Lead - HR Business Partner - Manufacturing/R&D

Title: HRBP Lead - Manufacturing and R&D

Location: Kochi

Experience: 6+ Years

Role Purpose:

Partner with leaders and employees of R&D, and Manufacturing Divisions at Corporate offices to align people strategies with business goals. Provide specialized HR support tailored to innovation-heavy, knowledge-driven functions, ensuring talent attraction, development, retention, and engagement are optimized for these critical areas.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Business Partnership:

- Act as the central HR liaison for the functions, ensuring seamless integration of HR initiatives with business operations and serving as the first point of contact for employees on all people related matters

- Partner with relevant function heads to cascade cluster HR strategy into function-specific HR plans aligned to business needs

- Execute people-related initiatives within the functions by addressing day-to-day workforce needs, implementing solutions to functional challenges, and ensuring smooth HR delivery in partnership with function leaders

Org. Design:

- Share functional pain points (e.g., unclear reporting, duplicate roles, bandwidth constraints) during any org. design exercises

- Monitor impact of any structural changes to assess whether they are resolving earlier issues and accordingly provide feedback

- Provide functional insights for Org. Design, to validate proposed structural changes for specialist teams

Talent Acquisition:

- Partner with the TA CoE by providing business context, role specifications, and skill nuances to support hiring for specialist roles (R&D, design engineers, quality experts)

- Support functional leaders in defining capability requirements for niche talent and provide inputs to strengthen employer branding for technical talent pools

- Facilitate smooth hiring manager interactions with TA to ensure quality of hire and positive candidate experience

Capability Development:

- Collaborate with the TM CoE by providing on-ground insights for succession planning and career frameworks in specialist functions

- Support L&D CoE in designing targeted capability-building programs (e.g., R&D methodologies, quality excellence, industrial design skills)

Performance & Rewards:

- Facilitate the end-to-end PMS process by ensuring goals and KPIs are set appropriately, aligned to technical and functional outcomes, and compliant with HR timelines

- Coach managers on performance management and feedback conversations

- Guide managers in addressing underperformance through appropriate interventions, including Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)

- Facilitate talent reviews and track progress against development plans

- Provide inputs to the TM CoE on benchmarking and retention-linked interventions for scarce specialist roles

Employee Experience, Engagement & DEI:

- Implement engagement initiatives rolled out by the central/cluster HR team while designing tailored activities suited for small, high-skill teams

- Promote inclusive practices within technical functions and support leaders in embedding DEI principles

- Conduct retention conversations with high-performing specialists and provide insights to the Cluster HRBP Head and CoEs on interventions

- Address escalations and employee relations issues, ensuring timely resolution and policy adherence

HR & Organizational Transformation:

- Contribute to HR and organizational transformation efforts by providing timely feedback from the field and helping pilot new processes

- Support change management initiatives by cascading communication, addressing employee concerns, and ensuring smooth adoption of new processes and policies (e.g., R&D digitization, design innovation, central quality systems)

HR Operations & Governance:

- Ensure compliance with labor laws, company policies & processes, and governance requirements

- Support grievance resolution and disciplinary processes by escalating issues appropriately, facilitating investigations, and ensuring corrective actions are implemented in line with policy

- Maintain HR dashboards and provide people analytics inputs to the Cluster HRBP Head and Function heads

- Promote use of the HR Helpdesk by guiding employees to self-service for routine queries and reinforcing its use

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND WORKING CONDITIONS:

EDUCATION:

- Postgraduate degree in Human Resources Management or related field

EXPERIENCE:

- 6+ years of experience in HR with at least 4 years in an HRBP role with strong exposure to HRBP roles in corporate/R&D/innovation-heavy environments

- Experience in consumer durables, FMCG, retail, or other high-growth, sales-driven industries