HR Manager

Cogent Talent Solutions • Forest Hill, MD

8d • $55,000 - $70,000

About The Position

The Human Resources Manager is accountable for the design, enforcement, and ongoing effectiveness of the company’s people function. This role ensures the workforce is properly staffed, legally compliant, consistently managed, and aligned with the business's operational and financial needs. This role is accountable for ensuring that job expectations, people policies, benefits, and culture remain aligned with the company’s mission, operational reality, and long-term goals.

Requirements

• Minimum 5 years of progressive Human Resources experience
• Construction, manufacturing, or skilled-trades workforce experience strongly preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in human resources, Business Administration, Management, or related field or equivalent experience in Human Resources leadership
• Professional Human Resources Certifications (PHR®, SPHR®, SHRM-CP®, or SHRM-SCP®)
• Knowledge of Maryland and federal employment law fundamentals
• Knowledge of wage & hour compliance and classification standards
• Knowledge of Human Resources practices in hourly, multi-role environments
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through
• Ability to enforce standards consistently
• Clear written and verbal communication
• Independent judgment with appropriate escalation

Responsibilities

• Workforce Planning & Staffing Accountability: Ensuring the organization maintains a stable, qualified workforce aligned with current and anticipated operational needs, including maintaining a recruiting pipeline, anticipating staffing risks, ensuring current job descriptions, and supporting leadership with staffing data.
• Employment Compliance & Documentation Accountability: Ensuring all employment relationships are legally compliant, properly documented, and defensible, including employment eligibility and classification accuracy, complete employee personnel files, consistency between records, and timely response to documentation requests.
• Performance Management & Accountability Support: Ensuring performance management is consistent, documented, and enforceable, including enforcing performance review cadence, supporting supervisors with documentation, identifying patterns of underperformance, and ensuring performance conversations are recorded.
• Retention & Workforce Stability: Stabilizing the workforce and reducing preventable turnover, particularly in critical roles, including tracking and analyzing turnover, identifying drivers of voluntary turnover, providing retention insights, and supporting initiatives that improve continuity and engagement.
• Safety & Employment Risk Administration: Managing the people-side administration of safety and risk, ensuring preparedness for incidents, claims, or audits, including employment-related safety documentation, workers' compensation reporting, incident documentation, and supporting leadership with risk visibility.
• Human Resources Reporting & Leadership Visibility: Providing leadership with accurate, timely, and actionable people-related information, including workforce metrics, visibility into staffing risk and compliance gaps, and reducing reactive escalations through proactive reporting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level