HR Manager

Relate Search; Arkansas City (AR); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Relate Search is partnering with a long-established, rapidly growing manufacturing organization to fill an on-site HR Manager role at a busy plant with ~300 employees. This hands-on position supports hourly payroll and recruiting, employee relations, union grievances, training, performance management, benefits, and corporate projects, collaborating with the Sr.

HR Manager across initiatives. Experience in manufacturing and union environments is highly valued; bachelor's degree preferred but not

Qualifications

• Experience with hourly payroll processing, biweekly cycles.
• Experience in a union environment or labor relations.
• Experience with recruiting and open enrollment processes.
• Ability to handle both tactical payroll and strategic HR work.
• Bachelor's degree preferred; HR-specific degree not required.
• Manufacturing experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a hands-on HR partner to frontline supervisors.
• Own hourly payroll processing, biweekly cycles (~6–8 hours per cycle).
• Learn and administer the union contract, especially compensation and payroll.
• Field employee relations issues and union grievances, building labor-relations knowledge.
• Participate in hourly and salaried performance-management cycles.
• Support benefits and open enrollment.
• Facilitate meetings, training sessions, and employee communications.
• Participate in corporate projects and occasional support for other locations.

Skills

Payroll processing

Labor relations

Recruiting

Employee relations

Facilitation

Training

Education

Bachelor's degree strongly preferred

Job description

We are partnered with a long-established, rapidly growing manufacturing organization.

This HR Manager opportunity supports a smaller, highly active manufacturing facility with approximately 300employees. The site operates 24/7 with a highly tenured, skilled workforce. This is a true hands-on plant HR role. The person coming in will work alongside the Sr. HR Manager across everything from hourly payroll and recruiting to employee relations, union grievances, training, performance management, and broader corporate projects.

What You'll Do

• Serve as a hands-on HR partner to frontline supervisors across the plant.
• Take significant ownership of hourly payroll processing, which runs biweekly and typically requires approximately 6–8 hours each cycle.
• Learn and administer the union contract, particularly the compensation and payroll provisions that drive many employee questions and grievances.
• Field employee relations issues and union grievances while continuing to build labor-relations knowledge.
• Participate in hourly performance reviews followed by the salaried performance-management cycle.
• Support benefits and open enrollment.
• Facilitate meetings, training sessions, and employee communications.
• Participate in corporate projects and occasionally support other locations.

What We're Looking For

• Manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Adjacent backgrounds could include distribution, logistics, industrial, or other environments with significant hourly employee populations.
• Experience working in a union environment is highly valuable, but someone with the right aptitude and desire to learn labor relations can be considered.
• Comfortable handling both highly tactical responsibilities and increasingly strategic work.
• Must be willing to personally process payroll—not simply oversee it.
• Strong employee-relations judgment and comfort working directly with hourly employees.
• Recruiting experience or willingness to own recruiting initiatives.
• Strong facilitator and communicator who can eventually stand in front of employee groups and leadership teams.
• Curious, energetic, and genuinely interested in learning the operation.
• Bachelor's degree strongly preferred; HR-specific degree is not required.

Why This Opportunity?

This is an exceptional opportunity to learn under a leader who is highly invested in developing HR talent while gaining broad, hands-on exposure across payroll, labor and employee relations, recruiting, talent management, benefits, training, and corporate initiatives. The role also offers the chance to deepen union and labor relations expertise in a collaborative environment while serving as a highly visible, on-site HR partner to plant supervisors and employees.