Market HR Manager

POSITION SUMMARY

The Market HR Manager is AutoNation's foundational field HR role. This associate is embedded in a market of lower-to-moderate complexity and serves as the daily HR presence for General Managers, Market Team members, and store associates across their assigned portfolio. Success at this level is defined by reliability, follow-through, and the ability to coach leaders rather than solve their problems for them. The Grade 11 Manager executes the four HRBP pillars with accuracy and consistency, builds trust through visibility and presence, and partners with COEs and the ER Team appropriately — routing the right work to the right expert rather than working around the system. Value is measured not by the volume of HR work processed, but by the quality of outcomes driven for associates and the business.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES 

Talent Selection

• Partner with General Managers and hiring managers to ensure a consistent, evidence-based interview process is followed for every open role
• Push for structured, behavioral interviews — challenge gut-feel hiring decisions with data and process discipline
• Participate directly in the interview process for GM-level candidates within the assigned market
• Conduct monthly staffing reviews with GMs at highest-need stores; track open requisitions and time-to-fill with urgency
• Monitor early turnover rates (0–90 days) to identify and address breakdowns in hiring quality or onboarding execution
• Partner with Talent Acquisition as the field-level contact; route requisition and sourcing needs through the TA COE, not around it
• Talent Development
• Build working knowledge of every GM and Department Manager in the market — their strengths, development gaps, and succession readiness
• Coach managers and GMs to handle their own people issues; resist the pull to take action on their behalf — build their capability instead
• Advocate for internal promotion when roles open; push GMs to look at the bench before posting externally
• Own the follow-up on 360 feedback and development conversations — connect leaders with the appropriate development COE resources
• Partner with and actively leverage the Talent Development COE; do not design or deliver development solutions independently when a COE partner exists
• Prepare and present basic talent reviews to the Market President and VP, Human Resources on a quarterly cadence

Listening Strategy

• Be the first to review market listening dashboards and pulse survey results; add context and interpretation before surfacing findings to store or market leadership
• Route listening signals to the appropriate response — development need, staffing gap, operational issue, or ER referral — rather than defaulting to a single channel
• Conduct individual debrief conversations with each GM following pulse surveys; coach them on how to respond, do not hand off a report and walk away
• Identify patterns across stores within the market and escalate market-wide themes to the Market President and VP, Human Resources
• Coordinate with the ER Team on ER case trends visible within the assigned market

Business Performance

• Develop foundational understanding of how assigned stores generate revenue — participate in store-level P&L reviews as a learning and relationship-building practice
• Connect people problems to business outcomes in every leadership conversation; translate turnover, absenteeism, and ER trends into store-level financial impact
• Use available data to quantify the cost of losing key associates — bring dollar-impact context to conversations with GMs about retention and hiring
• Serve as a consistent, credible HR presence with the Market President — bring a prepared point of view to each interaction, not just status updates
• This pillar is the lens through which all other pillar work is framed and communicated

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS SCOPE
All HRBPs handle Green-tier ER cases independently and may handle lower-acuity Yellow-tier cases with appropriate judgment. Higher-acuity Yellow, Orange, and Red-tier cases are escalated to and managed by the centralized ER Team, with the HRBP serving as the market-level partner — providing context, maintaining associate relationships, and ensuring continuity throughout the investigation process. HRBPs do not conduct formal investigations on elevated-tier matters; they are the bridge between the associate, the store, and the ER Team.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field required
• 2–4 years of progressive HR experience in a generalist, coordinator, or HR assistant capacity
• aPHR or PHR preferred; SHRM-CP a