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HR Generalist - Manufacturing

Growing Industrial Manufacturer — Chicago Northwest Suburbs

Location: Itasca, IL

Hours: Full-time; a realistic 40-hour week (this is not a burnout role)

Compensation: $70,000 to $75,000 base salary + benefits

Reports to: VP of Operations, HR & Safety

Required

• 3 to 5 years of HR experience in a generalist, HR coordinator, or similar HR support role, with hands-on exposure to recruiting coordination and onboarding
• An associate degree or above in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field
• Previous HR experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment
• Genuine comfort with an hourly, blue-collar workforce; you should be someone who enjoys walking the shop floor, is happy to put on safety glasses and steel-toed shoes, and connects as easily with machine operators as with executives
• Strong organizational and documentation skills, with the ability to juggle multiple priorities and keep accurate, confidential records
• A coordinator's mindset: you want to own the day-to-day execution of HR, build relationships, and be the go-to point of contact, rather than set strategy or manage a team
• Working knowledge of federal, state, and local employment law fundamentals
• Excellent interpersonal skills and sound judgment in handling sensitive information
• A demonstrated commitment to longevity; this client promotes from within and values tenure, and any job movement in your history should have a clear story behind it

Nice to Have

• Experience improving onboarding programs or coordinating and tracking employee training
• Familiarity with ADP or other payroll platforms (no HRIS expertise required; the company is evaluating platforms, and you could help shape that selection)
• High-volume hourly recruiting experience, or a background coordinating with external recruiters and staffing agencies
• SHRM-CP, PHR, or similar HR certification

The Opportunity

Our client is a global industrial systems manufacturer headquartered in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, with two established business units serving distinct markets. The company has doubled in size and now supports roughly 160 full-time employees plus a contingent workforce of about 60 contractors, and that growth has created the need for its first dedicated HR Generalist.

This is a newly created role, and that matters. You will not be inheriting someone else's processes or cleaning up someone else's mess. You will be the first person to own day-to-day HR coordination at a company known for strong retention, long employee tenure, and a leadership team that genuinely takes care of its people. The VP you report to currently handles HR alongside Operations and Safety, and leadership across both business units is spending valuable time on HR administration that should be centralized with a capable point person. That person is you.

What You'll Do

• Be the initial point of contact for HR: Serve as the first call for managers and employees on day-to-day HR matters, taking administrative work off leadership's plates so they can focus on running the business.
• Coordinate recruiting activity: The company already has strong recruiting resources, including external recruiting partners and staffing agencies for hourly augmentation. Your job is to coordinate that activity, build deeper relationships with those partners, keep hiring managers informed, and identify where the process can improve.
• Own and improve onboarding: Facilitate new hire onboarding and orientation and put your stamp on the process by making it better.
• Spearhead training coordination: Training programs are in place, and you will coordinate delivery (including virtual training), track completion, and flag gaps so employees get what they need to grow.
• Support benefits administration: Partner with the company's HR Assistant, who owns benefits and open enrollment, by helping employees with questions, enrollments, and changes.
• Keep the paperwork tight: Maintain accurate employee records and documentation, and prepare offer letters, employment verifications, and employee relations paperwork. Managers own corrective action conversations and the VP handles investigations and legal matters, so your role is documentation support, not discipline.
• Help ensure compliance: Support adherence to federal, state, and local employment laws and company policies, backed by the company's employer association membership, which provides deep HR and legal resources.

Why This Role Is Different

Most first-HR-hire roles come with a warning label: undefined scope, an overwhelmed hiring manager, and employee relations landmines from day one. This one is structured differently. The VP retains ownership of investigations, difficult decisions, legal matters, and workers' compensation. Benefits and open enrollment stay with an experienced HR Assistant. Payroll sits with Accounting. The company belongs to a major employer association with extensive HR and legal resources on call.

What that leaves you with is the good part: coordination, relationship building, recruiting support, onboarding, and training, with a clear lane and real ownership inside it. It is an ideal setup for a strong HR coordinator ready to step into a Generalist title, or a generalist who loves execution and wants direct exposure to an executive leader without the parts of HR that keep people up at night.

And despite what you might expect from a manufacturing environment, the schedule is a genuine 40-hour week.

The Culture

This is a company where people stay, and that is not an accident. Leadership has built a culture of strong retention and employee satisfaction, and they are protective of it. They are looking for someone who fits that environment: approachable, dependable, organized, and genuinely interested in being the person employees and managers trust. If you want a role where you can build something from the ground up, be visible to leadership, and grow your HR career inside a company that rewards loyalty, this is that opportunity.