant application of HR practices.
- Partner closely with site leadership, supervisors, payroll, safety, and operations to resolve issues efficiently and professionally.

Employee relations & investigations
- Coach and advise employees, supervisors, and managers on employee relations matters, including attendance, conduct, performance, and workplace concerns.
- Support and conduct investigations as required, including interviews, documentation, and coordination with legal or employee relations resources.
- Prepare and review corrective action documentation, ensuring consistency and quality.

Leaves, accommodations & exits
- Support employees and leaders with initiating and managing leaves and exits (e.g., FMLA, STD, medical accommodations, retirement).
- Coordinate with external leave administrators and internal stakeholders; communicate status updates clearly and accurately.

Site HR excellence & continuous improvement
- Establish and maintain standard work for core people processes (hire-to-retire).
- Identify recurring issues and root causes; lead practical improvements that reduce errors, cycle time, and rework.
- Create and maintain simple SOPs, job aids, and tools to support leaders and employees.

People metrics & insights
- Build and maintain a site-level people dashboard (e.g., turnover, absence, overtime, time-to-fill, onboarding completion, ER themes).
- Translate data into clear insights and action plans with defined owners, timelines, and outcomes.

Onboarding, retention & engagement
- Coordinate onboarding and orientation with cross-functional partners to ensure day-one readiness.
- Own the new-hire experience and feedback loop; partner with Operations to address early attrition and strengthen supervisor onboarding capability.
- Support engagement survey logistics and facilitate local action planning; track progress and communicate wins.

Leader enablement
- Develop and deliver simple tools, templates, and micro-trainings for front-line leaders.

Digital & self-service enablement
- Promote adoption of HR self-service tools and site communication channels.
- Ensure high-quality data and transactions within HR systems.

Hoboken office & corporate administrative support
- Provide administrative and operational HR support to Hoboken-based and remote corporate employees.
- Respond to employee queries, guide employees through HR processes, and coordinate with shared services and COEs to ensure timely resolution.

Labor relations support (if applicable)
- Support grievance administration and documentation.
- Apply the Collective Bargaining Agreement appropriately.

Skills & experience

- 3+ years of HR  experience, with exposure to a manufacturing, industrial, warehouse, or blue-collar environment.
- Strong employee relations foundation, including investigations, documentation, and coaching leaders.
- Experience supporting hourly workforces, shift environments, and time & attendance processes.
- Demonstrated ability to use people data to identify trends and drive practical actions.
- Experience improving HR processes using standard work or continuous improvement approaches.
- Comfortable influencing front-line leaders and facilitating small group discussions.
- Experience working with HRIS and timekeeping systems; strong attention to data quality.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills; highly organized and able to manage multiple priorities with discretion and confidentiality.

Why join?

This role offers hands-on exposure to the full employee lifecycle in a factory environment, combined with administrative corporate HR support. It provides a strong foundation for developing HR capability while making a visible impact on both site and corporate employee experiences.