Head of People and Culture

About the role

The Head of People and Culture ( P&C), Kenya role is a critical role as it takes care of the most valuable assets, our people and the company culture. This role entails overseeing the day-to-day management of the employee life cycle from hire-to-retire, ensuring that the P&C practices in the business are fit for purpose. 

The ideal candidate has experience in start-up and scale up environments, with in-depth generalist experience in all facets of the employee lifecycle from talent acquisition, onboarding, performance management, succession planning, employee relations, organization design, learning and development through to rewards and recognition. Experience in setting up and scaling up people operations in a fast paced environment will be a key advantage. This role is responsible for P&C deliverables in the SunCulture Kenya Limited (SKL) Market therefore experience supporting a highly distributed local team is required. The role requires some local travel. 

Responsibilities:

Leadership:

• Support the Kenya Leadership Team by providing advisory and counsel services in all P&C related matters while ensuring compliance expectations are met. 
• Serve as the P&C subject matter leader and go-to business partner in implementing SKL’s strategic plans.
• Implement the P&C strategies in Kenya in-line with the overall Global P&C strategy.
• In partnership with the Kenya Leadership Team, facilitate clear communication on all policies, strategies, goals, and changes to ensure transparency and accountability across the market.

People Operations:

• Improve our People Operating Toolkit: Build, refine, and maintain P&C policies, systems, and processes.
• Oversee and manage the comprehensive processes of the end-to-end employee life cycle including, but not limited to, performance management, employee relation, compliance management, learning & development and the employee exit process.
• Oversee all aspects of P&C administration, including employment processing, contracting, payroll, benefits management, immigration, records management, health & safety and alignment with local legal compliance.
• Work closely with the Kenya Leadership Team to ensure workforce forecasting and planning is inline with business needs. Oversee organizational design and team structures that will deliver business results.
• Ensure the company has the right number of employees, with the right skillset, and hired at the right time.
• Work closely with the HR Business Partners and Kenya Leadership Team in managing the disciplinary process across the business in line with local labor laws.
• Manage People Analytics by collating P&C data and generating reports. From the data, make improvements to the ways of working on the P&C team and provide recommendations for overall business improvement.
• Optimize data and reporting; identify synergies and other opportunities for enhancement of current systems, resources, and processes for improved efficiency, quality, timeliness, and accuracy of the P&C function.
• Support the P&C budgeting processes and cost management as informed by the internal BvA processes.
• Continuously review, and put forward proposals for ensuring that employment terms and conditions of all employees enables SKL to remain competitive and attract the right calibre of teammates.
• Propose short and long-term HRIS technology strategies and roadmaps. Collaborate with internal and external partners to achieve required HRIS results that support business needs.
• Maintain knowledge of industry trends and make recommendations to SKL for improvement of organization’s policies, procedures and practices on HR matters.

Performance Management:

• Assist in setting and managing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to align with organisational goals across the business. 
• Solidify our performance culture by managing our semi-annual performance review process, performance improvement program, and high-potential employee initiatives.
• Lead the performance review process across SKL to build on a strong culture of regular feedback and clear deliverables and accountability.
• Manage the learning & development program and processes that ensures that teammates are continually growing, learning and contributing towards the company overall strategy.
• Develop and assist managers to create and deliver training that adequately supports the growth of the employees.
• Identify training needs within the organization and develop relevant programs to close learning gaps.

Culture and Engagement: 

• Lead and model the SunCulture Culture throughout the organization to maintain demonstrable values-in-action of a shared culture.
• Manage the Employee Net Promoter program (eNPS) that fosters organization culture and employee engagement.
• Ensure implementation of tactical plans targeted at improving employee engagement. Gather employee feedback, that can be prioritised and actioned by the business to keep improving the employee experience
• Manage and coordinate SKL employee welfare and team building programs.
• Work with leaders to develop programs and methods for supporting teammate engagement.
• Actively contribute to the development and maintenance of a positive and inclusive organisational culture across SKL.

Team Management:

• Lead and manage a team of HR Business Partners to deliver on the annual P&C Departmental OKRs.

Skills and Competence for the Role

• Bachelor’s degree in HR or related field.
• 7+ years in People and Culture. Experience working in startup environment preferred
• Extensive knowledge of HR policies and systems
• Familiarity with HR software [HRIS] and working knowledge of vast systems and tools
• Should be Hands-on, detail-oriented, and with strong execution skills
• Ensure clear communication, written and verbal. Comfortable addressing wide audiences and appropriately tailoring messages to wide groups. 
• Ability to give clear and timely instructions, follow up and hold themselves and others accountable.
• Have the ability to think independently and solve complex problems in a fast-paced dynamic environment.
• Expert in work prioritization, proper time management, and have the ability to thrive in a fast turnaround environment.
• Demonstrate comfort with ambiguity and able to thrive in resources constrained environments
• Lead large teams and demonstrate the ability to achieve results through others