Senior People Partner

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

My Career Development Portal: Wherever you are in your career, we are here for you. Design your future. Discover leading-edge guidance, tools and support to unlock your potential. You are Absa. You are possibility.

Job Summary

• Influencing, shaping and contributing to the development of the functional business area’s agenda and strategy and translating this agenda into action via a fully integrated HC plan
• Contributing to the leadership of the functional business area by bringing in external best practice, thought leadership and challenging the status quo.
• Being an active, influential partner, coaching and challenging the business to effectively diagnose and implement world class HC solutions that transform the business and deliver stretch goals

Lead business leadership teams, through the interpretation and execution of the HC agenda by:

• Turning strategy into real action plans that are aligned to functional business area objectives, driving the plans through to full realization of stated benefits
• Excelling at bringing together best practice within the HC community and the resources within the business areas, to shape and brilliantly execute the people agenda in a timely manner

• Challenging and provoking business leaders on employee engagement by addressing resulting people issues, build organizational capability which delights customers and ensures shareholder satisfaction

Job Description

Main Accountabilities

HC Strategy Implementation/ Transformational Change

• Work as a full member of the functional business leadership team to develop people strategy and turn into actions, which clearly contribute to business outcomes.

• Drive and actively contribute to the implementation of the HC Strategy initiatives and work streams. Ensure the implementation approach is supported, delivered and appropriately ‘landed’ by business leaders.

• Work with Business and HC colleagues to assist business in execution of HC strategy, embed change into day-to-day working practice and organisation culture so that high performance becomes the norm.

High-Performance Agenda

• Implement the mindset of high-performance culture, effective consequence management and consistently ‘raise the performance bar’.

• Drive commitment from leaders and colleagues into all aspects of Performance Management including consistency challenge leadership meetings, consequence management of top, high, low and under performers and create an environment in the business where great performers are known and their contribution recognized/valued and rewarded accordingly.

Capability, Succession, Development

• Work closely with leadership teams to implement function’s talent action planning processes, understand and drive short- and longer-term capability requirements, succession and talent pipeline.

• Support and coach business leaders in developing solutions which enable successful retention strategies and solve capability gaps using internal/ external levers including development, resourcing, training and innovative stretch career experiential opportunities.

• Work directly with key stakeholders in the business to assist them in identifying their own capability gaps and solutions to enhance their ability.

• Assist in the development, execution and maintenance of skills development strategy in the functions

Talent Acquisition

• Support the business in resourcing and developing talented performers that meet current and future business capabilities

• Ensure exceptional standards of professional capability in resourcing our professional and leadership cadres.

• Play a strong and direct role in ensuring all resourcing decisions feature ‘no compromise’ in quality of candidates.

• Champion Diversity and Inclusion initiatives.

Delivery Management

• Work with key stakeholders to improve performance achievement and capability.

• Act as the interface with Human Capital specialist teams / Centres of Excellence to source specialist expertise and deliver integrated people solutions.

• Monitor HC specialist delivery against business requirements.

• Implement and provide feedback on the employee relations environment.

• Develop action plans arising from business performance improvement priorities and the Colleague Experience Survey.

• Work with key stakeholders to develop a culture within the Functional Business Unit that underpins Absa’s Employee Value Proposition.

• Develop action plans associated with performance improvement and Colleague Experience Survey.

Influencing, coaching & Facilitation

• Support and coach senior leadership in implementing the people and culture dimensions of the business strategy defined.

• Drive agreed priorities and people & culture initiatives to implementation, ensuring that the business effectively executes the initiatives to create real business value for time, effort and associated cost.

Organization Design & Change Management

• Lead organizational diagnosis and design of optimal structures aligned with Absa Group organization design principles and the strategic business agenda.

• Apply agreed change management approaches, tools and techniques to deliver effective organizational and cultural change.

Risk & Governance

• Ensure understanding of Absa policies and governance processes, driving compliance as appropriate within own business area

Role/Person Specifications

Distinct Capabilities & skill set

• Organisational Diagnosis

• Influencing, coaching and facilitation

• Transformational change management

• Commercial acumen

• Delivery management

Professional Technical capability & skill set

• Employee Relations

• Reward Management

• Performance Consulting & Development Management

• Talent Management

• Employee Communications

• Organisational Development

• Leadership Culture

• Resourcing

• Diagnosis Training and Development Planning

Knowledge and Experience

• Detailed knowledge of local and international Human Capital best practices

• Organisational diagnosis, design & development which takes consideration of external trends, conditions and applies best practice to design, develop and facilitate high individual and organisational performance

• Understanding of Employee Relations approach including Disciplinary & Grievance Handling.

• Keep abreast of changes in employment legislation and ensure practical application in the workplace.

• Comprehensive understanding of Absa Group Human Capital strategy

• People change management approaches and experiences in business-related transformation

• A minimum of 10 years generalist Human Capital experience

• Background in a High Performing Organization (HPO).

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree and a relevant post graduate qualification or CIPD certification

• Full range of distinctive, Human Capital technical capabilities and experience in a high-performance organization

• Credibility with senior leadership as primary customers and ability to balance and achieve on-time delivery against competing demands.

• Excellent relationship, influencing and persuasive skills willing to challenge and be seen as a business player.

Key deliverables over the next 12-24 months

• Driving the high-performance agenda including components of differentiation of reward and performance improvement management

• Drive the talent agenda to safeguard the leadership pipeline, attract and retain the most talented employees as well as build effective succession plans

• Build future-ready leaders and elevate People Manager capability that delivers ownership, performance and colleague experience

• Embed the 3 Group Culture shifts around ownership, outcomes and excellence

• Align workforce shape and future skills through strategic workforce planning

• Delver targeted critical and future skills development (e.g. digital, data, AI, customer centricity)

• Effective delivery of transformational change

• Drives improvement in organizational health measures such as Colleague Experience Index, employer of choice to achieve the HPO norm

Education