Bilingual Human Resources Manager

The Role

Gotham Greens is seeking a Human Resources Manager to join the National Human Resources (HR) team to oversee, deliver and implement HR-related initiatives, programs, practices, people events and policies across all Gotham Greens Operating Facilities. This includes: (1) Supporting Gotham Greens’ strategic business plans to meet people and operational objectives such as people planning, recruitment & selection, performance management and risk; (2) Forecasting risk management and assessing compliance.  Driving the application of sound strategies to resolve difficult and/or sensitive workplace matters, often from investigation findings or employee personal matters that impact work; (3)  Partnering with Operational leaders to align the culture with the mission and company values and support employee development;  (4) Analyzing HR and Operational KPI’s, targets and controls used to monitor trends and to identify impact to the business and corrective actions needed.

What You'll Do

• Define, deploy, and enforce company policies, values, and performance expectations in line with the strategic people vision of Gotham Greens leadership. Support HR and business leadership in building and deploying a strategic people plan to retain and develop facility talent.

• Act as a strategic business partner to all levels of management, serving as a company resource for Employee Relations best practices and recommending solutions to business issues consistent with Gotham Greens people policies.

• Work in lock step with facility and business operations leadership to drive people planning and deploy people-related initiatives to achieve facility-level cultural and financial success.

• Act as a point of escalation for sensitive, complex, or high-risk employee relations matters.

• Coordinate third-party vendor and temporary agency relationships to ensure that business requirements are met and counterproductive activity by temporary staff members is quickly addressed. May engage in joint investigations with 3^rd party representatives when matters involve employees from both teams.

• Take pro-active steps to manage risk pertaining to employee, labor and safety matters by keeping up to date on employment laws and applying them to employment and labor related matters.

• Ensure all Gotham Greens facilities comply with all state and local employment laws and regulations.

• Participate in salary reviews, propose pay structure and practice revisions, notify employees when they exceed authorized rates of pay and are capped, and forecast the impact of pay and salary changes made at the sites.

• Analyze HR-related reports and KPIs for trending purposes, identifying areas of concern, and recommending organization-wide and site-specific interventions to address trends and improve the work environment, morale, culture, retention, etc.

• Foster team commitment, pride, and trust. Facilitate cooperation and motivate team members to achieve KPI’s, expectations, and accomplish goals. Make recommendations to team members on ways of working, using various communication methods, continuous improvement, and benchmarks to improve morale and efficiency.

• Build strong partnerships and effectively collaborate with Gotham Greens leadership, operations management, HR team members, internal and external professionals, 3^rd party vendors, and temporary staffing agencies in the management of facilities recruitment and staffing, and rollout of workplace programs and community.

• Reinforce business culture from the start of onboarding, ensuring compliance with processes in a timely fashion.

• Support operational training as needed.

• Drive the facilities people agenda and agreed upon next steps.  Sets the agenda for meetings, provides supportive data, KPI results and trends, site plans, employee feedback, and community activities. 

• Leverage the involvement of key stakeholders of all levels in the solution of ER initiatives and solutions to ensure compliance with applicable employment laws in an effort to proactively manage risk.

• Supporting benefits initiatives, processes, and cyclical Open Enrollment activities such as benefit enrollments, qualifying life events and other benefit related inquiries are addressed.

• Support the payroll process including direct deposit setup, researching timekeeping discrepancies, issuing pay cards for adjustments and final pay.

• Continually assess HR processes to ensure that they are up to date with industry and internal best practices and identify opportunities to instill sound HR practices in alignment with company goals.

• Contribute to strategic goals and policies, programs, and practices by leading or participating on departmental and/or cross-functional special projects teams.

Who You Are

• 6-8 years of Human Resources generalist and talent acquisition experience with exempt and non-exempt employee populations in manufacturing, food, or related industries.

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, advanced degree preferred.

• Bilingual competency in Spanish preferred.

• Knowledge of good manufacturing practices is preferred.

• Strong knowledge and experience of employee relations practices, conflict resolution, and ability to minimize risk. Labor relations experience is preferred.

• A forward-thinking and solution-oriented critical thinker with analytical and organizational skills to stay on top of a heavy load.

• Ability to think strategically and adapt to changing priorities in an ever-evolving environment.

• Self-motivated and detail-oriented with the ability to effectively multi-task

• Ability to work both independently and in a team environment to achieve results.

• Proven ability to handle confidential and sensitive matters, utilizing sound judgement in a complex environment.

• Experience working effectively with multiple levels of cross-functional internal and external stakeholders.

• Excellent written and verbal communication.

• Comfortable using a variety of systems, including Microsoft Suite and HRIS.

• Ability to periodically work in cold, chilled, or hot environments to meet with employees and observe work.

• Travel Requirements:

  • Able to work flexible hours with some night and weekend work on occasion.

  • The position is primarily sedentary but requires frequent standing and walking to meet expectations.

  • Ability to routinely travel short distances to move across sites; periodic longer-distance travel.

Who We Are

Gotham Greens is on a mission to transform how and where fresh produce is grown. We are a pioneer in urban indoor agriculture and a leading fresh produce and food company. Through our national network of local high-tech farms, Gotham Greens delivers fresh, long-lasting, and delicious leafy greens, herbs, salad dressings and pesto dip all year round to retail, restaurant, and foodservice customers.

Since its launch in 2011, Gotham Greens has grown from a single urban rooftop greenhouse in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a multi-state greenhouse operator and one of the largest hydroponic leafy green producers in North America.