Business Partner Consultant, People & Culture at Standard Bank Group

Job Purpose 

To drive the achievement of business unit objectives and overall Bank’s objectives through the implementation of the People & Culture Resources strategy, policies and practices.

Key Responsibilities

Guide workforce and organizational planning

• •Support line managers to link their people plans to the overall business plan on an measures* annual basis. Contribute to improvements required in the plans if gaps are identified.
• Contribute to the development of the annual staff cost budgets by providing advice on market pay and anticipated workforce changes. Assess and coordinate manpower requirements of the business, and work with managers for viable solutions.
• Extract organisation management reports from the SAP system if needed.
• Review appropriateness of job contents with line managers and job family owners for all new and updated job descriptions, prior to submitting for job evaluation and publication. Educate line managers on the value of proper job design. When required, complete job analysis and design or request the Group Organisation Effectiveness team to support when there are projects to address job allocations in the business area. Ensure that the rest of the People & Culture team in the business area are informed of the changes.
• Ensure that structural changes are checked and updated monthly on the SAP system including reporting line changes, new joiners and vacancies.
• Succession planning to ensure Business continuity.

Ensure that the business area is appropriately resourced

• Proactively identify gaps and create improvement plans with support from resourcing and learning teams. In business areas where the functionality exists, work with workforce planning or productivity managers to ensure that People & Culture governance is adhered to.
• Approve requests for replacement vacancies as part of the quarterly workforce planning reviews. Assist in managing the headcount budget in partnership with finance.
• Support the efforts of the resourcing teams to define the business demand for recruitment for each quarter.
• As part of engaging with employees across the business, identify potential opportunities for employees to move to other areas and arrange interaction with resourcing teams where appropriate.
• Participate in interviews for graduates on request.
• For non-permanent resources that are contracted through payroll, review and approve the terms of the contracts prior to distribution to the candidate.
• Review requests for non-permanent resources and challenge line on the appropriateness of appointing non-permanent giving consideration to duration of the work, rates, skills levels and labour regulations governing non-permanent appointments.
• Participate in the selection and contract negotiation process for fixed term contractors.
• Participate in the orientation process held in the business by meeting new starters during their first week and position the offerings from People & Culture. Business partners are responsible for arranging introductions to key business stakeholders.
• Conduct exit interviews for junior and middle managers who have resigned as well as a sample of other employees. Compile analysis of the results of the exit interviews and share with the Head of People & Culture if any concerns are flagged.
• Drive succession plans for critical roles. Review the completeness of the plans and highlight gaps to the business heads. Actively participate in the development actions of identified successors.

Advise line managers on employee engagement, performance management, talent management and reward and capability build

• Participate in the on boarding of new resources. 
• Act as a champion of self service by explaining the functionality available to employees and line and managers and helping them to navigate through transactions where needed.
• Off board resources by setting up and conducting exit interviews for general staff, team leaders and line managers. Consolidate the exit interview feedback for review.
• Ensure that line managers have a thorough understanding of the People & Culture processes and procedures that need to be followed to manage and govern activities in their teams.
• Continuously engage with employees and line managers in the business unit to determine the level of engagement. Identify areas of concern and address with the business unit's leadership.
• Advise line managers on effective goal setting for their employees. Review a sample of performance contracts during each performance cycle with a focus on those prepared by new line managers. Provide feedback to line managers on areas for improvement. Facilitate goal setting sessions where required.
• Coordinate and preside over performance moderation exercises. Advise line on the appropriate performance distribution given their business unit performance.
• Track all employees on performance improvement plans and monitor closure/exit. Monitor the performance improvement process and ensure that governance and documentation standards are adhered to.
• Review overall pay levels for the business unit against market information and incorporate trends identified during recruitment. Highlight gaps or concerns to the Head People & Culture for consideration when determining the remuneration plans for the following year.
• Review requests for interim increases against the policy requirements. Make recommendations for approval and facilitate the process between line and Reward.
• Review remuneration matching by comparing the job market match to the individuals and highlighting areas that require correction to the Reward teams. Analyse pay data against market information to make recommendations to line managers where significant adjustments are required.
• Manage the process of distribution of the increase and bonus pools. Monitor spend and allocation of funds. Ensure that the remuneration cycle is managed as a project within the timelines defined by the Reward team.
• Drive the reward moderation process by advising the business unit leadership on the moderation principles and guiding the conversations in the moderation meetings.
• Ensure that fair and consistent standards and guidelines are applied.
• Explain the recognition programmes together with the opportunities to drive employee engagement and retention to line managers. Act as a champion for driving nominations.
• Drive the process of identifying middle management and professional level talent. Engage with the talent team to drive talent validation processes. Advise the business unit leadership on the thought processes around talent identification and development. Participate in the creation and monitoring of development plans for identified talent.
• Create a 1 to 2 year view of the skills development needs in the business area with support from Learning and Development. Help line managers understand the importance of development activities together with any local regulatory requirements around training. Provide input into the business area's skills development plans.
• Participate in the development of career maps and learning pathways for job families that are unique to the business area. Coach line managers on how to have career discussions with their teams.
• Monitor the business area's adherence to mandatory compliance training requirements. Drive the understanding of the importance of completing the training within the regulated timelines.
• Facilitate employee relations by driving the formal processes related to standard or non-complex Disciplinary enquiries.
• Advising the Business Partner on the opportunities for improvement of employee relations.
• Interpretation of the local labour law to assess policy compliance
• Attend to employee grievances as well as disciplinary issues.

Ensure that line managers are aware of People & Culture services and governance standards

• Ensure a thorough understanding of all People & Culture processes and policies. Guide line managers across the business on how to interpret and apply the requirements and what the business benefits are of doing so.
• Proactively brief line managers at the start of major events in People & Culture calendar (for example when the annual remuneration process starts).
• Participate in the group-wide designs of People & Culture solutions and process improvements as business representatives on request.
• Act as the change champion for improvements in People & Culture processes and systems by explaining the benefits to line managers. Call on support from the group teams in the change management process if needed.
• Engage with line managers to determine which people metrics they require for decision making. Aggregate and consolidate the demands and feed into the business intelligence team.
• Conduct detailed trend analysis on metrics and indicators to create a proactive view of emerging risks in the business area. Provide a summary view to the business together with potential mitigation plans.
• Ensure that change requests are logged for any changes to be affected.
• Ensure a personal deep understanding of the capability that exists on the People & Culture systems. Encourage business users to use all the available functionality.

Provide People & Culture business intelligence

• Encourage line managers to use self-service reporting available on the employee portal.
• Draw monthly reports of the key people metrics. Review the trends for the business area for all the key items.
• Highlight areas of concern to the business area's management team and make recommendations on actions that can be taken to improve the trends. For example, if performance ratings are declining a deep dive could be done to determine the reasons and detailed actions should then be developed.
• Explain the content and significance of the people metrics to line managers.
• Validation of Payroll reports: Establish and maintain a relationship with Shared Services ensuring the effective management of information on SAP. e.g., PRU – New Hire, Exit, Update

Change Management and Other Ad Hoc Activities

• Communication and management of the company’s change initiatives as Change Agents within the business unit.
• Help Line Managers to identify and realize the capabilities they require to reach strategic goals
• Making change happen and coaching Line Managers to draw the best from their people through encouragement support and personal charisma.
• Budget consultation with Heads of Business Units. 
• Attendance of Meetings with business for relevant departments and Trust Business
• Liaison with Trust business partners reporting within Wealth business in Jersey

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Type of Qualification: First Degree
• Field of Study: Human Resources or Business related course 
• Mandatory: Be an IHRM Member with a current practicing certificate 

Experience Required
People & Culture Business Partnering

• People & Culture
• 5-7 years
• Good understanding of the role P&C management plays in enabling business commercial and social relevance, acquired through relevant working experience. A demonstrated track record of problem solving in support of business specific objectives. Understanding of the P&C impact measures is preferred. Experience working with leaders in a complex environment is preferred.

Additional Information

Behavioral Competencies:

• Adopting Practical Approaches
• Articulating Information
• Checking Details
• Developing Expertise
• Establishing Rapport
• Examining Information
• Following Procedures
• Interpreting Data
• Managing Tasks
• Meeting Timescales
• Team Working
• Upholding Standards

Technical Competencies:

• Decision Making
• Digital Advocacy
• Inclusive Facilitation
• Integrative Leadership
• Organisational Navigation
• Storytelling