Indigo improves grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies. Utilizing beneficial plant microbes and agronomic insights, Indigo works with growers to sustainably produce high quality harvests. The company then connects growers and buyers directly to bring these harvests to market. Working across the supply chain, Indigo is forwarding its mission of harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Sydney, Australia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil.

Our Indigo People Team may be known in other organizations as “HR,” but we are not your typical HR team. Our mission is to build a best-in-class team across Indigo and to create a healthy and motivating place to work. We operate as a modern, strategic, efficient team, partnering with leaders across the organization to attract and develop A players, while creating a sustaining a culture built on innovation and collaboration.

As a People Business Partner, you will bring Indigo’s global People strategy into your business units, leveraging your insight and knowledge of Indigo’s business objectives to truly grow, advise, and partner closely with our people. Your answer to a challenge is always, “Yes, we can figure this out.” You prefer, and thrive in, an environment that is ambiguous and constantly changing, and have a genuine passion for making Indigo the best place ever to work.

What you will do:

Earn a high level of trust from the leaders for your business units

• Seen as the point of contact for all people-related matters and recognized as a trusted advisor by the organization
• Ensure leadership teams within business units are high-functioning and high-performing

Earn a high level of trust from the employees in your business units

• Establish a regular cadence of check ins (e.g., at end of first week, after 30 days, after 90 days) with new hires
• Establish a regular cadence of check ins with current employees
• Serve as the primary touchpoint for business unit team members to be a sounding board for internal development opportunities, team morale, potential challenges, etc.
• Own all onboarding and departure logistics, including exit interviews

Skillfully and empathetically resolve employee relations issues

• Demonstrate balanced judgment for the perspectives of both the employee and the business
• Loop in the relevant people at the right time and know when to escalate concerns to the proper individuals

 Drive employee engagement for your business units

• Provide thoughtful coaching and insight in all things people-related to team leaders to help foster an engaging workplace, as measured by TinyPulse scores by department
• Understand root causes beneath scores and provide actionable solutions to address root causes
• Manage department dashboards including owning cadence of meetings to review with Dept Heads

Own performance management for your business units

• Partner with North America Business Partner to collect mid-year promotion nominations and 360 feedback, vet nominations among teams, and attend calibration meetings
• Own logistics (form completion, promotion nominations, etc.), attend relevant calibration meetings, review messaging and help with review delivery, and handle any follow-up for year-end review cycle
• Ensure teams’ quarterly goals are completed thoroughly and in line with Indigo expectations at the beginning of every quarter, and are assessed in a timely and thorough manner at the end of each quarter, surfacing any issues or concerns that may arise to the appropriate team leads and People Team members
• Identify underperformers and high performers, and work with managers, team leads, and BP function to address
• Handle underperformers with appropriate next steps (performance improvement plans, feedback loops, etc.) such that employees are not surprised by feedback, and that employees and managers feel supported by Indigo

Understand and embody our mission & core values

• Excited by Indigo’s mission; believe that Indigo can fundamentally change the agriculture industry; can clearly articulate passion for our mission and values
• Optimistic and innovative; solution-oriented; show no signs of cynicism
• Will be widely viewed as someone who personifies our core values, is committed to them, and leans on them when making decisions. Specifically:
  • Demonstrate a track record of high integrity - doing the right thing, owning mistakes, conducting oneself honestly
  • Value, communicate and interact with others with high levels of transparency and respect
  • Collaborate well across functions; create an inspiring and collegial work environment

We value a strong desire to be a part of a modern, strategic People Team where employees are viewed as Indigo’s biggest assets. You:

• Possess strong people intuition and empathy, yet you can be firm when needed
• Embrace change, are solutions-oriented, and function well in a dynamic ambiguous environment
• Address sensitive issues and facilitate difficult conversations with empathy and honesty, operating with a high level of discretion
• Anticipate issues and pain points and proactively find solutions
• Communicate in a highly polished and personable manner
• Demonstrate a high level of business acumen, with the ability to take into account different perspectives (employee, manager, team, business) when solving problems

Your background:

• Deep experience with employee relations and performance management
• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices within HR as well as applicable labor and employment laws
• Strong facilitation and coaching skills
• PHR/SPHR a plus