Kenya Talent Lead

Nova Pioneer is looking for an outstanding Kenya Talent Lead to lead the Talent function in Kenya and serve as a thought partner and key member of the Nova Pioneer Kenya leadership team. This role is a hybrid position, where the successful candidate will work remotely as well as in our school campuses from time to time.
 

ABOUT THE ROLE

You will be responsible for leading the Talent function and spearheading people strategies in the region. This includes recruitment, HR operations and compliance, employee relations, talent development, payroll, compensation and benefits.  You will also partner with the Talent team in South Africa to ensure alignment in practices and systems across regions.

Your key responsibilities include:
 

Recruitment & Selection

• Manage a portfolio of open positions within the region and ensuring the Talent team hires quality staff on time to support the business objectives
• Develop a thorough strategic plan for reaching all recruitment and hiring goals across all campuses.
• Liaise with school leaders and hiring managers to design and execute a year-long hiring plan.
• Set up the processes and systems that enable efficient hiring for each role.
• Develop and implement a clear analytics strategy and approach towards recruitment using data at all time for decision-making
• Refine preexisting and develop new selection tools to ensure alignment between how we hire and what’s needed for each role.
• Support Hiring Managers in making final hiring decisions and play a lead role in all leadership hiring roles
• Managing reputational risk on Glassdoor and LinkedIn
• Develop content on Nova Pioneer’s digital platforms to build on the employer brand while building employee advocacy
• Design content, facilitate and coordinate onboarding of new teammates to Nova Pioneer.
• Maintain a great candidate experience all through the recruitment process and stages through regular feedback and exposure to our culture and ways of working.
• Maintain and coordinate the referral scheme program and the pay out periods with Finance.
• Ensure that all job descriptions, interview trackers, interview tools such as performance tasks are updated, maintained and stored in the relevant team drives

HR Operations and Compliance

• Comply with local legal requirements by studying existing and new legislation; anticipating legislation; enforcing adherence to requirements; advising management on needed actions s
• Update job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks and participating in professional organizations.
• Protect organisation's value by keeping information confidential.

• Lead the creation, review and updates of company-wide policies as well as spearhead HR related standards of procedures
• Ensure all employee data is up to date in both the HR Information System as well as hard copy files in the event of audit
• Ensure all revised policies are communicated to all employees and accessible via NovaHub
• Facilitate trainings on sensitization of sensitive HR policies to ensure managers and employees have clarity in the working relationship
• Carry out audits from time to time to ensure employee files are up to date with statutory and academic requirements 
• Safeguard compliance when it comes to hiring employees with supportive documentation to ensure statutory compliance with labour laws
• Ensure Nova Pioneer’s ongoing compliance with the National Employment Authorit (NEA), Work Injury and Benefits Act (WIBA) Teachers Service Commission (TSC), National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), and any other Kenyan bodies that require compliance.
• Establish relationships with the institutions listed above and any other entities that require compliance

Employee Relations

• Chair all disciplinary hearings and proceedings by ensuring compliance and fairness as per the labour laws
• Provide talent advisory to managers and the senior leadership team on disciplinary cases and separation on a need by need basis
• Represent Nova Pioneer during litigation cases and working closely with the legal counsel when handling lawsuits
• During redundancy procedures liaise closely with the labour officers as well as engage and collaborate during labour inspection audits
• Work closely with the senior associate in coordinating work injury compensation benefits with employees

Performance & Talent Development 

• Partner with the Academic Leadership Team and other leaders to design and train managers on people processes such as people management, hiring for their teams and managing performance 
• Act as a facilitator to the Central team when running monthly professional development trainings on soft skills and leadership
• Onboard and train all new managers on hiring and managing teams using the Managing the Nova Pioneer framework
• Provide direct support to managers to support growth and performance plans in partnership with the Talent Associate Manager in South Africa

Payroll, Compensation and Benefits

• Support the planning, benchmarking, and communication of compensation and benefits by liaising with HR consultants in compensation data and surveys
• Lead the payroll administration in region and running payroll audits with Finance to ensure alignment with budgetary staffing spend and projections
• Together with the Global Director of Talent and People Systems, review employee benefits revising them to ensure employee happiness and engagement in a sustainable manner
• Lead the bi-annual medical and wellness campus across campuses to facilitate employee wellbeing and health 
• Work with partners to ensure medical as well as financial wellness for employees to ensure engagement and retention

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Hire, train and provide coaching and performance management to the Talent team in Kenya
• Support the development of systems and processes that will enhance and strengthen our team and our effectiveness in the organisation
• Work closely with the Global Director of Talent and People Systems to track budgeting of HR activities and costs in the region
• Plan for and facilitate team building for the Talent team in region
• Working closely with the Senior Director of Schools to support administratively in the planning and coordination of leadership offsites.

ABOUT YOU

• A Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent in a related field, required
• A Masters degree in Business, Management or HR is highly desired
• At least 5-7 years’ experience in recruitment, institutional e.g. school-based recruitment 
• You have a proven ability to build strong relationships across diverse audiences
• You are extremely detail-oriented and can manage a lot of moving parts at once
• You strive for excellence in every detail of your work and inspire and challenge everyone around you to do the same
• You take pleasure in excellence more than credit or status
• You have great project management skills with quick problem-solving skills
• You have an innovative and strategic mindset in approaching recruitment goals

• Our culture resonates deeply with your values—and in particular, you are excited to challenge yourself by taking risks and getting more feedback than you’ve ever gotten before
• You are able to role-models Nova Pioneer’s mission-driven culture and principles
• You can operates with consistency, fairness, transparency and accountability

HOW TO APPLY

Does working at Nova Pioneer excite you? If so, then apply now!

To apply, please complete the form on the right-hand side of this page. We cannot process applications that are emailed to us.

Please note:  You are encouraged to attach your resume in PDF format to protect formatting.

All applications will be reviewed and applicants notified of the next steps. There are a series of stages in the Nova Pioneer interview process and candidates will be moved forward in the process depending on their success in the previous stage. The process is as follows:

• Phone interview: a short conversation to understand your skills and experience a little better.
• Practical demonstration of what you can do: you will complete a written task or a demonstration related to the role you are applying for. Teachers participate in a half-day selection day at one of our campuses as well as deliver a lesson to a class.
• In-person/virtual interviews: at this point you will visit one of our schools to meet the team and participate in a series of in-person or virtual interviews.
• Final interview: you’ll have a final conversation with the hiring manager before decisions are made.

WORKING AT NOVA PIONEER

Nova Pioneer is a place where our people experience tremendous growth, fast! We invest heavily in the growth of our people because it leads to greater mastery in both us and our students. “Novaneers” work harder and work longer hours than most schools but as a result, the growth they experience is extraordinary. We offer consistent and ongoing personal development and provide clear career pathways that ensure that our people are always achieving their personal and professional best. Nova Pioneer has a highly energetic, entrepreneurial environment where our people get to bring their creative and innovative ideas to life. We look for people who are flexible and who are able to adapt and respond quickly to adversity with a positive, can-do attitude (there are no problems, only solutions!). We welcome challenges and roll with the punches because it makes us, and our students, better. There is no problem too big for us! We bring infectious energy and enthusiasm to everything we do because joy fuels our work and learning. Read more about our culture principles here.

Nova Pioneer will never request an application fee from candidates. If you are contacted with a request to pay a fee from someone claiming to be a Nova Pioneer Talent or Recruitment representative, please do not pay them and report it to us immediately on talent.ke@novapioneer.com or talent.sa@novapioneer.com.