Regional Head of Employee Relations at Save the Children

ROLE PURPOSE: 

The job holder is responsible for high quality reward service at both strategy and operational levels. She/he will be expected to provide leadership on reward strategy and best practices, provide centre of excellence service for the East and Southern Africa region staff on international contracts and local staff in our programming countries. She/he will be build the capacity of HR Mangers/Directors in relation to reward. 

The role will also provide advice on employee relations and performance management in accordance with employment laws, legislations and internal policies and procedures. Serving as a key HR business partner, the job holder will function as a key liaison between employees and management

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

Reports to: Regional HR Director, East and Southern Africa 

Dimensions: Save the Children works in twelve countries in East Southern Africa (Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and Ethiopia) with a current staff complement of approximately 5000 staff and current expenditure of approximately $400 million each year. The Regional Multi-Country Program unit has an overall portfolio of 4 million USD and Youth in Action project is 40 Million USD.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Rewards and benefits 

• Be the regional reward expert and adviser  
• Lead on building reward capacity of the regional HR team and Country HR Managers/Directors in a collaborative manner and through coaching  
• Work closely with the Recruitment Manager in the region to develop and communicate the employee value proposition to existing managers and employees and a wider external audience 
• Work closely with the Recruitment Manager on offers and benefits extended to hires on both national and international contracts   
• Ensure existing reward structures and elements remain competitive by regular benchmarking and updates 
• Business partner with the regional and country office leadership team to attract, recruit and retain talent 
• Collaborate and engage effectively with region and country office stakeholders to monitor local contexts 
• Lead on identifying opportunities to raise the corporate branding and profile in the region and country offices 
• Translate rewards policies into compensation programmes and grade structures 
• Guide leadership to communicate performance and any changes to rewards policies and philosophy
• Guide leaders on performance management matters 
• Carry out market assessments to obtain knowledge of competitive practices within labour markets at regional and country office levels 
• Undertake trend analysis by understanding the competitive business environment 
• Work with senior business leaders to deliberate cases that depart from policies and processes 
• Review data and envisage impact of business activities on HR practices 

Employee relations 

• Counsel senior leadership on all employee relations issues.  Ensure best decisions are made through influencing, coaching and providing subject matter expertise.
• Ensure employee relations issues and concerns are handled consistently, transparently, fairly and in line with SCIs policies and values 
• Lead on implementation and review of people operations policies, procedures and systems in relation to disciplinary procedures and performance management 
• Develop response specifications and submission of employee relations queries 
• Manage employee relations database that will provide policy, performance and compliance reports and metrics to improve employee engagement 
• Support in conducting exit interviews for exiting employees and leverage on feedback for improvements
• As member of Regional Risk Committee, analyse risks to proactively support business agenda, asses regional and country offices risks and manage follow up processes 
• Lead on implementation of employee engagement surveys in the region and country office and develop reports that inform and guide leadership in decision making about employee engagement 
• Provide thought leadership in disciplinary, grievance and performance management and in accordance with employment laws and SCI policies and procedures 
• Business partner with line managers with a view to settling employee grievances and conflicts 

People Management;

• Line management of Regional HR Manager 
• Coach and develop for peak performance
• Monitor performance to strengthen results 

Other:

• Role modelling and supporting the development of an organisational culture that reflects our values, promotes accountability and high performance and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved
• Creates a managerial environment across the Region to lead, enable and maintain our culture of child safeguarding

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale

Collaboration:

• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
• displays consistent excellent judgement

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential:

• Qualified HR professional and/or substantial HR generalist experience including recruitment and selection, performance management, learning and development, reward and employee relations.
• Understanding of employment laws
• Knowledge of HR practices in employee relations, rewards and performance management 
• Sound analytical skills 
• Good business HR and business acumen 
• Demonstrable coaching and conflict resolution skills 
• Proven ability and willingness to change work practices and hours in the event of major emergencies
• Willingness to work and travel in often difficult and insecure environments
• Commitment to Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding and other global policies, and to Save the Children values.
• Fluency in written and spoken English. 

Desirable:

Knowledge and experience of working in the ESA region