People and Culture Officer at Practical Action Kenya

About the Role 

The People & Culture officer will carry out responsibilities in some or all of the following functional areas: Talent acquisition and Management, Benefits Administration, Consultancy and Contracts Management, Learning and Development, Staff on boarding, Administrative tasks, Events coordination and scheduling, other support services as required including management of our people according to PA Policy and Kenya Labour Law, and Leave Administration among other responsibilities.

The main duties and responsibilities of the post-holder will among others involve the following:

• Developing recruitment plans for open positions while ensuring that all recruitment requests have an approved budget and are signed by recruiting managers and approved by Country Director
• Screening applications and assessing them for relevant knowledge, skills, experience and aptitudes and providing longlists of qualified candidates to recruiting managers for shortlisting
• Scheduling interviews in liaison with the interviewing panel.
• Documenting interview summaries and hiring decisions and completing timely recruitment status report for review by the Head of People & Culture and recruitment managers.
• Obtaining references and carrying out required pre-employment checks to verify successful candidate’s information.
• Sending job offer emails and responding to queries about compensation and benefits.
• Updating the employee and consultancy contracts file on regular basis.
• Tracking contract dates and updating line managers of approaching contract end dates, probation reviews, confirmations, renewals, extensions and staff movements and separations.
• Preparing an induction schedule for new staff, facilitate induction/orientation of new staff and introducing new staff to colleagues.
• Take lead in organizing office staff functions, events and in team building activities.
• Communicating with and responding to enquiries in relation to recruitment and on boarding of Staff.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Recruitment and selection responsibilities – 60%

• Developing recruitment plans for open positions and maintaining an up to date recruitment planner.
• Ensuring that all recruitment requests have been signed off by recruiting managers and approved by Country Director before commencing the recruitment.
• Screening and reviewing applications and assessing them for relevant knowledge, skills, experience and aptitudes and providing longlists of qualified candidates to recruiting managers and Head of People & Culture for shortlisting.
• Scheduling interviews with the recruiting managers, evaluating applicants by discussing job requirements and applicant qualifications and where appropriate interviewing them on a consistent set of qualifications.
• Documenting interview summaries and hiring decisions and completing timely recruitment status report updates for review by the Head of People & Culture and
• recruiting managers.
• Obtaining references and carrying out required pre-employment checks to ensure that information given is verified.
• Sending job offer emails and responding to queries regarding compensation and benefits, and notifying recruiting managers of the new employee’s starting date.
• Ensuring all recruitment and on-boarding documents are managed and processed in a timely manner. Ensure all staff documentations are kept in the personnel files and
• confidentiality is maintained.
• Adhere to the Kenya Labour Law and Practical Action recruitment policies and procedures at all times.
• Acting as liaison with advertising agencies, advertising vacancies on job websites, newspaper classifieds, with professional organizations and in other appropriate venues.
• Monitoring and applying HR recruiting best practices by staying current on the organizational structure, personnel policy, and labor laws regarding employment
• practices.
• Providing administrative support to the Head of People & Culture and other managers throughout the recruitment process.
• Adhering to and promoting our Code of Conduct and related policies including the Safeguarding policy and guidelines while ensuring that these are embedded in team culture and well modelled by others (Practical Action staff, partners, beneficiaries and all persons that you will come in contact with while activing on behalf of Practical Action).
• Also, promote the reporting structures for receiving complaints and respond to concerns appropriately within the policy.

P&C Administrative Responsibilities - 10%

• Updating monthly staff metrics (headcount, staff movements) and submitting to Head of People & Culture for review
• Take lead in organizing office staff functions, events and team building activities.
• Provide administrative support to staff and visitors in creating correspondence letters that facilitate travel, visa applications and work-permits.
• Administration and management of staff benefits including following up with the service providers and keeping the services up to date (renewals, deletions, additions).

Records Management and internal P&C communications - 10%

• Custodian of personnel and consultancy files and consultant’s tracker.
• Responding to enquiries in relation to recruitment and on boarding of Staff.
• Taking action points during monthly staff meetings and distributing important information arising from this meeting to all staff.
• Updating the leave tracker and notifying staff of their accrued/usage of all types of leave, share quarterly leave status reports with team leads.
• Maintaining the leave application site and confirming leave balances before approval by
• line managers. Ensure all leave types are well updated on the leave system and on the Leave Tracker.
• Protecting the confidentiality of personnel and individual information.
• Any other duties as may be assigned.
• Strengthening our Profile and Managing Relationships

Employee and Consultancy Contracts Management - 15%

• Updating the employee and consultancy contracts file on regular basis.
• Tracking contract dates and update line managers of approaching contract end dates (at least two (2) months in advance), confirmations, renewals, extensions and staff movements and separations are initiated on time. 
• Drafting consultancy contracts for onward review by Head of People and Culture.

On-boarding, staff exits and separation - 5%

• Prepare and maintain an up-to date induction schedule for new starters.
• Facilitate the induction process and briefing all new staff members on the process.
• Introduce new employees to other staff and orient them to the health, safety and security procedures.
• Process new staff’s medical cards, contracts, staff ID cards and office equipment.
• Providing guidance on the exit and clearance process and documentation for transitioning staff, facilitate timely and efficient exiting including sharing information on final dues and conducting exit interviews.

PERSON PROFILE

To be successful in the role, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Experience & Knowledge

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource, Business Administration or equivalent with 3-5 years’ experience as a human resources generalist in an International NGO
• A Higher National Diploma in Human Resources with significant working experience in HR in an International organization in recruiting, interviewing and conducting job evaluations.
• Substantial knowledge of Kenya Labour laws
• High level of confidentiality and integrity
• Ability to work effectively with diverse groups and establish and maintain collaborative relationships with project partners and staff. Must be highly organized
• Ability to take initiative and work independently
• Ability to establish and maintain harmonious working relationships with co-workers;
• Good inter-personal skills; possess the ability to interact with all levels of staff as well as both internal and external clients.
• Proven ability to organize, prioritize and complete work under tight deadlines
• Excellent communication skills; fluency in English and Swahili languages.
• Must be a member of IHRM in god standing.
• Experience administering employee benefits including medical insurance and pension;
• Experience working with remote teams in a multicultural environment;
• Ability and flexibility to travel to different parts of the country
• Experience in conducting trainings