Reports To: Nairobi With Extensive Travel To Thefield
Coordination with: Director of Programmes, Director of Operations, Director of Finance
Reporting Positions: HR Manager, SLT Executive Administrator, Nairobi office Admin Manager
Budget Responsibility: Budget Holder
Child Safeguarding Level: 3
Context of work
Save the Children (SC) is an international organisation that has 27 member organisations across the globe. It is united by a common mission and brand but, to some extent, has until now been working independently from country to country.
Through Unified Presence, Save the Children aims to create a stronger voice for children by unifying the operations in all countries where more than one Save the Children Member have programmes. This will result in one organisation at the national level in each country and a unified programme delivery structure for all Save the Children International Members.
The programmes of Save the Children UK, Denmark and Finland unified in Somalia in January 2010 and as a result of this and of an active fundraising strategy at the beginning of 2011 the programme budget was over GBP 10m covering the thematic areas of protection, child survival (which includes health, nutrition and livelihoods), education and Child Rights and Governance.
Save the Children works in all three “zones” of Somalia: Somaliland, Puntland and Central South Somalia (CSS). Due to constraints on security, and the need to liaise with UN agencies, other NGOs and donors the country office is based in Nairobi and senior managers and directors are expected to travel extensively to monitor and support programme work in all parts of Somalia that are accessible and where security threats are being effectively mitigated.
The position of Director of Human Resources and Admin has been newly created in January 2011 and under the management of the Country Director, this position will share in the overall responsibility for the direction and coordination of the country programme together with Directors of Programmes, Operations and Finance.
The objective of the Director of Human Resources and Admin is to ensure that Save the Children in Somalia/Somaliland has the best people and systems required to deliver effective programmes that provide immediate and lasting change for children.
The post holder will identify priorities and develop solutions, with input from the other members of the Senior Leadership Team, related to administration, human resources management, staff development and information technology (IT).
Key Accountabilities
1. Strategic Development of Human Resources
- Maintain a strategic overview of HR trends, policies and practices.
- Contribute to the development of strategic, thematic and annual plans with input on human resource requirements and succession planning.
- Initiate policy ideas to support effective leadership and management of human resources in Somalia for discussion with the SLT.
- Work closely with the Programme and Operations departments to ensure that adequate HRD inputs and costs are provided and incorporated during proposal design, development and implementation of all projects/programmes.
- Ensure that all proposals contain costs for staff development to the maximum amount possible allowed by the donor.
- Ensuring all SC Somalia/Somaliland programme HR policies and procedures comply with local laws and organizational global policies, are followed and implemented. This applies to Kenya as well as the different zones (area offices) in Somalia.
- Oversee the recruitment and induction process of both international and national staff as well of consultants according to organizational best practice and compliant with both organizational policy and the appropriate local legislation.
- Ensure that a database is developed and maintained of past consultants and other potential temporary staff. This should include recommended training institutions and opportunities as well as recommended media for advertising.
- Oversee the development and administration of competitive salary and benefits packages.
- With input from the Senior Leadership Team and other line-managers, assess training needs for all staff, develop capacity building plans, and monitor their effective implementation.
- Oversee implementation of effective performance management systems, including job descriptions for all staff, annual work plans, annual performance evaluations, and continuous coaching from supervisors and provide appropriate training to line-managers
- Ensure maintenance of updated information on staff salaries, allowances and income-tax calculations and ensuring compliance with current laws and regulations in close collaboration with the Director Finance and other SLT members
- Ensure that up-to-date personnel records are maintained according to organizational best practice and compliant with both organizational policy and the appropriate local legislation.
- Ensure technical support and advice is available for HR management in all area offices.
- Provide assistance and guidance to senior management staff to identify trends in employee relations issues and work with them to rectify issues.
- Work closely with the Country Director and other management staff to manage and coordinate grievance management and disciplinary proceedings involving any staff member and recommend appropriate action to resolve disputes.
- Monitor the progress of the establishment of the Save the Children International Programmes (SCip) in other SC regions and, if planned to be introduced under this new structure, propose to the SLT a system for introducing a system of performance related pay.
- Manage the department’s budget and report on progress on budget management.
- Develop common policies on office administration and with SLT’s support , ensure that minimum standards are met in all offices to enable staff to perform their duties efficiently, effectively and safely.
- With support from the Nairobi office manager, oversee the functioning of the Nairobi office to ensure that office systems are run in an efficient and coordinated manner.
- With technical assistance provided by the logistics section within the operations department, maintain an overview of IT and communications requirements, and oversee implementation of means to effectively meet the requirements in all offices.
- Ensure that Save the Children Policies on IT are enforced.
- Ensure technical support and advice is available through mentoring and providing distance support for the Office Administration and HR officers in all area offices.
- Ensuring that procedures and reporting are implemented accurately and on time, particularly related to leases, inventories, insurance, and audit recommendations.
- Take the lead in promoting the Save the Children Safeguarding Children’s Policy ensuring that all staff are fully briefed on the policy and that and annual work plan is developed and implemented to meet the requirements of the policy within the programme.
- Provide technical support and advice through mentoring and providing distance support to the focal person within area offices responsible for the Safeguarding Children’s Policy
- Provide an update to each SLT meeting on progress of activities against the annual work plan.
- Provide technical support to the Executive Administrator to the SLT in developing an internal communication plan to ensure that developing and new policies are adequately disseminated to all staff and that all staff have a means of communicating concerns to the SLT.
- Through the above system and using simple survey techniques ensure that the SLT has a good understanding of the knowledge, attitude and practices of staff in relation to key Save the Children policies and their own health and safety.
- Lead on representation and networking on all aspects related to human resources and administration.
- Liaise closely with HR managers based in the regional office and with global HR officers in Save the Children members’ head quarters as is appropriate.
- Ensure that the programme has up to date comparative date on HR benefits with other agencies, both in Kenya and Somalia/Somaliland as well as data on hanging costs of a standard food basket.
- To ensure tht the programme has a good understanding of the registration proceedings in Kenya an din particular related to securing work permits. In this to develop where possible personal relationship with key players in the NGO Board and in the immigration department.
- Lead, manage and motivate the departmental team ensuring that they have clear objectives and receive meaningful feedback on their performance.
- Ensure appropriate staffing at all levels of the HR/Admin department.
- Seek to ensure appropriate gender, caste and ethnic diversity within the HR/Admin team.
- Encourage a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation.
- Contribute to overall planning, management and strategic direction of SC in the Somalia/Somaliland programme.
- Present a report to each SLT meeting highlighting issues arising in relation to administration and HR activities and procedures and when necessary ensure that action is agreed by the SLT for addressing concerns.
- Work with SLT and in particular the security manager to ensure adequate security for staff and programmes
- Ensure transparent use of financial resources in compliance with Save the Children UK and donor policies and procedures
- Post-Graduate qualifications in Personnel Management or Business Administration (MBA) with specialisation in Human Resources.
- A minimum of 10 years management experience at senior management level in a corporate or an NGO environment with a total of work experience of 7 to 10 years.
- Experience in the development of strategic and operational HR plans and their implementation in a professional work environment for a sustained period of time ie.at least three years.
- Ability to plan and organize a substantial workload that includes complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities.
- Demonstrated credibility with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels of an organization.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
- Ability to express oneself succinctly, creatively and independently.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to demonstrate skills in leading a multi- disciplined team through a period of change.
- Leadership skills, including the ability to supervise and motivate qualified professional staff with strong personal value systems.
- Analytical, decision making and strategic planning skills and the ability to handle multiple priorities
- Ability to coach, mentor, delegate appropriately and provide developmental guidance to supervised staff.
- Team building skills
- Competent level skills in core IT applications, particularly MS Office.
- A commitment to the values and principles of SC
- High level of commitment to the principles of development and to the organizational and programmatic goals of Save the Children
- Our selection processes reflect our commitment to the protection of children from abuse. Our people are as diverse as the challenges we face.
Application Closing Date: Thursday 21st Apr 2011, 15:00 pm
Save the Children is an equal opportunities employer and highly encourages women to apply.
Save the Children is committed to supporting performance based career progression for female
employees.
The following are additional benefits which would apply to successful female candidates:
- Childcare support for children under 3 years
- Maternity leave
- Flexible working options
- 80% of tuition fees for children
