SunOpta Hiring for Director HR Operations at Eden Prairie, MN  Full Time

SunOpta Overview:

SunOpta Inc. is a mid-sized, high-growth, leading healthy food and beverage company focused on plant-based foods and beverages. Today, we are one of the top contract manufacturers of shelf-stable plant-based milks, teas, broths, protein shakes & fruit snacks in North America. Our portfolio is so diverse, chances are high you eat and/or drink our customer brands! SunOpta is a sustainability company, and we specialize in the sourcing, processing, and packaging of our organic, conventional, and non-GMO food products.

We look for talented individuals that demonstrate our most valued behaviors: Passion, Dedication, Speed, Entrepreneurship, Customer-Centricity, and Problem-Solver, those ready to be part of our growth story and have a personal impact in creating a brighter, healthier, and sustainable future of food!

Job Summary:

SunOpta is seeking a seasoned HR Director to be the dedicated business partner to our SVP Supply Chain & Operations leader & to lead our Plant HR Manager team.

They will be responsible for:

• All HR strategies for Operations & Supply Chain (design and execution).
• Thought / business-partnership and employee relations & manager development for the Operations / manufacturing organization.
• Lead our SunOpta One Ops Transformation People Pillar strategies to execution through the plant teams and ensure consistent practices, procedures, and strategies are implemented and well-managed.
• People leadership over all plant HR Managers/Sr HRMs (7) & their HR Assistants / Plant Admin Assistants (6).

Essential Functions of the Job:

Business Partnering –

• Contribute to and implement HR (aka Org Effectiveness, Talent & Culture) strategy for assigned clients to achieve business objectives and drive employee engagement.
• Coach and guide managers / leadership to increase their effectiveness as leaders, providing direct, transparent, and timely feedback and coaching.
• Provide insights and trends to leadership as well as solutions and strategy ideas to solve problems.
• Ensure execution of / personally facilitate talent / team development sessions, performance calibrations, talent reviews, compensation review, employee relations, and talent acquisition support / onboarding for key roles.

Team Leadership –

• Inspire, demonstrate, and teach strategic HR business partnering capabilities.
• Coach and guide HR Managers to increase their effectiveness including providing direct, transparent, and timely feedback, set goals, team meetings, best practice sharing, program/process completion tracking, etc.
• Ensures each plant has a documented “Org, Talent & Culture” plan-on-a-page / strategy for the year that syncs up to overall Ops leadership & HR priorities and ensures the plans are progressed throughout the year through the HR and plant leadership teams.
• Actively participate in plant Quarterly Business Reviews with C-suite leadership.
• Travels to and builds personal relationships with plant regularly and headquarters teams.

Org Effectiveness, Talent & Culture –

• Review line staffing, staffing costs to budget, turnover, time-to-fill, org health (engagement) survey, focus groups, safety, etc. data for trends and offers insights & coaching to leadership / HRMs for action planning as appropriate.
• Leads projects personally or through others to streamline and improve HR processes, tools, and programs & build people manager capabilities (i.e., lead People Pillar of Ops Transformation, onboarding, manager/supervisor training, career pathing, performance process, talent review, Roles, Accountabilities & Measures, Role Profiles, etc.)
• Ensures organizational effectiveness through ongoing organizational design, analysis and implementation, and change management consulting/leadership.
• Drive the people strategy & change leadership on significant organizational changes that include transformations, reorganizations, downsizings, acquisitions, factory moves, and start-ups.
• Develop and coordinate all aspects of communication relating to change initiatives.
• Partner with HR Centers of Expertise in learning & development, OD, talent management to facilitate and/or ensure execution locally of programming (i.e., may lead/co-lead team effectiveness and/or manager/supervisor trainings at some plants).

Employee Relations & Safety

• Stay current in general recent federal, state and case law changes and monitors labor law updates / changes that affect HR.
• Ensures effective safety procedures, tools and record keeping are managed through site leadership.
• Adheres to company GMP’s (good manufacturing practices), safety procedures and all other quality processes.
• Leads / ensures call-in line investigations are conducted.
• Assist with communication and interpretation of HR policies and procedures.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• People leadership over all plant HR Managers/Sr HRMs (7) & their HR Assistants / Plant Admin Assistants (6).

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, HR or related major required.
• Minimum ten (10) years’ experience gained through increasingly responsible management positions within Human Resources, with direct experience in multi-cultural environment.
• Experience in a multi-location, manufacturing environment.
• Experience coaching and mentoring others, influencing without authority.
• One or more of the following project or process leadership experience: Talent Management / Learning / Change / Org Design / Team.
• People leadership experience.
• Experience facilitating leadership discussions and / or training programs.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MBA, MAIR, and/or other HR certifications.
• Proficient in Microsoft Suite and payroll / HRIS systems.
• Food and Beverage or other regulated industry manufacturing environment experience.
• Remote people leadership experience.
• Bilingual in English and Spanish.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Combination of Generalist/HR Business Partner & HR Specialist / HR project leadership experiences.
• Broad knowledge of employment law, compensation, organizational & talent planning, employee relations, performance management, and training & development.
• Experience working in a culturally and geographically dispersed organization, managing employees remotely.
• Strong interpersonal and business partnering skills along with project management and program design skills; effective partnering with stakeholders to achieve success in attracting, developing, measuring, and retaining the best talent.
• Experience effectively creating & leading HR initiatives & strategies that drove business & employee engagement & retention results.
• Courageous, creative, scrappy problem solver that leads with strong listening skills, seeks to be a consultative partner and is solutions oriented.
• Strong investigations / employee relations experience; high level of personal integrity.
• Ability to work well under pressure and flexible in adapting and responding to changing situations.
• Highly accountable & customer centric.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills – ability to present, train, influence, and build consensus / alignment, up and down levels of the organization.

Additional Considerations:

• Travel Expectation: Up to 20%.
• Strongly preferred location for this role is Eden Prairie, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. Remote/other site locations may be considered as needed.

Work Environment/Physical Demands:

• Approximately; 90% of the work is performed in an office environment. 10% of work involves being in the manufacturing environment.
• Work location: For Eden Prairie office- Hybrid, onsite at office Tue-Th, “SunFlex” benefit offered to WFH M & F, standard office worker hours; occasional flexibility required for investigations support.

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time, with or without notice.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

EOE M/W/VET/DISABLED

• Eden Prairie Office, 7078 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, United States of America