Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

ROLE PROFILE

Title: People & Culture Specialist

Functional Area: People & Culture Department

Reports to: Country People & Culture Manager

Effective Date: 01-02-2020

Grade: D1

ROLE PURPOSE

[A concise statement, capturing the primary reasons that this role exists and a clear articulation of the context of the role. How will this role contribute to creating lasting change for children?]
To provide Human Resources support to Plan International Staff in achieving the organisation’s Strategy through excellent people management practices.
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
[This section provides a summary of the size and authority of the post. It covers the size of the budget held, the numbers of direct reports, other key stakeholders who may depend on it, the type of communication required, the external representation involved and the reach of the role.]
• HR Focal Person for MGCubed and Train For Tomorrow Projects at Plan Annex Office
• Work closely with the Country People & Culture Manager in providing technical support to the Plan International Country Office

ACCOUNTABILITIES
[This section is critical for clarifying expectations of the role, providing the framework for its relationship with colleagues and providing areas of accountability against which performance can be managed.
This should include a series of brief statements that define the end results required. e.g. drive, contribute, identify, manage, responsible for, advise/coach, build, develop, provide, conduct, oversee, establish, participate etc.
Statements should ideally be worded so that they will lead to thoughts of measurement.  For example, it is better to state something like “achieve maintenance standards” than “undertake maintenance”.  The former leads to a measure against the maintenance standards.]

HR Business Partnering
• Provide proactive generalist and technical human resources support to Staff on the MGCubed and T4T Projects in line with the HR strategic priorities of Plan International Ghana.
• Act as a point of contact for related HR issues for the assigned Client groups (MGCubed and T4T Projects) and provide timely response to these people related matters as and when they come up.
• Conduct HR business Partnering meetings with Director of Partnerships, Project Manager for T4T and Project Manager for MG3 to address any HR issues on a monthly basis.
• In collaboration with Country People & Culture Manager, ensure that staff wellbeing priorities for the client groups are met.
• Provide interpretation & application of policies, procedures, terms and conditions of service, etc. to the Staff on these two Projects as required.
• Participate in relevant stakeholder forums, meetings and discussions with regards to Staff issues and liase with the People & Culture Team at the main Country Office to address any HR gap.
• Build relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure best practices are captured and adopted to increase organizational well-being performance.
• Provides coaching and advice to Managers and Supervisors on all HR issues, promoting fairness and transparency in the handling of people management practices, including whistleblowing, disciplinary, grievances to maintain consistency and fairness to Staff on these two projects.
• Ensure that all relevant policies are shared and made available to the Staff.
• Manage staff leave records so that staff take the mandatory rest and the organisation do not loose from excess leave days that staff may take.
• Ensure that staff employment contracts are managed well and contracts renewals done timely.
• Monitor and work closely with Line Managers to ensure that newly hired staff are confirmed or otherwise in their positions after an assessment of their probationary period.
• Provide support in staff recruitment activities for these two Projects to ensure quality recruitment is done and delays prevented.
• Work with the Country People & Culture Manager in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of staff training and development programs and support in addressing gaps in performance.

Recruitment and Selection
• Coordinate the review and preparation of annual and quarterly workforce plans and forecasts to address staffing needs.
• Ensure that Plan International Ghana job profiles are revised in line with Plan International Ghana strategic mandate and standards. This is in close collaboration with line management and Country People & Culture Manager.
• Provide leadership in the management and supervision of the recruitment processes of all categories of staff.
• Develop sourcing channels and networks to ensure the right candidate in the right job.
• Develop and review appropriate selection methods for candidate’s selection including interview assessments and behavioral interview techniques
• Ensure that interviews are conducted in a professional manner and selection process is captured accurately
• Provides guidance and leadership in the development of candidate offers ensuring that Plan International Total Reward Philosophy is represented.
• Monitor changes in the local labor legislation and implement the changes as needed. Work closely with labor institutions and other relevant bodies to ensure that our labor practices are in alignment with the national employment practices.
• Coordinate new hire onboarding to ensure that all requirements are met before new hires join the organization.
• Ensure that the Plan International Ghana brand (Purpose & Values) are maintained throughout the selection process. This includes ensuring that candidates are provided information and support throughout the recruitment process.
• Conducts recruitment and selection activities that meet Plan International policy and meets good practice/standard to attract and retain the best.
• Coordinates activities in recruitment, selection, rewards and learning and development for Country Office and Program Unit staff which supports achievement of the CSP. Staff recruited meet requirements and are able to deliver their job roles well.
• Ensures gender mainstreaming and maintains gender sensitivity towards staff and associates to avoid discriminations whiles championing Plan International as an equal opportunities’ employer. Gender sensitivity evident in HR policies and delivery of roles.
• Support in the interpretation and monitoring of Safeguarding policy among staff to ensure the fulfilment of Plan International’s Safeguarding Policy at all times. Staff recruited do not have record of child abuse and regular staff also do not engage in child abuse.
• Plans and delivers induction for new staff to enable them settle faster and easily. Staff given adequate orientation and evidence in staff files.

New Employee Socialization
• Design and develop effective orientation program and ensure it is regularly updated.
• Coordinate the in-depth staff orientation process for new hires and existing staff.
• Ensure new hires are properly oriented according to the agreed Induction Plan

Performance Management
• Provide technical support to line managers to implement functioning Performance Management system.
• Supports managers and staff in implementing the Plan International Employee Appraisal process. Tracks progress, and maintains statistical data on results to support attainment of organizational objectives and improve staff performance.
• Design and deliver customized training programs and tools for line managers and staff on effective performance management.
• Facilitate and conduct training for line managers on coaching for performance.
• Collate, analyze and share with Country People & Culture Manager end of year appraisal report.
• In collaboration with other People & Culture Team members, provide recommendation to the Country People & Culture Manager on Performance Management outcomes (Reward letters, PIP plans, etc).

Talent Management/Succession Planning
• Organize a yearly talent forum after the completion of the end of year appraisal cycle.
• Integrate data from performance management processes into talent management database and development initiatives.
• Inform and support strategies for engaging, deploying and retaining talent at Plan International Ghana and provide management information on depth and breadth of talent to deliver current and future strategic and operational goals.
• Participate in designing a system and process for tracking key staff in their management development.
• Coordinate secondments / exchange of experience
• Manage internship programs.
• Identify mentoring and coaching opportunities for key staff to strengthen staff competencies.

Learning & Development
• In consultation with the CO People & Culture Manager conducts annual training needs analysis for all staff, source for, plan and deliver trainings to address performance gaps.  Evaluation of the effectiveness of training initiatives recorded and maintain training records for all staff.
• Facilitate a customized leadership development program.
• Coordinate, update and/or draft policies and procedures as they relate to organizational/staff development and training.
• In collaboration with Line Managers develop training needs analysis, training curricula and methodology and ensure proper implementation.
• Plan, facilitate and conduct staff and organizational development related trainings according to the annual learning and development action plan.
• Implements a learning and leadership development framework and provide vehicles to maximize success (e.g. Methodology includes virtual or actual development centre, job rotations, education, training, targeted secondments, online learning, career planning).
• Maintain evaluation data, including documentation of lessons learned and ensure future initiatives have been incorporated in this learning.
• Take part in developing a strategy and design for ensuring succession planning at the various organizational levels.
• Ensure the promotion of Gender balance and ensure Diversity in the workforce.
• Compile and submit semi-annual gender mainstreaming report.

Employee Engagement
• Monitors and influences organizational climate and workplace morale through Employee survey actions.
• Facilitates activities that would motivate and support the retention of staff to retain the best staff.
• Upholds harmony/teamwork among staff to create good and healthy working environment that improves performance.
• Puts in place measures that create a Health and safety environment for staff and monitor their implementation. Health and Safety guidelines exist and are followed.
• Fulfils Plan International’s child protection policy to ensure children are protected from all forms of abuse. Good knowledge of Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy requirements and offers sound support to staff in this area
• Ensure that exit interviews information is compiled and used as source of feedback to improve the work culture and work climate.
• Support the Country People & Culture Manager in any change initiative and assist in the development and communication of change management plans
Dealing with Problems:
Complexity of problems handled & the degree of investigation, analysis, & creative thinking required to solve them.
• Support in the development of policies and procedures to ensure smooth implementation of the country’s human resource functions as per requirements of the People & Culture Strategy.
• Offers support through coaching and training of supervisors and staff to ensure improvement in performance.
• Support evaluation and investigation to have information on staff issues and initiate creative activities to address them to promote staff retention and performance improvement.
• Champion consistent, equitable and professional HR practices across office teams.
• Be creative in building and working effectively within a diverse working environment.
• Makes analysis from HR information and present them in a usable way for management decision-making e.g. appraisal statistics etc.
• Reviews, approves and undertakes activities within the People & Culture department and only refers to a higher manager where required by the organisation’s policies and procedures.

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS
[This section refers to people inside and/or outside of the organisation that the post-holder needs to have contact with, and why. This should include virtual presence.]
• Has high contact with all managers on the Projects and at Plan International Ghana to offer support in the smooth implementation and managing of staff.
• Maintains low contact with other staff from the program unit and country offices to offer support for understanding and implementation of HR related activities.
• Low contact with Plan International partner organizations to offer support for human resource activities.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
[This section details the skills, knowledge and expertise the postholder will be required to demonstrate in doing the job well.
This should include clear levels of technical expertise and skills that support our work at national, international, and global level.]

Essential

• A Master’s degree in Human Resource Management or equivalent experience
• At least 5-7 years of experience working in an HR generalist role.  NGO experience is a plus.
• Experience in an HR specialist functions: organisational design, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and rewards management.
• Excellent writing and speaking in English language, communicates in a style that inspires confidence and professionalism and builds credibility with line management, current and prospective employees.
• Maintains transparency, objectivity and free of bias in the discharge of HR duties
• Must be a member of a Professional Body (e.g. IHRMP, SHRM)

Desirable
• Seen as a source of HR expertise, and proactive in sharing knowledge and advice
• Influencing skills
• Promotes high performance
• Open to feedback and willing to try new approaches and processes
• Leads by example – coaches and actively develops others
• Understands Development work and implements people processes and practices that support achievement of organizational objectives
• Flexible and committed to customer service.
• Ability to listen to and involve others to ensure good understanding and implementation of human resources activities
• Strong team working skills
• Coaching and mentoring skills
• Cultural sensitivity

PLAN INTERNATIONAL’S VALUES IN PRACTICE
We are open and accountable
1. Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
2. Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
3. Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
4. Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
5. Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact
1. Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
2. Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
3. Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
4. Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.
We work well together
1. Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
2. Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
3. Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
4. Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering

1. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
2. We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
3. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
[In this section, state “typical office environment”, or conditions such as “must work outside in an extremely hot and humid climate”. Also note if any protective equipment is required.]
Typical office environment.  The position also requires about 30% travel within Plan International Ghana’s field offices.
LEVEL OF CONTACT WITH CHILDREN
[Low contact- the job responsibilities of this position do not require the post holder to have frequent contact with children. There would be occasional contact with children and it is expected that children shall be protected at all times.