Seeking strong , self driven and result oriented HR professional for the role of GENERAL MANAGER HUMAN RESOURCES

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Industry: Food Retail | Restaurant Chain | Sweets & Indian Foods

Reporting To: Promoters / Managing Director

Experience: 1218+ years

Function: Human Resources & People Operations

1. ROLE PURPOSE The General Manager HR will be a business-oriented HR leader responsible for building, driving and institutionalising the complete people and HR function across its retail outlets, restaurants, factory, backend and central support functions.

The role will go beyond conventional HR administration and focus strongly on people productivity, manpower optimisation, leadership capability, HR processes, employee lifecycle management, performance management and organisational discipline.

The incumbent will work closely with the Promoters and business leadership to create a centralised, scalable and performance-driven people framework that supports the company's current operations as well as its future growth and expansion plans.

The ideal candidate should have significant experience in food retail, sweets, QSR, restaurant chains, hospitality or multi-unit F&B; businesses, with hands-on exposure to managing HR across multiple outlets and a large frontline workforce.

2. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

A. HR Strategy & Business Partnership

- Develop and drive the overall HR strategy in alignment with the business vision and growth plans.
- Partner with the Promoters and senior management on manpower, organisation structure, leadership and people-related business decisions.
- Translate business requirements into practical HR systems, processes and people interventions.
- Build HR capability to support new outlets, business expansion, operational restructuring and scale-up.
- Establish HR as a strong business-enabling function rather than an administrative department.

B. Centralised HR Governance

- Establish a centralised HR framework covering factory, retail outlets, restaurants and backend functions.
- Standardise HR policies, processes, formats, documentation and employee lifecycle practices across locations.
- Ensure consistency in recruitment, onboarding, attendance, leave, confirmation, transfers, promotions, disciplinary processes and exits.
- Create clear HR dashboards and MIS for management review.
- Drive timely implementation of HR policies and systems across all units.

C. People Productivity & Manpower Optimisation A major focus of the role will be improving workforce productivity and ensuring the right manpower is deployed at the right place and cost.

- Analyse manpower requirements across outlets, restaurants, factory and backend functions.
- Establish manpower norms and productivity benchmarks for different business units.
- Monitor manpower cost against sales/business volumes.
- Identify overstaffing, understaffing, productivity gaps and deployment inefficiencies.
- Improve employee productivity through better deployment, role clarity, KRAs and performance monitoring.
- Work with Operations to optimise shift planning, staffing and workforce utilisation.
- Develop productivity dashboards and periodic people-performance reviews.

D. Retail & Restaurant Workforce Management

- Drive HR practices specifically suited to a multi-outlet food retail and restaurant environment.
- Partner with Operations/Unit Heads on frontline manpower planning and retention.
- Improve employee discipline, attendance, punctuality, grooming and service culture.
- Strengthen outlet-level manpower productivity and employee engagement.
- Build mechanisms to monitor frontline attrition and identify root causes.




- Support management in creating a strong customer-oriented employee culture.

E. Factory & Backend Workforce

- Provide HR leadership to factory and production manpower.
- Partner with Factory/Production Heads on manpower planning, attendance, productivity and workforce discipline.
- Ensure appropriate HR support for production, quality, purchase, SCM, finance, administration and other backend teams.
- Establish clear roles, responsibilities and performance expectations for backend functions.
- Monitor workforce productivity and employee lifecycle processes across the central team and factory.

F. Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning

- Develop a structured recruitment framework for retail, restaurant, factory and corporate positions.
- Build manpower plans based on current operations and future expansion.
- Strengthen sourcing channels for frontline and managerial positions.
- Ensure quality hiring with appropriate job descriptions, competency requirements and selection processes.
- Build talent pipelines for critical positions and future leadership requirements.
- Reduce dependency on reactive hiring by introducing proactive manpower planning.

G. Performance Management

- Design and implement a practical KRA/KPI-based performance management system across functions.
- Establish measurable performance expectations for outlet, restaurant, factory and backend teams.
- Drive periodic performance reviews with functional and business heads.
- Link performance discussions with productivity, development, recognition and career progression.
- Identify low-performing employees/teams and drive corrective action plans.
- Develop performance culture across the organisation.

H. Employee Lifecycle Management Own and standardise the complete employee lifecycle:

Manpower Planning Recruitment Selection Onboarding Training Confirmation Performance Transfers/Promotions Engagement Disciplinary Management Exit

- Ensure proper employee documentation and HR records.
- Strengthen joining and induction processes.
- Establish structured confirmation and appraisal processes.
- Ensure timely employee movement, promotion and transfer documentation.
- Improve exit and full & final processes.
- Analyse exit trends and implement retention measures.

I. HR Processes, Policies & Compliance

- Review and strengthen the existing HR framework of the organisation.
- Develop practical policies suitable for a growing food-retail and restaurant business.
- Ensure compliance with applicable labour laws and statutory requirements.
- Establish robust processes for attendance, leave, payroll inputs, employee records and statutory documentation.
- Conduct periodic HR audits across outlets, factory and backend functions.
- Ensure implementation rather than merely documentation of HR policies.

J. Learning, Capability & Leadership Development

- Identify capability gaps across retail, restaurant, factory and backend teams.
- Build structured induction and training programmes.
- Strengthen supervisory and outlet-management capabilities.
- Develop second-line leadership for critical business functions.
- Create career progression and internal growth opportunities for high-potential employees.




- Support management in building a strong leadership pipeline for expansion.

K. Employee Engagement & Culture

- Build a positive and disciplined employee culture across locations.
- Develop practical employee engagement initiatives suitable for frontline and operational teams.
- Strengthen communication between central management and unit-level employees.
- Promote values of customer service, teamwork, accountability and operational excellence.
- Address employee concerns through structured grievance and resolution mechanisms.
- Build a culture where employees understand both their responsibilities and contribution to business performance.

L. HR Analytics & Management Reporting Develop meaningful HR MIS and dashboards covering:

- Total manpower and deployment

- Manpower cost

- Attrition and retention

- Recruitment status

- Vacancy position

- Attendance and absenteeism

- Overtime

- Employee productivity
- Outlet-wise manpower productivity

- Performance status

- Training and development

- Employee lifecycle status

- Compliance

- Exit analysis

Provide action-oriented HR insights to management rather than only data. 3. SUPPORT TO BUSINESS GROWTH & EXPANSION The GM HR will play an important role in preparing the organisation for its next stage of growth.

Key responsibilities will include:

- Workforce planning for new outlets, restaurants and business formats.

- Developing manpower budgets for expansion projects.

- Creating scalable organisation structures.

- Building talent pipelines ahead of expansion.

- Supporting new-unit opening through recruitment, induction and deployment.

- Creating standardised HR processes that can be replicated across locations.

- Building leadership depth to support a growing outlet network.

- Ensuring people capability grows in line with business expansion.

The objective is to ensure that people capability and HR systems do not become a constraint to business growth.

4. IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE The ideal candidate should have:

- 1218+ years of progressive HR experience, preferably in food retail, sweets, restaurant chains, QSR, hospitality or multi-unit F&B.;
- Robust experience managing HR across multiple outlets / locations.
- Proven experience handling large frontline and operational workforces.
- Strong understanding of retail and restaurant manpower dynamics.
- Demonstrated exposure to people productivity and manpower optimisation.
- Experience building and implementing HR systems and processes.
- Strong knowledge of employee lifecycle management and HR compliance.
- Experience working closely with promoters/business owners and operational leadership.
- Ability to lead both strategic HR initiatives and ground-level execution.
- Experience supporting organisational growth, expansion and transformation will be highly valued.

5. CORE COMPETENCIES

- Business-oriented HR leadership

- People productivity
- Manpower planning & optimisation
- Multi-location HR management
- Retail & frontline workforce management
- HR process design & implementation

- Performance management

- Talent acquisition

- Employee lifecycle management
- Labour law & statutory compliance

- Leadership development
- Employee engagement & retention
- HR analytics & MIS

- Change management

- Stakeholder management

- Strong execution orientation

6. EDUCATION Graduate/Postgraduate in Human Resources, Business Management, Hospitality, Retail Management or a related discipline.

MBA/PGDM in HR or Business Management preferred.

Interested candidate may apply by sending the application at [email protected] or whats app at (phone hidden)

📌 General Manager Human Resource (Chennai)
🏢 Findresource
📍 Chennai