Workforce Planning HD Business Partner (Hopkinsville)

Think Consulting is looking for a Workforce Planning HD Business Partner.

In this role you will be driving the plant's workforce strategy, ensuring Hopkinsville has the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right cost, at the right time. Translates the business and production plan into an actionable workforce plan, builds the hourly skills coverage and training compliance the operation depends on, anticipates workforce risks before they affect production, safety, or cost, and turns workforce data into clear recommendations that Plant Leadership can act on. As a strategic partner to Operations, Finance, and the Human Development team, this role directly drives labor efficiency, workforce stability, and the plant's ability to meet its financial and customer commitments.

Essential Functions & Accountabilities:

Workforce Strategy and Planning

▪ Lead the plant's end-to-end workforce planning process, including the annual workforce plan, quarterly updates, and a rolling outlook aligned with the business plan.

▪ Work with Operations, Engineering & Finance to translate production volumes, customer schedules, program launches, and phase-outs into headcount requirements by area, shift, and job classification.

▪ Identify staffing gaps and surpluses by area, shift, and skill; build workforce scenarios (volume changes, launches, attrition) that show staffing, cost, and risk implications for Plant Leadership decisions.

▪ Recommend the optimal mix of staffing levers (hiring, overtime, temporary workforce, cross-training, redeployment, attrition) for each scenario.

Deliver a prioritized hiring plan to Talent Acquisition and a skills-coverage plan to Operations; measure plan vs. actual and adjust the plan when business conditions change.

Headcount and Workforce Cost Management

▪ Lead the plant headcount plan and the people-cost inputs to the annual budget and forecasts (headcount, overtime/double-time, temporary labor).

▪ Review actual vs. budget and forecast monthly for headcount, overtime/double-time, and temporary labor; identify significant variances, determine their drivers, and recommend corrective actions to Area Managers and Plant Leadership.

▪ Document and maintain staffing assumptions (absenteeism, turnover, staffing ratios); analyze drivers of forecast misses and improve forecast accuracy each cycle.

▪ Validate Direct and Indirect Labor requisitions and position requests against the approved headcount plan before release to Talent Acquisition; escalate out-of-plan requests to the HDBP with a recommendation.

▪ Model the cost impact of labor agreement proposals, wage progression, shift patterns, and policy changes in partnership with Labor Affairs and Finance.

Workforce Analytics and Business Intelligence

▪ Own the plant's workforce analytics, applying a consistent approach: data, analysis, root cause, recommendation, action, and measurement. Every analysis ends with a recommendation, an owner, and a follow-up measure.

▪ Lead workforce turnover analysis by identifying trends, populations, timing, and root causes; translate findings into targeted retention actions and monitor the effectiveness of implemented solutions.

▪ Lead absenteeism and overtime analysis by area, shift, leader, and pattern; identify root causes and recommend actions to Group Leaders and Area Managers.

▪ Analyze labor efficiency with Operations and Finance (labor hours, direct/indirect ratios, workforce stability) to identify workforce-driven performance gaps

Workforce Development and Compliance

▪ Own the governance of hourly workforce training: set training priorities from the workforce plan and skills risks, define standards and reporting cadence, and report execution by area to Plant Leadership. Operations owns on-the-job training delivery; Learning & Development, EHS, and Quality own program content.

▪ Own hourly training compliance status (safety, quality, customer-required training, and certifications): report overdue training by area, shift, and leader, drive recovery plans, and maintain audit-ready training records for IATF, customer, and regulatory audits.

▪ Own the skills-matrix standard for hourly positions in partnership with Operations; ensure matrices stay current by area and shift and use them to measure workforce versatility and deployment flexibility.

▪ Identify single points of failure in critical skills and certifications; build a prioritized cross-training plan with Operations, scheduled around production and balanced against overtime cost; track actions through verified closure and report progress in the monthly workforce review.

▪ Measure new-hire time-to-qualification and training effectiveness (qualification rates, versatility gains, impact on overtime and coverage); recommend improvements to onboarding and on-the-job training.

▪ Partner with Labor Affairs to ensure training selection, qualification, and job progression practices comply with the labor agreement.

▪ Escalate emerging risks that could affect production, safety, labor relations, or cost promptly to the HDBP and Plant Leadership.

Workforce Reporting and Governance

▪ Own the accuracy of headcount and position data; audit HRIS and timekeeping data periodically and reconcile with Finance and Payroll.

▪ Deliver daily, weekly, and monthly workforce reporting and dashboards to Plant Leadership, Area Managers, and Central HD, with insights and recommended actions rather than data alone.

▪ Lead the monthly workforce review with Plant Leadership, covering plan vs. actual, cost variances, risks, and open actions.

▪ Perform other duties as assigned by the HDBP or Plant Leadership.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Economics, Industrial Engineering, Finance, or a related field

Master's degree (HR, MBA, Business Analytics, or related field) -- PREFERRED

HR certification (i.e. PHR, SHRM-CP) or People Analytics / Workforce Planning certification-- PREFERRED

EXPERIENCE:

5+ years of progressive HR experience, including at least 2 years in workforce planning, HR/people analytics, or headcount and labor cost management

Manufacturing industry experience

Experience as HD Generalist or HD Business Partner advising operations leaders

Headcount budgeting and forecasting in partnership with Finance

Advanced Excel modeling and data visualization; building dashboards and analyses for senior leaders

Leading cross-functional projects with high visibility to senior leadership -- PREFERRED

Hourly training administration, skills matrices, or training compliance in manufacturing PREFERRED

Automotive / Tier 1 manufacturing experience PREFERRED

Union environment experience PREFERRED

AI Tools & analysis -- PREFERRED

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Advanced Microsoft Excel (data modeling, pivot tables, lookups, scenario and forecasting models)

▪ Business intelligence and data visualization (Power BI or similar); dashboard design for leadership audiences

▪ PowerPoint: executive-ready presentations that tell a clear story with data

▪ HRIS, timekeeping, and payroll data: extraction, validation, and reconciliation

▪ Workforce planning methods: demand and supply forecasting, attrition modeling, scenario planning

▪ Financial fundamentals: labor cost modeling and budget vs. actual variance analysis

▪ People analytics: turnover, absenteeism, overtime, and retention analysis; root cause methods

▪ Proven Project Management skills

▪ Core Manufacturing Processes and labor models (Stamping, Welding, Assembly; direct/indirect labor, shift patterns)

▪ Training compliance tracking and skills-matrix management (LMS or equivalent training records system)

COMPETENCIES & BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS:

▪ Business acumen: Understands how volume, labor hours, and people costs drive plant results; frames every recommendation in operational and financial terms.

▪ Strategic thinking: Looks beyond the current month to anticipate workforce needs and risks; connects workforce decisions to the business plan. ▪ Analytical problem solving: Translates workforce data into root-cause insights and actionable recommendations; separates signal from noise.

▪ Consulting and influence: Earns credibility with Plant Leadership, Area Managers, Group Leaders, Finance, and HD peers; challenges assumptions with data and moves leaders to action without formal authority.

▪ Communication: Presents complex analysis as clear, concise, decision-ready messages, from Group Leaders to executives.

▪ Ownership and follow-through: Owns the workforce numbers; closes the loop on recommendations and measures whether actions worked, without reminders.

▪ Continuous improvement: Simplifies, standardizes, and automates workforce processes and reports.

▪ Change management: Anticipates the impact of workforce changes on people and labor relations; prepares leaders to communicate and implement them.

▪ Integrity and confidentiality: Protects sensitive workforce, compensation, and organizational information; reports numbers accurately and escalates concerns promptly, including when news is unwelcome. <