Sr. Director of Human Resource and Labor Relations

Barry Hirschman

East Windsor, NJ 973-***-**** ****************@*****.*** www.linkedin.com/in/barryhirschman

Senior HR leader HR Strategy Culture & Engagement Talent Acquisition

20+ Years of Progressive HR Leadership Specializing in Talent Management, Talent Acquisition & Labor Relations

Decisive HR executive known for building, transforming, and scaling high-performing human resources operations, departments, and teams.

Excels at sourcing qualified candidates, identifying top talent, and filling highly specializing roles, while driving businesses to become an employer of choice.

Leverages workforce analytics, business metrics, and data to drive actionable insights, propel change, and navigate pressing business decisions.

Extensive labor relations background that includes negotiating 25+ union collective bargaining contracts, leading union organizing campaigns, and cultivating positive employee relations throughout three union de-certifications.

Thrives on aligning people, processes, and systems to achieve optimal performance and meet ever-changing business and human capital demands.

Core Leadership Strengths

HR Strategy & Compliance

Talent Management & Acquisition

Employee Relations & Engagement

Leadership Development

Collective Bargaining & Avoidance

HR Systems Optimization

Organizational Re-Design

Succession & Workforce Planning

Six Sigma & Lean

Career Overview

Director of Human Resources & Talent Acquisition LINDE GAS LLC, Bridgewater, NJ 2017-July 2019

Serve in multi-faceted role as strategic HR Business Partner for the North America Bulk division supply chain executives and employees leading remote HR Partners in employee relations, talent acquisition, employee engagement, change management, labor relations, HR systems and process enhancements, and continuous improvements for a $1.6B division with 3,200 employees. Serve as chief spokesperson for collective bargaining, and develop/direct labor strategy.

Improved engagement/morale by rolling out a “keep in touch” program to check new employees throughout the first three years. Transformed, aligned, and unified HR partner and talent acquisition team, processes, and systems to increase HR presence as a trusted business partner and drive consistency.

Strengthened employee/labor relations by creating a labor relations prevention strategy and training for 43 manufacturing plants and distribution centers that focused on workplace violence prevention, education, response, and risk mitigation.

Addressed talent and culture issues disrupting the Supply Chain function in an aggressive timeframe resulting in improved safety performance, and substantial decrease in cost of Downtime (40% over two years); raised leadership and plant production engineers and technicians bench strength by 33% and over 800 commercial drivers by 28%.

Developed and implemented a salesforce effectiveness and cultural model to increase sales growth including role mapping, clear pay and commission integration, and clear customer segmentation.

Head of Talent Acquisition, Americas LINDE GAS LLC, Bridgewater, NJ 2014-2017

Selected to drive multi-country talent acquisition during a period of substantial change as the company consolidated North and South America operations. Directed high-performing team of 50 that handled recruitment, internal and RPO services for a $4.5B Americas region (Healthcare operations and Industrial Gases), employing 10,000+ people across 12 countries.

Generated a 12% increase in first-year retention overall in several countries by creating, leveraging, negotiating with vendors and promoting talent acquisition best practices to source, recruit, hire, and onboard highly qualified candidates.

Ensured a consistent, compliant onboarding experience by developing and launching new recruiting and onboarding systems and processes that improved applicant metrics and new hire employee satisfaction.

Decreased open driver positions 28% and time-to-fill by 14 days by devising programs for commercial truck drivers, engineers, technicians leveraging targeted sourcing channels, social media, grassroots outreach and recruiting resources.

Slashed outstanding requisitions 42%, saved 38% in spend, and reduce time-to-fill ~17 days in South America through semi-dedicated recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) models, referral programs and innovative recruiting technologies.

Increased first-year retention 52% of Class A Hazmat drivers by performing workforce analysis and instituting new referral programs, shift schedules, sign on bonus, and onboarding check-ins. Recognized by HRO Today for these efforts.

Head of EE & Labor Relations, Cylinder Supply Chain, North America LINDE GAS LLC, New Providence, NJ 2012-2014

Started Linde Gas to lead HR for a high-performing business team of 750 employees and led HR operations and labor relations for 63 medical gas and distribution facilities, as well as class A & B drivers, Engineering, Sales and Field Services.

Played a key role in cost optimization, improving operational excellence and safety performance, and plant reliability across highly distributed plant network by increasing technical and leader bench strength, accelerated onboarding and establishing a new certification process for production manager and commercial driver qualification.

Transitioned human resources structure from a reactive HR model to a proactive, service-focused HR Business Partner

Led several organizational development projects and programs, enhanced human resources processes including succession planning, performance, and change management.

Integral part of multiple mergers and acquisitions, ranging from $3M to $30M, including due diligence, labor contract negotiations, and post-merger integration of people, systems, and processes.

Mitigated union organizing campaigns by proactively leading counter strategies, promoting positive labor relations, championing employee recognition programs, and instituted positive employee relations toolkit.

Head of Human Resources, Eastern U.S. and Caribbean PANALPINA, INC, Morristown, NJ 2010-2012

Brought on to manage a five-member team and all human resources functions for 24 branches, stations, and warehouse facilities for a leading $8B global supplier of forwarding and logistics services, employing 13,500 people worldwide.

Raised performance by conceptualizing and delivering robust strategies spanning across employee/labor relations, collective bargaining, talent acquisition, leadership development, and workforce planning/analysis.

Ensured compliance by collaborating on the design and roll out of consistent, sustainable programs, processes, and systems.

Flawlessly led a broad, accelerated reduction in force during economic downturn including associated workforce plans and change management.

Director of Human Resources-Chief HR Position MID-ATLANTIC DCP, Westhampton, NJ 2009-2010

Provided strategic HR leadership and talent acquisition/management for a $1.4B supply chain company with 1,200 employees.

Optimized HR operations, raised employee engagement, and improved labor relations by enhancing leadership capabilities, facilitating open communications, optimizing HR systems/services, and redesigning compensation and benefits plans.

Senior Human Resources Manager, U.S./Canada, Field Operations and Sales APL LIMITED/APL LOGISTICS, Union, NJ 2006-2009

Led HR function for 700 employees across marine port operations, 15 locations, and 9 distribution centers in the U.S. and Canada.

Group Director-Human Resources -Chief HR Position MISTRAS GROUP, Princeton Junction, NJ 2002-2006

Oversaw 16-member team and compliant human resources operations for corporate office and multi-site services locations.

Early career includes Sr. Engineering Recruiter & Account Manager at ADECCO TECHNICAL & SOURCE ONE SOLUTIONS.

Military experience includes Soldier/Human Resources U.S. ARMY, 101st Airborne Division 1995-1998

Education, Certifications & Training

Masters Labor & Employment Relations (Delivered graduation speech), Rutgers University

Masters of Human Resources (12 credit hours from graduation), Rutgers University

Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Bowling Green State University

Certification, Diversity and Inclusion-Rutgers University Certification, Human Resources Management - Villanova University

Certification, US Army School of Human Resources Change Management, Level III, Certification - Linde Gas, LLC

Professional in Human Resources (PHR) Lean Six Sigma, Green Belt Certification - Panalpina, Linde Gases, LLC

Awards & Recognitions

2017 & 2018 Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year with Distinction-Enterprise-HRO TODAY

2016 HR Innovation for Customers and 2014 & 2017 People Excellence & Performance Management-Linde Gases

2012-2018 Achieved HR Excellence and Contribution to Business for Collective Bargaining. Linde Gases

Contact this candidate