HR & Payroll Manager - U.S. Trucking Company (ADP, Employee Relations)

POSITION OVERVIEW

We are hiring one person to BE our HR department. You will own HR and payroll for a U.S. trucking company based in Savannah, Georgia, and our employees and drivers will contact you directly when they have a problem. You will not be assisting someone who does HR. You will be the person who does HR.

THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT ROLE. If you are looking for admin work, data entry, or a general VA position, this is not it and we will not be a good fit.

WHAT THE JOB ACTUALLY IS

A W-2 truck driver calls you and says: "My paycheck is short. I'm missing eight hours and my $150 safety bonus."

What happens next is the job. You listen. You get his pay period and details. You pull the payroll and time records. You find the discrepancy. You coordinate with operations if you need source information. You determine the correction, get the approval it requires, process it, call him back and explain it plainly, document the case, and close it.

You own that problem from the moment you answer the phone until it is resolved. You do not forward it to the owner. That is the entire reason this position exists.

ENGLISH REQUIREMENT - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Exceptional spoken and written English is a NON-NEGOTIABLE requirement for this position. It is not a preference. If your spoken English is not strong, please do not apply - you will not pass our assessment and we will both have wasted our time.

You will speak by telephone every day with American CDL drivers, dispatchers, office staff, managers, job applicants, ADP representatives, and benefits providers. Some of those calls will be from people who are frustrated and believe they have been underpaid. You need to handle those conversations calmly and confidently.

Specifically, you must be able to:
- Understand conversational American English, including different regional accents and people speaking quickly
- Be easily understood by American employees over the telephone, including on poor connections and from inside a truck
- Think and respond naturally in real time - this role cannot be done from a script
- Ask intelligent follow-up questions and lead a difficult conversation
- Explain a payroll calculation clearly to someone who is upset
- De-escalate professionally without becoming defensive or over-apologizing
- Write professional business emails with excellent grammar and spelling
- Document conversations accurately and objectively

We do NOT screen on accent. We screen on clarity, comprehension, fluency, professionalism, and confidence. All shortlisted candidates complete a voice recording and a live English conversation before any offer is made.

PAYROLL RESPONSIBILITIES

We run W-2 payroll through ADP. You will be responsible for:
- Preparing and running payroll in ADP
- Payroll auditing and pre-submission review
- Answering employee and driver payroll questions
- Investigating incorrect pay and missing hours
- Verifying bonuses and incentives
- Deductions and payroll corrections
- PTO and benefits coordination with payroll
- Payroll reporting and records
- Multi-state payroll administration
- Payroll case management
- Communicating resolutions back to employees

A NOTE ON INTERNAL CONTROLS: payroll preparation and payroll approval are separate functions here. You will prepare, audit and recommend; final release is approved by ownership. If you are looking for a role with unrestricted authority to create and approve payments, this is not that role - and any experienced payroll professional will understand why.

AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION ABOUT OUR WORKFORCE

We have W-2 employees and drivers, who are paid through ADP - and separately we work with owner-operators and independent contractors, who are NOT employees and are NOT paid through ADP. Owner-operator payments run through driver settlements, which is a specialized trucking accounting function.

You may help route or coordinate owner-operator payment questions, but settlements are not your core responsibility and we may hire a separate Driver Settlements Specialist. If you have trucking settlement experience, tell us - it counts in your favor. It is not required.

HR RESPONSIBILITIES

Day-to-day HR operations, employee relations and employee support, employee handbook and HR policy administration, personnel records and HR documentation, performance management administration, corrective action and disciplinary documentation, employee complaints, leave and PTO administration, benefits administration and coordination, HRIS administration, multi-state HR compliance administration, HR reporting, employment verification, offboarding and termination administration, and maintaining confidential employee records.

You are NOT expected to provide U.S. legal advice. We expect you to know when a situation needs to go to U.S.-based HR leadership, an HR consultant, employment counsel, or ownership - and to escalate it promptly and with good documentation. Knowing where your authority ends is part of the job.

RECRUITING AND ONBOARDING

Recruiting: CDL driver, dispatcher and office recruiting, sourcing, applicant screening, initial interviews, scheduling, candidate follow-up, pipeline management, offer coordination, recruiting reports and KPIs. Experience recruiting for U.S. trucking or logistics companies is strongly preferred.

Onboarding: employee onboarding and ADP onboarding, new-hire paperwork and document collection, orientation coordination, background check coordination, employment verification, personnel file setup, training coordination, certification and license tracking, new-hire follow-up, offboarding.

TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE

Coordinating recurring employee training and training records, certification tracking, performance tracking and employee scorecards, performance improvement documentation, incentive programs, employee retention initiatives, and management development coordination.

THIS IS AN HR ROLE, NOT A DOT SAFETY ROLE

Please read this carefully, because it matters. This position is NOT our DOT Safety Director.

You may administratively assist with CDL and medical card expiration tracking, training records, certification reminders, and driver onboarding documentation. However, qualified safety and compliance personnel retain responsibility for Driver Qualification Files, the FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, DOT drug and alcohol compliance, MVR monitoring, Hours of Service, ELD compliance, a ---------- management, DOT audits, FMCSA regulatory interpretation, and driver safety qualification decisions.

You will work closely with Safety. We do not want you representing yourself as a DOT compliance expert unless you genuinely are one.

WORKING HOURS

9:00 AM - 6:00 PM U.S. EASTERN TIME, Monday through Friday.

IN THE PHILIPPINES THIS IS 9:00 PM - 6:00 AM MANILA TIME.

Please be certain you can sustain this schedule before applying. On November 1 the United States leaves daylight saving time and your hours become 10:00 PM - 7:00 AM Manila. Your contract is anchored to Eastern Time.

Reliability and punctuality are critical. Our employees and drivers need HR and payroll assistance during U.S. operating hours.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Approximately 5+ years of professional HR and/or payroll experience
- Hands-on U.S. payroll experience - you have actually processed U.S. payroll, not observed it
- Exceptional spoken and written English - verified by voice recording and live conversation. Non-negotiable.
- Direct employee-facing experience - you have handled employee questions and complaints yourself, by phone
- Ability to work 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM U.S. Eastern (9:00 PM - 6:00 AM Manila), Monday to Friday, reliably
- Strong Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets ability
- Demonstrated discretion with confidential information
- Reliable high-speed internet, a quiet working environment, and a headset suitable for professional calls
- Willingness to use multi-factor authentication and follow company security procedures

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

- Hands-on ADP experience, especially ADP Workforce Now. This is the single strongest preference we have.
- U.S. multi-state payroll experience
- U.S. trucking, logistics, or transportation experience
- CDL driver recruiting experience
- Benefits administration experience
- HRIS administration experience
- High-volume or field-workforce HR experience
- Prior remote HR support for a U.S. company
- Trucking settlement exposure (a genuine plus, not a requirement)

If you have excellent U.S. HR, payroll and ADP experience but no trucking background, please still apply. We can teach trucking terminology. We cannot teach judgment or telephone presence.

WHO DOES WELL HERE

Professional and mature. Highly organized. Confident but empathetic. Firm when required. Detail-oriented. Accountable. Discreet. Calm under pressure. A genuine problem-solver. Proactive. Comfortable making decisions inside defined authority and escalating outside it. Excellent at follow-through.

Who does NOT do well here: anyone who needs to be chased to finish routine work, or who is more comfortable forwarding a problem than owning it.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

This is a senior position and it is compensated as one. We set pay based on experience and on how you perform in our assessments - not on who will accept the least. We would rather pay properly once and keep someone for years than replace a cheap hire every eight months.

Please tell us your expected monthly rate when you apply. If you are the right person, we will have a serious conversation about it.

In addition to salary, this position includes:
- 13th month pay
- HMO / health allowance
- Internet allowance
- Paid time off - 15 days annually, increasing with tenure
- Philippine holidays
- U.S. holidays when our office is closed
- Company-provided equipment
- Quarterly performance bonus tied to clear KPIs
- Annual salary review

SECURITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

This role has access to employee records, Social Security numbers, payroll and banking information, benefits data, W-2s and personnel files. Access is role-based and monitored. Multi-factor authentication and our security procedures are mandatory. We take this seriously and you must too.

HOW TO APPLY

THE FIRST LINE OF YOUR APPLICATION MUST CONTAIN THESE THREE THINGS, IN THIS ORDER, SEPARATED BY DASHES:

[Years of hands-on U.S. payroll experience] - [Payroll platform you know best] - [Your expected monthly rate in USD]

Example: 6 years - ADP Workforce Now - $2,300

Applications that do not begin this way will not be reviewed. This is not a trick - we need those three facts immediately, and it tells us you read the posting before applying.

Then please provide all of the following:

1. Your resume
2. A link to your OnlineJobs.ph profile
3. A 2-3 minute voice recording (instructions below)
4. A description of your U.S. payroll experience - which companies, how many employees per pay period, which states
5. A description of your ADP experience - which ADP product, what you did inside it, for how long
6. A description of your U.S. HR experience
7. A description of your employee relations experience, including one difficult situation you handled directly
8. Your trucking or logistics experience, if any. If none, say so plainly - it will not disqualify you.
9. Your internet speed (download and upload - run a speed test and give us the actual numbers)
10. Your computer specifications (processor, RAM, operating system)
11. Confirmation you can work 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM U.S. Eastern (9:00 PM - 6:00 AM Manila), Monday to Friday
12. Your expected monthly compensation in USD

VOICE RECORDING INSTRUCTIONS

Record 2-3 minutes of audio. Your phone is fine, but find a quiet room. Speak naturally. Please do NOT read from a script - we can hear it, and it tells us nothing about how you will sound on a live call. Cover these four things:

1. Introduce yourself and summarize your payroll and HR background in about 30 seconds.
2. Describe the payroll system you know best and one specific problem you solved inside it.
3. Describe a time an employee came to you upset about their pay. What did they say, what did you do, and how did it end?
4. Explain, as if you were speaking to a truck driver on the phone, why his paycheck was $150 lower than he expected because a safety bonus was not approved in time for that pay period.

Item 4 is the one that matters most to us. Upload the file and include the link.

OUR HIRING PROCESS

1. Application review
2. Voice recording review
3. Paid written assessment (payroll reconciliation and written English - we pay for your time whether or not we hire you)
4. Live English conversation and driver role-play
5. ADP and payroll technical interview
6. Reference checks
7. Offer

We move quickly for strong candidates and we tell you either way. You will not be left waiting without an answer.