HR Generalist / Payroll Specialist

Pearl River Foods•Carthage, MS

14h

About The Position

The HR Generalist / Payroll Specialist provides responsive, accurate HR support to a high-volume manufacturing workforce and owns the detailed preparation, validation, and timely completion of weekly payroll for approximately 600 production workers. The role balances employee service, plant-floor engagement, HR administration, and employee relations with disciplined payroll controls. It is expected to improve processes, reduce errors and rework, resolve questions promptly, maintain confidentiality, and deliver consistently accurate outcomes. The role is responsible for end-to-end weekly payroll preparation, including reviewing timekeeping and production-based pay inputs, validating payroll-impacting employee changes and documentation, conducting audits and reconciliations, resolving exceptions, processing approved adjustments, and responding to employee questions. It also serves as a front-line HR contact for employees and supervisors, supporting onboarding, employee relations, benefits and leave administration, attendance, records, separations, and recurring HR processes. The position promotes employee engagement through regular production-floor presence and communication, and supports process improvement by documenting standard work, analyzing recurring errors and exceptions, strengthening controls, and cross-training backup support. HR and payroll records must remain complete, secure, and audit-ready, with personal and payroll information handled confidentially and in accordance with company requirements.

Requirements

2–3 years of progressive HR generalist, payroll, timekeeping, or related experience.
Working knowledge of payroll concepts, timekeeping controls, wage and hour requirements, FMLA, and other employment laws relevant to the role.
Strong attention to detail and demonstrated ability to manage confidential, deadline-driven work accurately.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and HR, payroll, or timekeeping systems.
Excellent communication, relationship-building, customer-service, organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to work effectively with production employees, supervisors, staffing partners, and leaders across multiple shifts.
Ability to prioritize competing requests, follow through on commitments, and recognize when an issue requires escalation.

Nice To Haves

Manufacturing or high-volume hourly workforce experience.
Experience with ProLiant.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end weekly payroll preparation for approximately 600 production workers, following the payroll calendar, cutoff times, approvals, and control requirements.
Review and troubleshoot the ProLiant shift-based timekeeping system, verifying hours, missed punches, schedules, transfers, shift differentials, overtime, leave, and attendance entries.
Enter, import, and validate production pounds and other approved production-based pay inputs.
Collect and verify payroll-impacting documentation, including vacation requests, supply sheets, pre-arranged absence forms, and rate-change forms.
Validate employee hires, terminations, transfers, pay-rate changes, deductions, garnishments, and status changes against approved documentation and effective dates.
Perform pre-payroll audits and reconciliations and investigate variances, duplicate or missing entries, unusual pay results, negative balances, and exceptions.
Coordinate with supervisors, operations leaders, temporary staffing agencies, and the HR Manager to resolve payroll exceptions by established deadlines.
Prepare and process approved off-cycle payrolls, corrections, retroactive payments, and adjustments, documenting approvals, calculations, reasons, and resolutions.
Complete post-payroll review and reconciliation, maintain control documentation, and track errors and corrections for recurring root causes.
Respond to employee payroll questions, explain calculations or next steps, protect confidential information, and escalate complex matters as appropriate.
Provide front-line HR guidance to production employees and supervisors on policies, attendance, pay, benefits, leave, and routine employment matters.
Maintain a regular production-floor presence to build relationships, identify concerns, answer questions, and support consistent workplace practices.
Gather facts and document employee relations concerns, assist with investigations, and escalate significant or sensitive issues to the HR Manager.
Coordinate onboarding for company and temporary employees, including required documentation, orientation support, system entry, and communication with staffing agencies and plant leaders.
Process employee changes and maintain personnel, attendance, leave, payroll, and related HR records in appropriate systems and files.
Support benefits and leave administration by distributing information, answering routine questions, tracking documentation, and escalating complex cases.
Support attendance administration, corrective-action documentation, separations, unemployment responses, reporting, audits, and other assigned HR processes.
Communicate policies and process requirements clearly, respectfully, and consistently to employees across shifts and literacy levels.
Partner with plant leadership to identify workforce trends, recurring questions, training needs, and employee-experience improvements.
Document and maintain standard work, checklists, payroll calendars, approval paths, and backup procedures for critical HR and payroll processes.
Analyze payroll corrections, timekeeping exceptions, employee inquiries, and missed deadlines to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
Simplify forms, handoffs, reports, and data-entry steps to reduce manual work, duplicate effort, processing time, and error risk.
Establish practical service standards for employee and supervisor requests, communicating status and expected next steps when an issue is not immediately resolved.
Use reports, audits, and trend data to monitor accuracy, timeliness, completion, and recurring exceptions, and communicate risks and recommendations to the HR Manager.
Cross-train designated backup support and maintain process documentation to ensure continuity during absences or peak workloads.
Protect personal and payroll information, follow access and confidentiality requirements, and promptly report suspected data or control issues.
Participate in HR, payroll, compliance, and plant improvement projects and complete other related duties as assigned.