Title: Manager / Senior Manager – Employee Relations
Location: India Supply Unit, Pillaipakkam Industrial Estate, Kancheepuram District
Why this role?
This person owns and drives Employee Relations agenda, labor strategy for Supply Chain - Chennai factory. Supports achievement of KONE business objectives and contributes to ongoing development of business by aligning the agenda to meet current and future needs, in close cooperation with HR and Leadership team.
Acting as strategic partner to the ISU Supply Chain leadership team, focusing on advising the business leaders in own area of responsibility, including supervisors. Promotes active use of HR service delivery model, and pro-actively shares feedback and business requirements to relevant teams to enable them future success. Responsible for local people and communication activities. Member of India HR team, active contribution and driving a common HR agenda across ISU.
What will you be doing?
- Overarching responsibility is to successfully define, drive and own the People and communication agenda and to participate in design, development and delivery of different actions to ensure meeting KONE current and future business needs, attracts, engages , develops and motivates employees and develops KONE as a great place to work.
work together with local HR teams to achieve success in:
- Business partnering. Close cooperation with supply chain Chennai plant stakeholders (to understand business objectives and direction) and functional team leads within own area (e.g. Procurement, Logistics, Safety, Quality etc.). Translate business understanding into HR priorities. Collect feedback to enable improvement to service model.
- Proactively plan wage, budget benefits, develop mandates, drive negotiations with the employee union, and implement wage settlements as per the timelines
- Develop relationships and build trust with employee union representatives and support harmonious employer – employee relations. Continuously monitor and collect data from the market on various industrial relation matters including industrial actions from competitors, nearby units, disputes or any other risks associated with labor relations.
- Ongoing support and guidance to the plant team to ensure discipline management among the workforces. Ensure appropriate actions as per the legal provisions and company policies
- Lead and guide management on labor legislation, amendments and new provisions of the various acts / rules including implementation of new labor codes. Ensure Chennai plant is fully compliant and protected from all kinds of legal risks
- Local operations (Chennai factory). Own, execute and measure required people and communication operation in accordance with local labor laws. Including, but not limited to, payroll, local people related administration and annual people clock.
- Learning and Development. Skill and competence development priorities, implementing continuous learning programs, training needs and special customized programs
- Performance and Reward. Close cooperation with CoE, ownership for needed actions within own area of expertise.
- Engagement. Own the engagement agenda and drive local priorities by partnering with CoEs. Manage employee satisfaction survey and pro-actively drive relevant actions to improve engagement and identified shortcomings. Coach managers on actions increasing employee engagement.
- Strategy deployment. Drive and own HR agenda, ensuring alignment with KONE strategy.
- Workforce planning. Analyze and forecast workforce needed to achieve production / business plan, identifying risks and making contingency plans.
Are you the one?
- Diverse industry background from Senior HR roles, preferably strong experience of working in Global multinational organizations.
- Proven track record of successful roles in multi-cultural business environment.
- Strong influencing and communication skills.
- Experience of having dealt collective bargaining, managing disciplinary procedures and managing industrial relations' situations such as strikes.
- Experience of handling statutory compliance related to factory, manufacturing industry.
- Experience from working across functional/ business lines in global matrix organization.
- 12+ years of progressive HR experience. Masters degree in Human Resources is highly preferred.
- Fluency in English and Tamil is highly preferred.
What do we offer?
- Career progression opportunities within a global organization.
- Total reward elements that engage and motivate our employees and help us make KONE a great place to work.
- Comprehensive learning and development programs covering a wide range of professional skills.
At KONE, we are focused on creating an innovative and collaborative working culture where we value the contribution of each individual. Employee engagement is a key focus area for us and we encourage participation and the sharing of information and ideas. Sustainability is an integral part of our culture and the daily practice. We follow ethical business practices and we seek to develop a culture of working together where co-workers trust and respect each other and good performance is recognized. In being a great place to work, we are proud to offer a range of experiences and opportunities that will help you to achieve your career and personal goals and enable you to live a healthy and balanced life.
Read more on https://careers.kone.com/en/
Skills Required
- 12+ years of progressive HR experience
- Proven experience in employee/industrial relations and collective bargaining
- Experience managing disciplinary procedures and industrial actions (e.g., strikes)
- Experience with statutory compliance for factories/manufacturing
- Experience working in global/multi-cultural matrix organizations
- Strong influencing and communication skills
- Masters degree in Human Resources
- Fluency in English and Tamil
- Experience in workforce planning, engagement, L&D and reward processes
Kone Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Kone and has not been reviewed or approved by Kone.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered competitive across many roles and markets, with field positions sometimes benefiting from overtime and strong union scales. Feedback suggests base compensation is often a relative positive even when other factors vary.
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Retirement Support — Retirement programs, including 401(k) and in some regions pension or annuity structures, are consistently highlighted as strong. Feedback suggests these elements meaningfully enhance the overall package.
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Healthcare Strength — Core health coverage is viewed as comprehensive, commonly including medical, dental, and vision options. Feedback suggests a global well‑being framework and EAP resources further reinforce health-related support.
Kone Insights
What We Do
At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. This means understanding urbanization and, together with our partners and customers, helping cities to become better and more sustainable places to live. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, we operate in more than 60 countries around the world, employ over 60,000 people and serve 550,000 customers. In 2022, KONE had annual sales of EUR 10.9 billion. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland.
