Specialist, Employee Relations, Ford Energy

Ford Energy is a newly formed, wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company dedicated to accelerating U.S. energy independence. Leveraging Ford’s century of manufacturing excellence and world-class battery energy storage systems (BESS) technology, Ford Energy designs, manufactures, and services grid-scale and commercial DC battery energy storage systems (BESS).

As a Specialist, Employee Relations, Ford Energy, you will balance curiosity with a strong sense of accountability to navigate ambiguous inquiries, partner across teams to resolve systemic process bottlenecks, and deliver high-quality support to employees and leaders.

Responsibilities

HR Consultation & Frontline Advisory

• Guide and coach frontline leaders through the end-to-end performance management process, including coaching conversations, performance documentation, and performance improvement plans (PIPs).
• Address and resolve standard employee inquiries, complaints, and conflict resolution on the shop floor. Partner with the Senior ER Specialist to support larger, high-risk investigations.
• Provide proactive coaching to supervisors and team leaders on employee morale, retention strategies, and building a positive work culture.
• Support HR Business Partners (HRBPs) in executing local workforce planning, annual people processes, and key moments across the employee life cycle.

HR Operations & Technical Support

• Intake, investigate, and strategically resolve elevated HR inquiries (e.g., payroll/paycheck discrepancies, position changes, benefits escalations) that require cross-functional coordination.
• Proactively identify "friction points" in the employee experience. Partner with centralized teams (Payroll, HR Tech, Recruiting) to implement practical, sustainable solutions.
• Maintain high HCM data integrity within HR systems (Oracle, WorkDay). Perform standard data analysis to identify local workforce trends (absenteeism, turnover) that drive HR decision-making.
• Support organizational design changes, job architecture updates, and position management audits.

Compliance & Standard Work

• Ensure local operations adhere to federal, state, and local labor laws, including FMLA, ADA, FLSA, and OSHA record-keeping.
• Develop and update standard work instructions for local HR processes to ensure consistency as the site scales.

Capabilities for Success

• An emotionally intelligent professional who balances empathy for employees with a strong sense of accountability to business objectives.
• A proven ability to build trust and partner effectively across departments (Operations, Payroll, Recruiting) to resolve systemic issues.
• Skilled at navigating moderately ambiguous situations, utilizing data and policy to move from identifying a problem to implementing a solution.
• Ability to manage multiple administrative and consultative priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Management, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).
• 3–5 years of progressive HR experience, demonstrating solid growth in an HR Generalist, HR Specialist, or HR Generalist-adjacent role.
• Practical, working knowledge of federal and Kentucky state labor laws and HR regulatory requirements.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel (e.g., v-lookups, pivot tables, data sorting) and experience working within HR Information Systems (e.g., Oracle, Workday, SAP, or Visier).
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to connect effectively with shop-floor team members and salaried leadership alike.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.