IREX is a global development and education organization. We strive for a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world-where individuals reach their full potential, governments serve their people, and communities thrive. We focus on people, not on vaccines, roads, or wells. With an annual portfolio of $80 million and 400 staff worldwide, we work with partners in more than 100 countries in four areas essential to progress: cultivating leaders, empowering youth, strengthening institutions, and increasing access to quality education and information.

Your Background & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management, Business, or directly related field required
• 6+ years of demonstrated regional HR experience
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in a Human Resources role in positions of increasing responsibility
• Demonstrated experience effectively working with a large group of individuals from diverse cultural, ethnic, and national backgrounds
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and work collaboratively in a team environment
• Strong creative problem-solving skills with the ability to develop and implement practical solutions
• Must have strong influencing skills, and excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Internationally recognized professional certification such as GPHR, PHRi, etc.
• Experience delivering effective presentations and training material to a variety of audiences
• Must be able to research and learn employment law for various countries within the regions supported by this position
• Experience conducting and managing sensitive investigations
• Experience compiling and presenting accurate and timely periodic reports
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and juggle multiple priorities with a positive attitude
• Experience working and living in the region
• Proficient language skills in English
• Proficient skills in major regional languages
• Must have strong influencing skills, and excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to research and learn employment law for various countries within the regions supported
• Strong creative problem-solving skills with the ability to develop and implement practical solutions
• Strong ability to deal with ambiguity and work collaboratively in a team environment
• Must demonstrate valid proof of unrestricted authorization to work in the country and region

Your Daily Tasks

• Collaborates effectively with members of the HR headquarters team to provide comprehensive, timely, and equitable HR support to IREX’ country and regional staff
• Meets regularly with local managers to ensure that they are carried along in the implementation of IREX policies and procedures
• Provides training to managers and staff on IREX policies, procedures and processes
• Maintains in-depth knowledge of country and regional legal requirements related to management of employees, reducing legal risks, and ensuring regulatory compliance
• Acts as the primary point of contact for recruiting, onboarding and orientation; performance management; learning and development, and off- boarding related exit surveys
• Coordinates collection and analysis of global/country/regional HR data, metrics, and trends to provide insights to regional and country leadership, contributing to positive, program-focused outcomes
• Acts as point of contact for employee relations for IREX country and regional staff and collaborates and/or escalates issues as needed to ensure resolution
• Provides IREX country leaders with consultative HR support relating to the people and issues that impact their programs, in a manner consistent with global/country/regional HR best practice
• Participates within the larger HR team to share ideas, develop standard practices and implement best practices across IREX programs
• Designs and streamlines processes in collaboration with others on the HR team to develop an improved HR experience across the global IREX team
• Tracks performance review dates and generates reminders; coordinates timely and accurate completion of personnel transactions for all changes and end of service activity.
• Manages and coordinates the implementation of the HCMS, UltiPro, across country and regional offices
• Maintains country and regional staff records appropriately and with appropriate approval
• Ensures all country staff records are properly uploaded in IKFO, UltiPro and global HR drives
• Reviews and maintains all internal documents, notices, and templates; makes necessary adjustments after seeking feedback from key stakeholders
• Responsible for providing technical support to country offices upon request and, when necessary, update and review of country Handbook and Addendum submissions, and develop local salary scales, and local benefit summaries, etc.
• Assists with all internal and external audit requests relating to HR files and benefits; and ensures that HR assessment findings identified during reviews and audits are appropriately resolved
• Works with project staff to provide guidance and support in the areas of performance management, employee relations issues, local compensation planning, onboarding, off- boarding, professional development, and HR policies to improve work relationships, build morale, and increase productivity and retention
• Creates, updates, and manages standardized tools to provide holistic approaches to employment life cycle for local staff, Expats and TCNs for all IREX projects
• Maintains a reliable and centrally accessible reference system for country and regional HR. Ensures country office HR manuals, employment letters, country supplements, employee handbooks, HR policies and procedures are   developed, continuously monitored and are compliant with local laws, HQ standards and HR best practices. For country offices that are non-compliant, ensures a plan exists in each field office to achieve full compliance; supports and monitors this plan until full compliance is achieved.
• Reviews employee agreements/templates and project policy manuals to ensure compliance with applicable policies and local law.
• Works to ensure transparent and legally compliant full-cycle recruitment process is in place for each project and is line with IREX’s hiring guidelines
• Develops materials for country staff onboarding and orientation and adapts materials used by HQ recruitment team for use in country hire orientations, including translations, where appropriate
• Conducts new hire onboarding session for all newly hired local staff
• Ensures quality new hire orientations to integrate new hires successfully into IREX
• Works with colleagues to develop targeted professional development for country staff; and ensures that local staff take advantage of existing professional development opportunities
• Reviews job descriptions, prepares job postings, posts jobs, screens resumes, interviews candidates and conducts comprehensive employment reference and background screens.
• Ensures country personnel actions are filed appropriately in the country database system
• Creates, distributes, and tracks country-based staff surveys and training evaluations
• Conducts in-person and desk audit of country HR personnel files as needed
• Develops and implements a systematic approach to organizing, tracking, and documenting all HR compliance-related activities in the field offices
• Maintains database that contains HR country profiles that include country specific mandatory and statutory benefits, country profiles for benefits, compensation, and labor codes
• Supports audit process by conducting regional and country HR desk audits, when required, in-person country HR audits to ensure compliance with local labor law and IREX standards and procedures, and follows up on corrective action where required with relevant local staff
• Works directly with supervisor to develop country and regional portion of HR budget
• Reviews country budget with Director of HR periodically to analyze trends affecting budget needs.
• Identifies and trains interns or designated staff in each country office to enable them to serve as the HR point of contact (PoC) for their office and appropriately support adherence to IREX policies and procedures
• Works with other teams to provide guidance for all phases of the country office lifecycle including project start-ups, project maintenance, and project closeout
• Partners with program staff and local PoC to understand the areas of greatest HR needs in the country offices and develop a plan and initiatives to support these needs
• Manages and resolves basic employee relations issues, consulting supervisor as always
• Supports investigation of sensitive employee relation matters, under supervision of supervisor
• Ensures that all exiting country staff (local staff, expats and TCNs) receive and complete exit interview surveys and where appropriate in-person exit interviews
• Provides support to employees and managers on country and regional HR issues, including answering questions, researching, and resolving issues, and processing related paperwork
• Conducts compensation survey and aligns ranges appropriately, at least every two years
• May supervise the work of interns and other junior staff on an ongoing basis as appropriate
• Provide HR services to other countries or regions as assigned
• All other duties as assigned.