Senior HR & Payroll Generalist

3Z Brands is hiring a Senior HR & Payroll Generalist to keep our people operations accurate, compliant, and moving for our workforce. You will own payroll for our Transportation division. You will also manage leaves of absence and run unemployment claims, wage garnishments, benefits administration, HR reporting, and multi-state payroll compliance in ADP. This is a hands-on role on a small team. You work independently, use sound judgment, and pitch in wherever the team needs you, not just where the job description says.

Responsibilities

Payroll

• Own end-to-end payroll in ADP for the Transportation division (about 40 employees). This is a manual process: collect and verify driver hours, trip and mileage data, calculate pay, and enter it accurately each cycle.
• Enter terminations and leaves of absence (LOA) into company-wide biweekly payroll in ADP, including final pay, status changes, and returns from leave.
• Serve as backup for company-wide biweekly payroll, running it end to end when the Payroll & People Operations Manager is out.
• Provide support to the Payroll & People Operations Manager in biweekly payroll audits. Reconcile registers, catch discrepancies before they reach paychecks, and document corrections.
• Process wage garnishments such as child support, tax levies, and creditor orders.
• Manage ADP SmartCompliance, including unemployment claims, garnishment orders, employment verifications, and state tax and agency notices.
• Keep payroll compliant in every state where we employ people. This includes state registrations, withholding, wage-and-hour rules, and setting up new states.

Leaves, unemployment, benefits and compliance

• Manage leaves of absence from request to return: FMLA, state paid and family leave programs, short- and long-term disability, and ADA accommodation requests. Determine eligibility, send required notices, track leave balances and deadlines, coordinate with carriers and managers, and keep pay and benefits status in sync.
• Respond to unemployment claims and agency requests accurately and by deadline. Gather documentation and represent 3Z at hearings when needed.
• Administrative employee benefits support, including enrollments, life events, carrier and broker questions, open enrollment, and invoice reconciliation.
• Assist with internal and external audits. Coordinate with auditors, pull reports, organize records, and drive findings to resolution.

Administration and reporting

• Maintain accurate employee records in ADP, including new hires, job and pay changes, terminations, and leave status.
• Build and run recurring HR and payroll reports, such as headcount, turnover, payroll variance, leave tracking, and audit support.
• Use AI tools to generate, summarize, and analyze reports, and to automate routine reporting and documentation.
• Keep HR and payroll files organized, confidential, and audit-ready.
• Document processes and keep procedures current so the team can step in for one another.

Process improvement and wherever the team needs you

• Lead process improvements across payroll and HR operations.
• Jump in on other HR and payroll work as priorities shift.
• Spot gaps in our processes and help fix them.

Who you are

This role is for someone who asks “how can I help?” rather than “is that in my job description?”

• Team-first. You care about your teammates and step in when someone is buried, out, or on deadline.
• Flexible and nimble. You shift between payroll, employee questions and agency deadlines in the same afternoon without losing track.
• Detail-obsessed. Paychecks, garnishments and claims leave no room for “close enough.” You double-check, reconcile and document.
• Customer-minded. Employees are your customers. You respond quickly, explain clearly and follow through.

Qualifications Required

• 5+ years in HR and payroll, including hands-on processing of multi-state and hourly payroll for an organization of 1,000+ employees.
• Experience processing wage garnishments and responding to unemployment claims.
• Working knowledge of FMLA, ADA, and state leave laws, with experience managing leaves of absence.
• Solid understanding of FLSA, overtime rules, and state wage-and-hour laws.
• Hands-on experience with ADP payroll and ADP SmartCompliance experience is strongly preferred.
• Strong Excel skills, including VLOOKUPs, pivot tables and reconciliations.
• Clear, friendly written and verbal communication.

Preferred

• Payroll experience with transportation or driver workforces (DOT, per-mile or per-load pay).
• SHRM-CP, PHR or FPC/CPP certification.
• Experience supporting payroll, benefits or 401(k) audits.
• Experience using AI tools, such as Claude or Copilot, to build reports, analyze data, or streamline HR and payroll work.