Regional People Operations Manager

Regional People Operations Business Partner

Position Summary

The Regional People Operations Business Partner serves as the senior People leader and strategic business partner for assigned regions, branches, service centers, and business leaders. The role strengthens the leadership, workforce, and organizational capabilities required to deliver safe, profitable growth, operational excellence, and a strong employee experience.

Operating close to the business, the Regional People Operations Business Partner develops a practical understanding of the region's customers, markets, operating model, financial drivers, workforce dynamics, and leadership needs. The role uses operating insight, workforce data, sound judgment, and trusted relationships to improve talent, organization, leadership, workforce capacity, and performance decisions while preserving Sunstate's values-based culture.

Scope

• Supports multiple markets, branches, and service centers across an assigned geographic region.
• Partners closely with operational leadership to drive workforce effectiveness and business performance.
• Translates enterprise People strategy into practical regional execution while bringing field insight into enterprise decisions.
• Travel required based on business needs.

Key Accountabilities

1. Strategic Business Partnership

Accountable for understanding the business and aligning leadership, workforce, and organizational actions with regional operating priorities and enterprise strategy.

Responsibilities

• Partner with regional and branch leadership to connect workforce and organization decisions to growth, customer experience, safety, productivity, labor cost, and operational performance.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and coach to leaders on organizational effectiveness, leadership capability, succession planning, and team performance.
• Diagnose business and workforce constraints and provide clear, data-informed recommendations on talent, organizational structure, productivity, workforce capacity, retention, and succession.
• Bring a point of view and constructively challenge leaders when talent, organization, or leadership decisions may limit performance or create unnecessary risk.
• Facilitate organizational design and workforce planning discussions to support evolving business needs.
• Help leaders establish clear ownership and accountability for workforce outcomes, including retention, productivity, leadership effectiveness, succession readiness, internal mobility, and performance management.
• Lead the people and organization dimensions of change required for operational improvement, growth, and organizational scalability.
• Exercise a high degree of independent judgment in assessing sensitive employee and operational matters, balancing business priorities, employee experience, policy consistency, and organizational risk while working within established People processes and decision rights and partnering with business leaders to develop timely, practical recommendations and solutions.

Success Measures

• Improved leadership effectiveness.
• Achievement of workforce planning objectives.
• Increased employee retention.
• Increased internal mobility and promotions.
• Successful execution of organizational initiatives.

2. Talent Management & Workforce Development

Accountable for strengthening leadership capability, talent quality, succession depth, internal mobility, and workforce readiness for critical roles.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Talent Acquisition to develop proactive workforce forecasting and recruiting strategies for critical operational roles.
• Diagnose the underlying causes of workforce instability, including leadership effectiveness, hiring quality, onboarding, staffing, compensation, development, employee experience, and operating conditions; partner with leaders on actions that address root causes.
• Facilitate talent review and succession planning discussions across assigned regions.
• Translate leadership capability gaps into practical coaching, experience, development, and career actions tied to business needs.
• Support managers in executing effective performance management practices.
• Coach leaders in developing and executing structured performance improvement plans with clearly defined expectations, measurable objectives, consistent follow-up, and documented outcomes.
• Identify recurring performance and leadership deficiencies and partner with management to implement sustainable corrective strategies and reinforce manager accountability.
• Develop and monitor differentiated actions for high-potential, promotable, and key talent, with clear readiness, development, and retention considerations.
• Build leadership bench strength and succession readiness for critical positions.

Success Measures

• Reduction in critical position vacancies.
• Increased internal promotions and career mobility.
• Improved retention of high-performing employees.
• Completion of succession plans for key positions.
• Increased leadership bench strength.

3. Employee Relations & Leadership Coaching

Accountable for strengthening leader capability and maintaining a fair, consistent, compliant, and high-performing work environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the resolution of employee relations concerns through coaching, investigations, mediation, and corrective action guidance.
• Lead complex and sensitive employee relations investigations, including allegations of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, misconduct, and policy violations; objectively evaluate evidence, document findings, assess risk, follow established investigation and escalation procedures, and partner with business leaders and appropriate People and Legal resources to develop defensible recommendations and appropriate action.Prepare clear, accurate, and confidential investigation summaries, corrective action records, and employment separation recommendations, ensuring consistent application of policy and appropriate approvals.
• Partner with managers to address performance concerns effectively and consistently.
• Coach leaders to handle communication, accountability, conflict, performance, and employee development effectively without creating unnecessary dependence on People Operations.
• Ensure consistent application of company policies, employment practices, and organizational standards.
• Identify and mitigate employee relations, legal, and compliance risks.
• Strengthen leadership habits and management disciplines that reinforce accountability, trust, performance, and Sunstate values.

Success Measures

• Timely resolution of employee concerns.
• Reduction in repeat employee relations issues.
• Consistent policy application and documentation.
• Reduced legal and compliance exposure.
• Increased manager confidence and effectiveness.

4. Employee Experience & Culture

Accountable for helping leaders create a consistent employee experience that supports workforce stability, productivity, growth, and Sunstate culture.

Responsibilities

• Partner with market leadership to foster a culture of accountability, recognition, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
• Analyze employee feedback, engagement survey results, and workforce trends to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Improve the leader practices and operating conditions that shape onboarding, development, recognition, retention, and day-to-day employee experience.
• Use employee listening and workforce signals to identify material themes, clarify root causes, and drive focused leader action.
• Preserve and reinforce Sunstate's values-based culture through leadership decisions, talent practices, and consistent employee experiences.
• Focus leaders on the few actions most likely to improve commitment, effectiveness, and workforce stability; avoid adding activity that does not improve decisions, capability, or execution.

Success Measures

• Improved engagement scores.
• Increased employee retention.
• Reduced early-stage turnover.
• Positive employee feedback trends.
• Improved onboarding effectiveness.

5. Organizational Effectiveness & Change Leadership

Accountable for improving organizational effectiveness and enabling leaders and employees to adopt material business, organization, process, and technology changes.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support organizational change initiatives, including restructures, workforce transitions, leadership changes, and business transformation efforts.
• Partner with leaders to assess organizational capabilities and identify improvement opportunities.
• Facilitate effective communication and stakeholder alignment during periods of change.
• Clarify the business problem, required capability, stakeholder impact, ownership, and adoption measures before supporting new processes, programs, or technology.
• Develop strategies that improve productivity, collaboration, and organizational effectiveness.

Success Measures

• Successful implementation of change initiatives.
• Increased employee adoption of organizational changes.
• Improved organizational effectiveness metrics.
• Positive business outcomes during transitions.

6. Compensation & Performance Management

Accountable for bringing business and talent context to compensation and performance decisions while operating within Sunstate's enterprise philosophy, governance, and decision rights.

Responsibilities

• Partner with leaders and Total Rewards during merit, incentive, promotion, and compensation planning cycles to support disciplined, consistent, and defensible decisions.
• Educate leaders on compensation philosophy and pay-for-performance principles.
• Evaluate compensation recommendations using role market data, range position, performance, internal equity, precedent, governance, and business need; escalate exceptions through established decision rights.
• Lead performance calibration discussions to drive consistency across the organization.
• Support career progression and promotion recommendations.
• Identify compensation patterns and risks, distinguish pay issues from broader leadership or workforce conditions, and partner with Total Rewards on appropriate action.

Success Measures

• Timely completion of compensation planning activities.
• Consistent performance rating application.
• Improved pay equity outcomes.
• Increased differentiation of top performers.

7. People Analytics & Workforce Insights

Accountable for converting workforce data into decision intelligence that improves leadership, staffing, talent, productivity, and business performance.

Responsibilities

• Analyze workforce metrics including turnover, retention, headcount, vacancies, overtime, absenteeism, promotions, engagement, and compensation.
• Move beyond reporting what happened to explaining why it happened, where intervention matters, what action should be taken, and whether the action worked.
• Partner with leaders to identify root causes impacting workforce and business performance.
• Present workforce insights and recommendations during business reviews and leadership meetings.
• Establish accountability plans to improve workforce outcomes.
• Maintain decision-oriented visibility into turnover, first-year retention, vacancy, starts and exits, internal mobility, bench strength, succession coverage, workforce productivity, and compensation governance.

Success Measures

• Reduction in turnover and overtime costs.
• Improved workforce productivity.
• Timely and effective leadership reporting.
• Achievement of workforce KPI targets.
• Increased adoption of data-driven decision-making.

8. Safety & Compliance Leadership

Accountable for protecting employees and the company through sound judgment, consistent standards, timely risk escalation, and partnership with operational, Safety, and Legal leaders.

Responsibilities

• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment regulations.
• Maintain practical working knowledge of applicable federal, state, and local employment laws across assigned markets, including wage and hour requirements, paid leave, protected absences, final pay, employment separations, and workplace accommodations.
• Identify jurisdiction-specific employment risks and coordinate with Legal, Safety, and specialized People Operations teams to support consistent, compliant employment decisions.
• Partner with Leave Administration, Benefits, and Legal on complex employee leave and workplace accommodation matters, including the interactive process, return-to-work considerations, and employment decisions involving protected leave or accommodation needs.
• Support workplace investigations and corrective action processes.
• Partner with operational leaders to reinforce Sunstate's safety-first culture.
• Reinforce leader accountability for safe work practices, regulatory compliance, and consistent employment decisions.
• Identify and mitigate organizational risk.
• Ensure employment practices align with legal requirements and company standards.

Success Measures

• Successful compliance audits.
• Reduction in policy violations.
• Timely investigation closure.
• Strong safety participation and accountability.
• Reduced organizational risk.

Qualifications

Required Education & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field. Master’s Degree preferred.
• Typically 8-10 years of progressive People Operations, Human Resources Business Partner, or Human Resources leadership experience, including significant partnership with senior operating leaders.
• Demonstrated experience supporting multi-site, field-based, operational, industrial, service, construction, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, equipment rental, or similar environments.
• Proven success influencing and constructively challenging leaders, diagnosing ambiguous business and organizational problems, and converting insight into measurable action.
• Demonstrated strength in leadership coaching, talent judgment, succession, workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, employee relations, and change leadership.
• Demonstrated experience independently conducting complex employee relations investigations, documenting findings, and advising leaders on corrective action and sensitive employment decisions.
• Strong working knowledge of multi-jurisdiction employment compliance, including protected leave, workplace accommodations, and employment separations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, sound independent judgment, and the ability to provide timely, credible guidance to operational leaders.
• Strong business and financial acumen, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to connect workforce and organization decisions to operating performance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting geographically dispersed teams and multiple locations.
• Experience in equipment rental, skilled trades, construction, industrial services, manufacturing, or field operations environments.
• Experience leading organizational change and transformation initiatives.
• Travel up to 50-70% based on business needs.