What is the difference between Corporate HR and Industrial HR?

The distinction between Corporate HR and Plant HR (or, Industrial HR, as you have mentioned) occurs only in manufacturing industries. You will not find such roles in IT, Banking or Aviation industry. The primary difference is in the type of workforce they are expected to manage. While the one at the corporate level focuses more on the white-collar employees, the other at Plant (Industrial) level focuses more on blue-collar employees, otherwise, you don't see much difference.

Both the roles involve recruitment (at plant level, the focus is on contract-based temporary roles), training and development (at plant level the purpose of training is to ensure health and safety of employees and multi-skilling ), legal compliance (there are more compliance at plant level, involving, coordination with Government Officials), compensation and benefits (though at plant level compensation and benefits are negotiated once in THREE years), and HR strategies (at the plant level the primary focus of HR strategies are on optimization of production, automation, and manpower scheduling).

In terms of skills, while an individual working in the role of Corporate HR may not necessarily need to communicate in the local language; the one working in Plant HR role must be very fluent in the local language. Finally, the communication strategies used at Corporate and Plant HR are different.

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