People Operations Advisor at Mercy Corps

Essential Job Responsibilities

SUPPORTING ACTIVE RESPONSE

• Participate as a core member of the People Teams’ mobilization to support agency emergency response priorities.
• Work with partners from the response team and other departments to coordinate actions to support effective response.
• Advise teams on best practices to support complex recruitment and hiring during emergency response.
• Liaise between teams to ensure processes and procedures are meeting the needs of the response.
• Coordinate with teams responsible for tax, immigration and employment law considerations for areas targeted by emergency response programming and integrate mitigation measures into ongoing response processes.
• Advise on capacity and structure of new programming teams mobilized for emergency response.
• Provide additional capacity to the administrative needs supporting recruitment and hiring during the initial phases of an emergency response, including facilitating approvals, completing paperwork, drafting PDs and other documents and posting roles for recruitment..
• Advise and add capacity to program-based HR teams and facilitate connection to central office support and resources.
• Deploy as needed to provide immediate people-focused support during the initial phases of a response.
• Synthesizing Learning and Promoting Best Practices
• Develop and maintain an operational toolkit to support HR practices and procedures during an emergency response.
• Contribute to agency level after action reviews to help promote organizational learning. Consolidate People-related learnings and lead processes to implement recommended changes to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
• Participate in cross-functional working groups that contribute to increasing organizational capacity during emergency and critical incident response.
• Partner with Global Rewards and Global Security teams to enhance Duty of Care practices, particularly in relation to emergency and critical incident response.
• Partner with Ethics & Compliance to ensure practices and processes enhance Mercy Corps’ culture of integrity and accountability

Support Global People Team Capacity and Priorities

• Engage as an active contributor and collaborator to Global People Team priorities. Able to lead work streams as assigned.
• Provide additional capacity to teams during times of enhanced demand, especially around times of program start-up and close down.
• Ensure Global People Team processes, procedures and policies complement needs during emergency and critical incident response. Proactively partner with relevant teams to address gaps as needed.

Supervisory Responsibility

N/A

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Head of People Operations

Works Directly With: Global People team, Humanitarian Leadership and Response team, Global Security team, Regional Directors and Leadership teams,European and US Program Support teams, International FInance team, General Counsel, Global Procurement and Logistics.

Knowledge and Experience

• 5 or more years experience in international human resources, with at least 3 in business partner/ advisory capacity.
• 3 or more years of experience within the humanitarian and international development sector. Experience at the country/ program level is preferred.
• Demonstrated experience with emergency or critical incident response in the humanitarian and international development sector, including familiarity with Sphere and Core Humanitarian standards.
• Comfort and familiarity supporting and advising teams operating in complex and rapidly evolving humanitarian contexts.
• Familiarity with humanitarian program start up activities, particularly related to the range of People-related activities..
• Proven ability to work productively with a wide variety of stakeholders to run both participatory processes and also meet tight deadlines with an emphasis on producing quality products.
• Ability to lead teams, handle negotiations and facilitate planning processes.
• Exceptional written and interpersonal communication skills.
• Availability to work non-standard hours as needed, especially when supporting an active emergency or critical incident response..
• Able to read, write and speak English proficiently is necessary. French, Arabic, Spanish and/or Russian language skills are also preferred.

Success Factors

The successful People Operations Advisor is able to provide meaningful, time-sensitive and impactful People-related advice and direction in support of an agency humanitarian emergency response. They are comfortable navigating complex and ambiguous situations and are willing to adapt within a changing context. They are able to triage problems and recommend solutions in support of the strategic aims of the emergency response. They are confident in their ability to independently identify needed actions and are proactive in resolving them. Finally, they are eager an learner and are willing to engage in the individual and collective reflection needed to constantly improve.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This role can be based at an established Mercy Corps office location in Europe (Edinburgh, London or The Hague), Africa or the Middle East. The individual must have the independent right to live and work at the location of assignment (ie., not require visa sponsorship). Up to 30% international travel may be required, possibly with little advance notice to locations with complex safety and security environments and limited services.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.