Head of People, Safety and Wellbeing

Overview

Apply by: 09:00 am (BST) 28th August 2023.

About Restless Development

Restless Development is a global non profit agency. We support the collective power of young leaders to create a better world. We are independently registered and governed in nine countries (India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe) bound together by our vision for youth power. We run youth-led programmes to tackle the issues that young people care about the most as well as running a growing global Youth Collective. Read more on our strategy and latest annual report.

We have 230 staff in 13 countries, 59% aged 18-24, more than 90% of our staff in Africa and Asia.   We are a people centred agency – that believes in the power of young people to lead change.  We are a values based employer – placing a focus on culture, equity, wellbeing, safeguarding and power shifting in all that we do.

Our approach to safeguarding

Restless Development considers the welfare and protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults to be an organisational imperative with primacy over the success of programmes or strategic objectives. We recognise that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and we expect all of our staff, volunteers and partners to ensure we protect the communities in which we operate from harm and abide by our Safeguarding Policy.

About the role

We are looking for a solution focussed, Human Resources expert to lead our Global People team and become an integral member of our Global Leadership Group. You will be the global lead for ensuring our people are happy, safe, supported, connected and delivering their best work.

You will work across our Hubs and globally distributed teams to ensure our policies are upheld and continue to embed people focussed ways of working, and will have the ability to move between strategic decision making spaces, whilst also regularly supporting day-to-day people/ HR activities.

In addition you will performance manage two team members, and lead a global community of practice made up of our Hub people leads, in order to strengthen our HR/People approaches and application across our agency. You’ll be comfortable guiding and coaching our senior leaders on how best to handle employee relations and performance management, and you’ll help us manage our agency-wide People related risks, reporting on key people metrics to our Global Board of Trustees and Global Leadership Group.

Throughout your work you will continuously look at how we can strengthen the leadership journeys for all staff, ensuring talent development and succession planning takes place across the agency.

Responsibilities

 

1. Leading our Global People Function

• Be an active member of the Global Leadership Group and advise the agency’s Global Leadership Group on people related matters and initiatives.
• Own and manage all allocated ‘People’  risks in the Agency’s Global Risk Register.
• Demonstrate confidence and autonomy when making both operational and strategic People decisions on behalf of the Agency
• Advise on all high level employee relations issues from across the Agency in line with best practice, experience and knowledge, with a particular focus on supporting Hub Directors and Hub Heads on people matters.
• Own, design and amend all People policies and processes for the Agency.
• Own and be responsible for all data held in our Agency wide Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Bamboo HR and ensure relevant capacity exists across Hubs so we make the most of this investment and its reporting capabilities.
• Lead on all internal people related reporting, providing timely and accurate information to the agency’s leadership and ensuring recommendations are informed by people related data.
• Support the People and Culture Committee updating and relaying on all people related progress.
• Help ensure that the agency is compliant and adheres to all HR UK legal requirements (where applicable)
• Maintain external people services such as our EAP and HR Advisory support services.

2. Safeguarding, Safety and Wellbeing

• Maintain oversight of our Safeguarding, Safety and Security risks across the Agency, ensuring that we have appropriate measures in place to mitigate known risks and are prepared to respond to unknown risks.
• Ensure our safeguarding and incident management working group leads are confident and able to respond to incidents that arise though day to day agency wide activities.
• Line manage and provide support to the Safeguarding and Safety Manager, ensuring they are prepared to handle any significant incidents to resolution and where relevant provide updates to the Global Leadership Group and Global Board.
• Ensure wellbeing is measured, reported on and prioritised across the Agency through pulse surveys and other initiatives in Hubs.
• Gather staff feedback through a variety of mechanisms and ensure this is utilised to improve our Employee Value Proposition and culture work.

3. Talent and Performance Management:

• Working with Hub teams, review, improve and embed performance management throughout the global agency, utilising Bamboo HR to capture goals, feedback and performance oversight.
• Manage the community of practice for our next generation of Hub Directors ensuring we invest in their growth, learning and development and manage this pool of talent effectively.
• Take ownership for the operational day-to-day running and leadership of the People team and ensure ongoing development and implementation of the People team priorities.
• To lead by example at all times and actively support those through their career progression

4. Powershifting, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

• Work closely with our Power Shifting Director to monitor and report on our DEI targets, power shifting ambitions and other relevant KPIs as outlined in our Agency Plan.
• Work with Hub Directors to help improve their progress against priorities identified through our internal audit processes, and other reporting mechanisms.
• Ensure inclusive approaches are embedded across our work, and ensure hub teams are aligned to our agency wide DEI commitments.
• Support external reporting e.g. Fairshare of Women’s Leaders benchmarking.

 

5. Other

• You may occasionally be required to work on weekends and/or public holidays and there may be times where you need to respond to situations outside of office hours for which time off in lieu will be granted.
• Other duties as required.

Job title: Head of People, Safety and Wellbeing

Location: Ideally you’ll be based in a Restless Development Hub (in either Sierra Leone, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India or Nepal) – but we are open to receiving applications from suitably qualified candidates based in the Majority world.

Salary: TBC based on the location of the successful candidate and if based in one of our Hub Countries at the ‘Head’ level as per our Global Salary Scale.

Preferred start date: October 2023

Length of contract: 2 years fixed term with a view to extend.

Reports to: Co-CEO initially.

Expected travel: Minimal, but candidates must be willing to travel overseas for an annual leadership conference usually for 7-10 days.

About you

We are looking for people with the right competencies and skills for the role, and who demonstrate the personal qualities consistent with our values.

Our value: HEART – We are who we serve. We are brave.

• Values led – Upholds a values-led culture across the Hub or International Unit, inspiring a Restless passion and professionalism amongst all others. Considers the Restless Values when making decisions and taking measured risks at a strategic level.
• Innovation – Creates an enabling environment for innovation across the Hub or International Unit. Takes measured risks and solves complex issues with creativity and innovation. Maintains a focus on aligning the organisational vision for long-term growth in a changing world.

Our value: HEAD – Delivers Quality. We are 100% professional.

• Delivers quality – Drives quality across the Hub or International Unit by holding all teams to account for high performance and value-for-money. Ensures the Hub or International Unit is effectively and efficiently resourced to deliver quality against strategic priorities.
• Decision making – Drives change across the Hub or International Unit by considering the long term impact of risks and strategic decisions to multiple teams.

Our value: VOICE – We generate leaders. We are proud to carry the banner for youth-led development.

• Leadership – Leads strategy development and creates a compelling organisational vision. Is accountable for performance at a Hub or International Unit level. Develops leadership in others for future growth of the organisation.
• People development – Builds organisational capacity by creating a culture of continual learning through performance management, training, coaching and mentoring; aligning their own personal and professional development to current and future organisational needs.

Our value: HANDS – We are in it together. We listen and learn.

• Effective communication – Builds consensus and commitment amongst staff and major national partners. Confidently anticipates and responds to challenge or resistance in difficult circumstances. Coaches others to communicate strategically.
• Collaboration – Is a role model for collaboration at a national, regional and global level; frequently contributing to internal processes and decisions. Leads participatory decision making and strategy development.

Skills and experience

Essential

• Experience of advising on a broad range of HR issues.
• Experience of managing and developing staff/volunteers.
• Relevant HR qualification at a higher/experienced level.
• Experience working with (and ideally managing) a Human Resource Information System and sound knowledge of utilising the reporting mechanisms.
• Experience of developing and maintaining meaningful internal relationships across multiple locations.
• Experience of advising on and responding to incidents that occur in day-to-day operations e.g. safeguarding, safety and security incidents.
• Able to plan and deliver work against tight deadlines to high standards of quality.
• Commitment to Restless Development’s values and mission.
• A passion and drive for the People space and its ability to drive forward change and innovation

Desirable

• Proven track record of holding a position of responsibility in a People/HR function
• Experience of managing safeguarding and Safety/security functions for a global agency.
• Experience of researching and developing policies and procedures.
• Experience delivering training and other learning and development interventions.
• Change management experience
• Experience of working within the development sector
• Excellent networking skills and ability to build external relationships.
• Experience of working within limited resources and needing to be solutions focused
• Thorough and up-to-date knowledge of employment law and best practices in HR.
• Prior experience managing wellbeing initiatives.

Restless Development is an Equal Opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community. Restless Development will ensure that no applicant or staff member receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, social status, caste, race, ethnic origin, religious belief, age, HIV status, disability, or any other factor that cannot be shown to be relevant to performance.

What we do for you

Remuneration

We are proud to commit to a transparent global salary scale, ensuring a fair and comparable system of pay across all global locations. In addition to salary, we offer pension contributions and other benefits in accordance with the local Hub.

Values and Culture

At Restless Development, we’re proud that the strength and integrity of our Values has been recognised by staff, young people, donors and others who we work with.  Beyond this, we have a culture of recognising and celebrating both our Values and our global achievements with monthly Values Champions and an annual Values Day.

Work-life Balance

It goes without saying that we work hard at Restless Development. We also recognise the importance of helping staff to maintain a positive work-life balance by offering:

• 24 days annual leave (in addition to public holidays and with an extra day of annual leave given for each full year of service, up to a maximum of 28 days).
• Birthday Leave
• Access to flexible working.
• Generous study leave, maternity, paternity or adoption leave, and other leave allowances.

Professional Development

Restless Development is proud to be an employer who recognises potential and invests in the development of its staff.  We are committed to the professional development of our staff through:

• Empowering opportunities to work on significant projects which stretch and inspire staff – allowing them to develop on-the-job.
• Regular performance management.
• Training and development opportunities, including supporting our staff to identify mentors both within and outside of the agency.
• Quarterly Staff Workshops for all staff to give and receive agency updates, receive training, and socialise.

Travel and Medical Insurance

When travelling abroad with work, all staff will be covered by Restless Development’s travel and medical insurance.

To Apply

Please complete the online application form, submit your CV and provide a cover letter that provides tangible examples of how your skills, knowledge and experience will support your ability to perform the key priorities outlined in the above job description (using no more than 750 words). (For more tips on how to apply visit our website here.)

Click here to return to Restless Developments website.

Key dates

• Deadline for applications: 09:00 am (BST) Monday 28th August 2023.
• First round interviews are expected to take place on the 1st and 4th September.
• Second round interviews are expected to take place on the 7th and 8th September.

Tagged as: 5+ Years