Vacancy: Regional Director- People & Culture, East Africa Region

October 5, 2021

Purpose of Position:

Provide strategic leadership to World Vision East Africa Region (EAR) in the area of People & Culture, and Organizational Development by maximizing the potential of World Vision’s (WV) human resources and optimizing organizational performance, sustaining the culture and ensuring alignment to fulfill WV’s strategy. Reporting to the Senior Director of Operations, and matrix reporting to the Chief People Officer, the Regional People & Culture (P&C) Director will provide leadership in developing leadership capacity, furthering executive development of National Directors (NDs) and senior staff. The Regional P&C Director also will build strong relationship with Global Center client groups and engage with external network to collaborate and further build WV’s brand. Matrix manages National Office (NO) People & Culture Directors and leads a team of Regional Office People & Culture staff. East Africa Region has three fragile countries and the position will ensure context appropriate support is provided to these countries which have several hardship and extreme hardship locations.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership:

Support the Regional Leader (RL) and Senior Director Operations (SDO) in creating a culture of transformational leadership, strategically aligned regional culture and engaged regional workforce.
Lead East Africa Region’s P&C function in developing a vibrant and empowering culture that supports and enables the execution of World Vision’s strategy and achieve the child well-being aspirations and outcomes.
Lead and manage the Regional Office P&C team.
Champion effectiveness & efficiency of East Africa Region’s P&C function through continuous development of high-quality services and processes to support leadership development and talent agenda.
Provide matrix supervision to National Office People & Culture teams in their leadership and engagement on matters related to human resource management and organizational development.
Guide the Leadership Team in the East Africa Regional Office, National Directors and National P&C Directors on all facets of P&C whilst promoting organizational culture, agility and effectiveness, alongside Mindset & Behaviors and Core Competencies.
Provides support to the Regional Leader in the recruitment of National Directors, and also supports the Senior Director of Operations in recruiting key Regional Office team members and National Office P&C leadership positions.
Lead and promote compliance to applicable (local) employment regulations, immigration and labor laws as well as WV policies and guidelines.
Demonstrate vibrant and mature Christian spiritual leadership through all People and Culture (P&C) related processes, practices and tools integrate, where applicable, and be guided by relevant competencies regarding WV’s Mission, Vision and Core Values.

Technical & Operational Support:

Provide direction and guidance in all areas of P&C such as recruitment, workforce planning, change & organizational development, total rewards, employee relations, staff care, performance management, talent development & management, retention, succession planning, among others.
Provide objective input and contribution in the development of effective global, regional & national P&C Standards, policies, procedures, guidelines and standards and ensure they are contextualized within the Field Offices and the region.
Work with Regional and National Offices’ stakeholders to ensure HR system (Our People) is optimized and P&C processes, policies and protocols are comprehended, followed and upheld in each offices to meet/advance P&C standards.
Work with Regional and National Offices’ P&C network to identify, develop and nurture a robust talent bench of future leaders for succession planning.
Ensure compliance with local labor law including work permits, visa, and office registration.
Serve and contribute as a member of the Regional Integrated Protection Hotline investigation team and to ensure safety and security of staff.

Strategy:

Lead in the execution of the Regional Office and National Office P&C strategies, ensuring that these are in line with Partnership P&C strategy and Our Promise aspirations.
Contribute to development of global, regional, and national P & C priorities and plans.
Provide leadership to the development and implementation of organization wide communication and change management plans during National or Regional Office transition to ensure alignment with National Office Strategies and Our Promise aspirations.

Capacity Building:

Lead the assessment, development and implementation of an integrated regional capacity building plan based on P&C priorities and strategy.
Provide leadership to East Africa Region’s capacity building (leaning & development) and talent management projects and initiatives in alignment with the global & regional capacity building framework and strategy.
In partnership with key stakeholders, ensure gap analysis from talent management point of view and provide direction to improve the quality of talent pipeline.
Share and facilitate access to P&C training resources such as Leader capabilities, Manager Handbook, WVe-campus modules, WVI Technical Academy, Management and Leadership Capabilities Library with a subscription to LinkedIn learning, and identifying opportunities for staff second-ment, mentoring or coaching.

Knowledge Management:

Inspire continuous learning and improvement in P&C practices, systems and tools that will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness the organization.
Lead and encourage mutual learning among National Offices through formal and informal setting such as sharing of best practices and lesson learnt, community of practice and center of excellence. Also encourage mutual learning of East Africa Region with other regions.
Promote the use of external and internal platform (Our People & WV Central) and other off-the-shelf learning materials to develop and contextualize learning materials and contents.
Facilitate and coordinate the Regional P&C Community of Practice and convene regional meetings on a regular basis to enable networking and learning.

Quality Assurance and Risk Management:

Provide direction to East Africa Region to ensure P&C compliance with WVI Partnership standards, policies and procedures. Advises the Regional & National Offices in addressing gaps/issues related to HR practices.
Active role in providing direction to Regional and National Offices in preventing and mitigating risk related to employment / labor laws.
Ensure effective implementation of Integrated Incident Management (IIM) and Employee Relations systems, ensures capacity at Regional and National Offices to manage incidents and follow through action plans & management decision.
Contribute and support the implementation of P&C related audit recommendations and audit Performance Improvement Plans.

Staff Engagement and Well Being:

Execute Our Voice survey and leverage the results to enhance staff and organizational well-being. Together with the senior leadership, plan and drive measurable improvements in organizational leadership, culture, and agility.
Strengthen the quality of Staff Care and Peer Support interventions.
Identify the organizational culture gaps and plan culture change interventions to promote leadership and staff mindset & behavior changes to deliver our promise to the most vulnerable children.
Design and execute compensation and benefits strategy, systems and processes in alignment to strategy 2030 that enables the organization to attract right staff, stay competitive within the local labor market and promote staff retention in the most vulnerable areas.
Promote a culture of diversity and inclusion by encouraging spiritual development of Christian leaders, promote interfaith principles and values and oneness among Christian and staff of other faith.
Promote gender and diversity and female leadership through right identification of talents at all levels.

Stakeholder Engagement:

Act as strategic P&C link for East Africa Region’s to internal stakeholders – other Regional Offices, National Offices, Support Offices and Global Center.
Develop and expand external networks and linkages with other International Non-governmental Organizations, Partners, P&C consulting groups, among others for collaboration, benchmarking and employer branding.
Represent the East Africa Regional Office on internal and external forums.
Perform any other tasks assigned by the RL and SDO.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Graduate qualification and/or Professional qualification in Human Resource Management, Social Science/Studies, or Organizational Development.
A relevant Masters Degree in Human Resources Management, Organizational Studies or an MBA.

Strategic Leadership:

A high level capacity and demonstrated skill in setting vision, developing strategy on a broad scale in Huma Resources.
Strategic ability to influence direction of the organization and the ability to implement this on a practical level.
Broad experience in implementing world-class services in international/global organizations and ideally, in a network setting to diverse, dispersed and dynamic teams.
A deep understanding of how to make change happen, and of organizational development and culture change.
Demonstrable strategic, clear thinker and creative leadership, management and coordination skills in a global network setting.
Intellectual curiosity, courage and independence. Decisive, with the courage to make tough calls.

Human Resources Skills and Experience:

A strong track record of strategic human resource management and substantial experience of leading international/regional Human Resources teams and transformational change in business and HR.
Excellent assessor of talent and matching top performers to the jobs where they can add the most value.
Experience in leading and managing complex projects, including learning and organizational development, culture change, recruitment and talent management and employee relations.

Organization and Managerial Capability:

A committed and passionate Christian who will be able to provide spiritual leadership.
Strong resource, financial, planning, project and process management skills, gained in a complex environment.
Huge capability for complex problem solving and good sense of diagnosing performance issues of the organization.
Acuity and sensitivity to work in sync with the senior executives.
Experience of cross-functional and cross cultural management including international/regional operations, support functions, engagement across a range of audience and disciplines.
A proven ability to build, motivate, facilitate and engage a team, and play a key part in the wider management of an organization, towards delivery of key goals.
The capacity to cohere passionate, experienced and independent individuals into a high performing and confident group, organization or movement.
Excellent communication, diplomacy, negotiation, influencing and conflict mediation skills and the ability to apply these across a range of diverse audiences.
Ability to represent organization at the senior most levels and externally.
Strong analytical, organizational, facilitation and leadership skills.
Demonstrated collaboration & team building skills.
Experience in managing diversity and maximizing diversity to achieve organizational goals.
Excellent oral and written English communication skills.

Preferred:

Strong communication skills (oral and written) with ability to express ideas and concepts clearly and persuasively with senior internal and external stakeholders.
Understands and values diversity and inclusion especially growing women leaders and maximizes diversity to achieve organizational goals.
Must have knowledge of basic digital skills.

Work Environment/Travel:

Travel up to 30% per month when required (regional and international).
This role involves the coordination with geographically dispersed P&C teams located in national offices.

For application: https://careers.wvi.org/jobs/kenya/human-resources/regional-director-people-and-culture-east-africa-region/17824