Job Title: Senior Manager of Culture & Engagement
Department: People & Culture
Reporting to: TBD
Location: Portlaoise, Ireland
Position Overview:
Greenfield Global is seeking a Senior Manager of Culture & Engagement to lead site-level culture, engagement, and workforce effectiveness. As a core member of the site leadership team, this role partners closely with the Site General Manager and people leaders to drive cultural maturity, leadership capability, and strong organizational performance.
This highly visible leader is accountable for delivering a consistent, compliant, and engaging employee experience that aligns global standards with local operational needs. The role oversees culture and engagement strategy, employee relations, benefits administration, and people-related compliance, ensuring practices are fair, legally sound, and effectively executed.
By translating enterprise vision into practical, site-relevant programs, this leader strengthens leadership effectiveness, supports talent attraction and onboarding, and fosters an environment where employees feel supported, engaged, and empowered to deliver results.
The ideal candidate is a strategic and pragmatic leader with deep expertise in leadership development, organizational development, change management, and stakeholder engagement within a manufacturing environment. They can balance strategic intent with disciplined execution, enabling strong site performance while fostering long-term organizational health and engagement.
Leader Enablement & Employee Relations
- Build a strong, accountable leadership community that role-models inclusive, engaging, and high performance behaviors.
- Partner across the organization to cultivate a culture of accountability driving individual performance, values and achievement of business goals.
- Equip people leaders with practical tools, frameworks, and coaching to lead engagement, performance, and change effectively, aligned to a clearly defined and executed site leadership roadmap.
- Provide governance and strategic oversight for employee relations across the site, partnering with people leaders to ensure fair, consistent, and compliant people practices.
- Conduct and support complex employee relations investigations, partnering with site leadership to ensure appropriate resolution and risk mitigation
- Ensure employee relations practices align with legal, regulatory, and company standards while meeting local operational needs
Success Metrics:
- Improved leadership effectiveness and accountability across the site.
- Leaders demonstrate increased capability and confidence in managing employee relations issues fairly and consistently, supported by clear governance, guidance and oversight.
- Strong engagement results with consistent action plan execution.
- Increased confidence scores in leadership (via survey data).
Culture and Engagement
- Identify cultural strengths and gaps through data, observation, and employee feedback, and translate insights into targeted improvement actions.
- Partner with internal leadership and external service providers to plan and execute change management initiatives, ensuring alignment, effective delivery, and stakeholder engagement across the sites.
- Lead the planning, execution, and analysis of site engagement surveys, ensuring strong participation, clear insights, and alignment with enterprise standards.
- Translate engagement survey results into targeted site level priorities that address engagement gaps impacting employee retention, while supporting business goals.
- Partner with site leaders and people managers to develop, implement, and track engagement action plans with clear ownership and accountability.
- Design and lead site wide engagement initiatives that reinforce Greenfield’s values, strengthen connection to the business, and enhance the employee experience.
- Utilize data analytics to track trends, inform decision-making, and create dashboards for visibility into site performance.
Success Metrics:
- Engagement survey participation meets or exceeds enterprise benchmarks, with positive trends in overall engagement and key driver scores.
- Clear, prioritized engagement action plans are developed and owned by leaders, with consistent on time execution and progress tracking.
- Strong adoption of site engagement initiatives across functions and shifts, with positive employee feedback and participation.
- Improved employee retention outcomes, with measurable reductions in voluntary turnover at the site, particularly in roles or populations identified as engagement risk areas through survey results.
Workforce & Talent Effectiveness
- Ensure site-level execution of hiring and onboarding standards, maintaining equitable, and compliant practices locally.
- Serve as a strategic partner to leaders on workforce planning, capability gaps, and succession needs.
- Ensure onboarding programs accelerate time-to-productivity and early engagement.
- Lead performance management cycles that support accountability, development, and retention, while providing guidance and support to both leaders and employees to enable effective, meaningful performance conversations.
Success Metrics:
- Reduced time-to-fill for site roles
- Clear succession coverage for key site roles
- 100% completion of performance reviews with clear goals, meaningful feedback, and documented development actions
Compliance & Operational Integrity
- Ensure site-level compliance with labor laws, safety requirements, and company policies, partnering with legal and site leadership to mitigate risk and uphold standards.
- Partners with corporate People & Culture Department and external providers to ensure accurate and compliant benefits administration, delivering a positive employee experience.
- Maintain the highest standards of confidentiality and ethical conduct in all employee, leadership, and organizational matters
- Partner with EH&S and site leadership to manage occupational injuries, return to work programs, and employee accommodations, ensuring compliance, employee well being, and operational continuity
Success Metrics:
- Zero critical compliance findings in internal/external audits attributable to People & Culture process failure
- Timely completion of required reporting
- Open enrollment executed on time with all milestones met (communications launch, enrollment window, vendor readiness, payroll cutover)
Capabilities & Experience
- Demonstrated ability to lead site level culture, engagement, and workforce effectiveness initiatives within a complex, operational environment.
- Strong employee relations expertise, including the ability to lead and resolve complex issues with sound judgment, consistency, and discretion.
- Advanced leadership enablement skills, including coaching people leaders, strengthening accountability, and driving leadership effectiveness.
- Solid understanding of benefits administration and the employee lifecycle.
- Deep working knowledge of employment legislation, compliance requirements, and People & Culture risk management, with the ability to balance legal rigor and operational needs.
- Strong change management and stakeholder engagement capabilities, with the ability to influence leaders at all levels.
- Analytical mindset with the ability to use data, survey insights, and dashboards to inform decisions and track progress.
- High level of professional judgment, integrity, and confidentiality in all people related matters.
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field; Master’s degree or relevant certification (e.g., CIPD, SHRM) preferred.
- Minimum 7 years of progressive HR experience, with significant responsibility in culture, engagement, employee relations, and compliance.
- Experience overseeing or partnering on benefits administration and open enrollment processes, ensuring accurate and compliant execution.
- Proven track record of leading engagement surveys, translating results into actionable plans, and driving sustained improvement.
