Associate HR Director, Operations

Description

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At Lactalis in the USA, we're committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive-whether you're just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we're proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani Italian cheeses and ricotta,
President specialty cheeses and butters,
Kraft natural and grated cheeses,
Breakstone's cottage cheese,
Cracker Barrel
, Black Diamond cheddar, and Parmalat milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi's,
Stonyfield Organic
, Brown Cow
, Oui
, Yoplait
, Go-Gurt
, :ratio
, Green Mountain Creamery
, and Mountain High
, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun
, Gopi
, and Arz
.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values
- Ambition
, Engagement
, and Simplicity
. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone's unique background and ideas are valued.

Lactalis Heritage Dairy, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring an Associate HR Director, Operations position based in Chicago, IL.

The Associate HR Director, Operations plays a key role in supporting the HR strategy across our technical functions of Industrial, Supply Chain and Quality. This role collaborates particularly closely with Supply Chain and Quality VPs, providing executive coaching and broader HR guidance on employee relations, talent and organizational development, and engagement initiatives. This position is responsible for ensuring our Supply Chain and Quality organizations are strategic partners to our Industrial teams, creating one combined "Operations" unit within Lactalis Heritage Dairy (LHD).

Reporting to the HR Director for Operations who will be primarily supporting our Industrial sites, this role may take on indirect leadership of a small subset of manufacturing sites depending on workload.

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Develop strong relationships with Human Resources (HR), as well as plant and Distribution Center leadership teams, as appropriate.
• Guide plant HR teams on employee relation topics, including onboarding, recognition, performance, and investigations.
• Recommend programs addressing attraction, turnover, and engagement; contribute and support during program implementation
• Document progressive job titles, skills and rates by Hourly positions then communicate across the plants
• Document progressive competencies and compensation (base salary + bonus) by Salaried position, reflecting established Salary Structure
• Leverage Shared Services (benefits, payroll, HRIS) to assist and engage employees; encourage appreciation for Total Rewards
• Support Talent Acquisition and Talent Development at the field locations.
• Facilitate and manage the training plan, collaborating with manufacturing leadership to identify development needs and ensure training programs support operational goals.
• Lead the Management Review process, providing structure and oversight to ensure ongoing evaluation and improvement of workforce performance and engagement. Facilitate and support employee communication and appraisal processes.
• Interface regularly with Corporate HR Team, and, where needed Legal, Compliance, and Safety.

The incumbent may have limited indirect (dotted line) leadership of Plant HR Managers, depending on the bandwidth of the HR Director and the development goals of the Associate HR Director. This role would be expected to collaborate with the HR Director and the Plant Directors to provide functional coaching and development, as appropriate.

• Travel is required up to 25% monthly.
• Extended hours may be necessary depending on the project needs.
• To fulfill these responsibilities, tools such as a computer, phone or, and / or allowance(s) may be provided.
• To fulfill these responsibilities, a cell phone is required.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential duties and responsibilities.
• This position requires physical presence in the office, in accordance with the…