Temporary Full-Time Human Resources Specialist

The HR Specialist sits in Billings and owns day-to-day people operations so branch managers and ownership can stay focused on customers, inventory, and delivery.
This is a hands-on specialist role, not an HR director seat. The person builds reliable processes around hiring, onboarding, payroll support in Paylocity, benefits administration, employee records, and multi-state compliance, and is the first call for managers on routine people questions. Montana employment rules are the home base. Policy decisions, compensation philosophy, and employee-relations issues with legal exposure stay with ownership.
Post roles, screen applicants, schedule interviews, and coordinate offers with the hiring manager for warehouse, driver, inside sales, and office positions in Billings and at the branches.

• Run a consistent onboarding path: new-hire paperwork, I-9, direct deposit, benefits enrollment window, safety orientation handoff, system access requests, and a 30/60/90 check-in. Maintain job descriptions and a simple interview guide so hiring does not restart from scratch each time.
• Coordinate offboarding: final pay on the timeline required by the employee’s work state, benefits end dates, equipment and access return, and exit notes for the manager.

Administer Paylocity for new hires, status changes, deductions, PTO balances, and terminations. Catch missing punches, meal-period issues where the work state requires them, and overtime before payroll closes.

• Some operating states mandate paid sick leave or paid family and medical leave. Others, including Montana, do not, so those employees follow company PTO policy plus federal FMLA where the company is covered. W-2 distribution, ACA reporting inputs if applicable, and benefit reconciliation in Paylocity.

Administer medical, dental, vision, and ancillary benefits in Paylocity. Run open enrollment, new-hire enrollment, qualifying events, and carrier or TPA questions.

• Be the employee-facing contact for claims-payment questions (plan administrator, network, and payment platforms) and know when to escalate to the broker.
• Keep the personnel file complete and confidential: applications, offer letters, acknowledgments, performance notes, and medical information stored separately.
• Compliance and employee relations support
• Keep a current one-page rule sheet for each operating state covering final pay, overtime, meal and rest breaks, paid leave, required postings, and any pay-disclosure rule that applies when a job is advertised for work in that state.
• Support workers’ compensation claims intake and OSHA recordkeeping handoff with operations. HR does not run warehouse safety; HR makes sure the paperwork and return-to-work path are clean.
• Escalate harassment, discrimination, wage, or termination-risk issues to ownership the same day. Support background checks, drug screening where used for safety-sensitive roles, and DOT driver-file handoff with operations. HR owns the process; operations owns driver qualification content.

What this role does not own • Setting pay ranges, commission plans, or bonus distributions.

• Final approval of payroll, terminations, or handbook policy changes.
• Warehouse safety program design, lift inspections, or DOT compliance content.
• IT system administration, ERP permissions, or customer billing.

Those stay with ownership, finance, operations, or IT. Three or more years in HR operations, payroll support, or a combined office-manager / HR role in a multi-location or hourly-heavy company.

• You have built a new hire, changed a rate, run or prepared a payroll, and answered a deduction or PTO question without a ticket. Comfort with confidential information and a clear line between coaching a manager and making a legal call.
• Microsoft 365 fluency: Outlook, Excel (lookups, simple pivots), Word, SharePoint, and Teams.
• Billings is the home base; travel is the exception.

Experience in distribution, wholesale, transportation, or another operation with drivers and warehouse staff.

• Ties to the Billings or broader Montana labor market, so local hiring does not start from zero.