People & Compliance Partner

The Role

We're looking for a People & Compliance Partner to drive people-centric practices across all regions while ensuring compliance. As an individual contributor, you will focus on enabling and supporting our business through extraordinary growth by primarily handling compliance, employee relations, and industrial relations activities. You will provide consultation on performance management, conflict resolution, and disciplinary processes, and support our Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment plan. Reporting to the Head of Organizational Development, you will serve as the company’s in-house expert on transactional processes such as S189 procedures, performance improvement plans, disciplinary processes, and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) initiatives. In addition, you will support the Head of Organizational Development by playing a role in our global learning and development initiatives - coaching, training roll-out, and facilitation—helping leaders navigate IR-related challenges with a coaching style, hands-on approach. In this role, you will oversee employee relations and HR compliance and work closely with the People Office team and external consultants.  

Responsibilities

• Employee Relations & IR Management 

  • Provide advice and guidance to leaders on employee relations, ensuring adherence to the company’s code of conduct and relevant legislation, with process and compliance support from our external labour consultants.  
  • Drive the process of performance improvement plans, counselling sessions, and grievance procedures including whistleblowing and anonymous reporting.
  • Represent the company in conduct or incapacity hearings and serve as a trusted partner in facilitating and managing IR-related conversations. 
  • Support the SVP People with restructuring initiatives such as S189A processes. 
  • Ensure internal policies and people practices are aligned with relevant legislation in partnership with the Head of People Operations and external labour consultants.  

• B-BBEE & Compliance 

  • Support the implementation of our B-BBEE strategy. The focus areas include skills development, enterprise development, socio-economic development initiatives, and our participation in the Y.E.S initiative.  
  • B-BBEE support will include the collation of evidence for the Annual B-BBEE Audit, maintaining spend to target tracker, coordinating employment equity intern placements, and arranging vendor agreements and payments to beneficiary parties.  

• Supportive People Development 

  • Act as a contributor in the development and implementation of people-centric initiatives to maintain a global and diverse company culture. Support initiatives such as diversity and inclusion initiatives through employee touchpoints such as the brand ambassador forum. 
  • Guide, train, and advise management on performance management best practice approaches. 
  • Coach managers on handling performance reviews, delivering feedback, and navigating difficult conversations related to IR. 

Skills and Experience

Successful candidates for this role will generally possess the following qualifications and skills:

• Preferably a relevant degree (e.g., Human Resources Management or Industrial Psychology) or equivalent qualifications with HR/IR certification. 
• Minimum of 5 years of experience within an HR function, with at least 3 years of supporting leaders with labor relations.  
• Demonstrated experience partnering with leadership to develop and implement performance improvement, S189 processes, and disciplinary processes. 
• Working knowledge of South African labour law and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment legislation is essential.
• Proven track record in managing complex employee relations issues and in a high-growth environment.
• Previous Technology, Fintech, and SaaS environment exposure preferred.  
• Technology savvy and familiar with tools such as Excel (intermediate skills), Slack, OneDrive, Excel, BambooHR, Confluence, MS Teams.  
• Experience with reporting on metrics.    
• High conflict resolution skills – the ability to lead difficult conversations to successful and constructive outcomes. 

Additional Desired Experience

• Proven ability to support leaders in IR-related conversations and transactional processes without over-reliance on a “tick-box” approach.
• A history of operating effectively in high-growth or dynamically changing environments.
• Experience (or strong interest) in facilitating group training or coaching initiatives (specifically management and professional skills training)  

Personality Attributes

• A positive, self-driven approach 
• A naturally great, outgoing communicator who is people-centric and service-oriented 
• Data-driven decision-making skills  
• Adaptable and at ease in diverse contexts and environments – on different levels of the organization