HR Operations Senior Specialist

It’s not just about your career or job title… It’s about who you are and the impact you will make on the world. Because whether it’s for each other or our customers, we put People First. When our people come together, we Expand the Possible and continuously look for ways to improve what we create and how we do it. If you are constantly striving to grow, you’re in good company. We are revolutionizing the way the world moves for future generations, and we want someone who is ready to move with us.

Who will you be working with?

We are team of curious, passionate, process efficient, customer centric HR professionals! We are driving a global HR operations transformation for Wabtec that will position the HR function to shift towards best in class for HR Service Delivery.

The responsibility of HR Operations India is to oversee the administrative and transactional elements of human resources, ensuring that HR processes operate smoothly and align with organizational objectives. This encompasses the management of employee data, payroll, benefits administration (including Car Lease and Medical Insurance), compliance, and support of data quality, onboarding, offboarding, retirals and employee inquiries. In essence, it involves managing the daily operations that ensure the HR department functions effectively.

The team collaborates closely with HR Business Partners to foster positive employee relations by implementing effective, efficient, and reliable HR strategies and practices that align with the Global HR Operation model, ensuring adherence to processes and policies while maintaining compliance with employment laws.

Additionally, the team works in partnership with other Centers of Expertise (such as Talent Acquisition, HRIS, HRDP, Compensation & Benefits, and Legal) to design and implement HR business processes.

How will you make a difference?

The Senior Specialist in HR Operations is a member of the HR Shared Services Team. This position entails providing operational and system support for employee lifecycle transactions, whether within India or on a global scale. The role involves processing advanced transactions, including India payroll, while guiding and leading the team, managing escalations, and participating in or leading projects. You will collaborate closely with the Global HR Ops team and payroll service providers to ensure excellent customer service for the business and to enhance efficiency by utilizing established processes and guidelines to handle transactions and respond to HR inquiries. The role also includes conducting process and quality audits, performing data integrity reviews, and being responsible for compiling and developing metrics for the regional HR Ops Leader/Global team.

You will develop strategic partnerships with local HR to assess and improve relationships in the region, ensuring performance aligns with Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Additionally, you will lead quarterly service reviews with service providers.

As a point of escalation for specialists, associate specialists, and customers, you will troubleshoot and resolve issues, identifying root causes and pathways to resolution to ensure ongoing service enhancement. You will foster strategic relationships with country HR leaders.

You will partnership with the regional and/or global team projects aimed at evolving HR processes that encompass the entire employee lifecycle, driving process improvements and standardization in collaboration with the Continuous Improvement Team.

Support will be provided to cross-functional workstreams in the region, including Transition, Reorganizations, Legal Entity Changes, and Mergers and Acquisitions.

It is essential to ensure that processes are thoroughly documented, creating and maintaining Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and process maps as necessary.

What do we want to know about you?

• Bachelor's / Master Degree or equivalent with 8-10 years’ experience in hire to retire employee life cycle process
• Substantial experience in Global HR Ops, preferably in a Shared Services environment with 4-5 years experience
• 5-7 years India Payroll experience
• Extensive background within Payroll Systems, must be able to understand payroll set up projects & merger and acquisitions transition
• Strong Payroll System knowledge such as: ADP, RAMCO, PWC, Kronos, Workday
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office
• Demonstrated attention to detail with a high level of accuracy
• Proven track record of working effectively with cross-functional teams to drive alignment, foster collaboration, and achieve shared goals
• Experience working within HR systems (Workday Expertise is must) and with a ticketing system (such as ServiceNow)

Competencies:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong customer-focus; ability to build and maintain effective relationships with customers
• Continuous-improvement mindset and make quality decisions within ambiguous situations
• Comfortable presenting to stakeholders, business leaders, and HR community. Able to analyse data, draw business insights, and present to stakeholders in a meaningful way Process acumen
• Learning desire and agility

What will your typical day look like?

• Conduct employee lifecycle transactions in Workday; ensure timely processing and onboarding
• Oversee India payroll process to ensure 100% accuracy every month and on time payments in collaboration with payroll partner team
• Ensure India payroll compliance is maintained & queries handled within TAT
• Build a HR stakeholder connects regularly (Bi Weekly/Monthly) to identify gaps and to increase employee experience through process improvements, expectations setting and sharing updates
• Participate in global enterprise initiatives and collaborate with the broader global team to contribute to calls, discussions, and projects, thereby enhancing global process knowledge and visibility
• Collaborate closely with the payroll auditor to identify discrepancies and implement corrective actions with payroll team, ensuring 100% tax compliance with no adverse effects on employees
• Maintain a log of findings and actions, providing quarterly reports to all stakeholders for all the quarters in the following months
• Serve as an escalation point and deliver outstanding customer service to employees and key stakeholders, including HR Managers, Site HR representatives and TA Finance.
• Establish a monitoring process for suppliers and vendors using metrics, conducting monthly service reviews with the vendors and sharing feedback
• Adhere to the Operational Excellence metrics that will be set for global HR Operations
• Assist the Regional HR Leader with any extended goals or ad hoc requests
• Keep guidelines, SOP, FAQs, and communications current for the processes under your management
• Emphasize prioritization, team management, and task delegation to enhance leadership skills and create capacity for additional responsibilities
• Handle requests via ticketing system and queue management