Regional HRBP Advisor – East Africa at Mercy Corps

​​​​​​GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:  

• The Regional HRBP Advisor is responsible for completing a range of HR duties that provide support to members of the Mercy Corps Regional People Team, balancing the day-to-day needs of team members and consultative support to managers, in a timely and accurate manner with a spirit of teamwork and service. The Regional HRBP Advisor acts as a trusted advisor and consultant to employees and management on human resources-related issues. This person facilitates effective, proactive problem-solving with Mercy Corps' Regional leadership and cross-departmental colleagues through developing partnerships and discovering innovative solutions. This position collaborates with partners from the East Africa Region and the “COEs” (Talent Management & Acquisition, Compensation & Benefits) to ensure the “people needs” of Mercy Corps team members align with and are accounted for within the organization’s strategic initiatives.  

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Strategy and Vision 

• Understands how to leverage cross-departmental relationships and influence to identify creative and effective HR strategies. 
• Keep up to date on trends in international human resource management, particularly in the international humanitarian aid sector. 
• In collaboration with others on the Regional Human Resources team, identifies areas of opportunity to strengthen the HR operations and proactively offers recommendations to management. 

Personal Leadership 

• Consistently strives to exceed expectations; demonstrates flexibility, resilience and the ability to maintain positive relationships and composure, even under difficult circumstances. 
• Maintains high ethical standards and treats people with respect and dignity. 
• Maintains productive relationships with all stakeholders, including country teams, other headquarters functions, donors and regulators.  Builds mutually rewarding professional relationships inside Mercy Corps at all levels. 
• Promotes Mercy Corps culture by promoting the development and advancement of ideas that allows for new and unique approaches to problem-solving within existing policy and procedural requirements. 
• Demonstrates an awareness of his/her personal strengths and development needs, modeling non-defensive behavior and openness to feedback; builds a culture of feedback and learning. 
• Demonstrates high level of commitment to confidentiality and non-disclosure. 

Regional Human Resources 

• Collaborates effectively with members of the Regional People Team, and other stakeholders, in order to provide comprehensive, timely and equitable HR support to the Mercy Corps Regional team. 
• Acts as the primary point of contact for internal HR life-cycle related processes, including offer letters, onboarding, transfers, promotions, performance reviews and end of services.  
• Analyzes HR data, metrics and trends to provide insights to regional and country leadership, contributing to positive, program-focused outcomes. 
• Supports in preparation of the Quarterly ESA HR Reports 
• Supports administration of expatriate benefits 
• Acts as the first point of contact for all people related issues for Mercy Corps teams and collaborates and/or escalates issues as needed to ensure resolution. 
• Provides Mercy Corps’ country and regional leaders with consultative HR support relating to the people and issues that impact their programs, in a manner consistent with Global HR best practice. 
• Participates within the larger Regional HR team to share ideas, develop standard practices and implement best practices across Mercy Corps programs. 
• Designs and streamlines processes in collaboration with others in the People team in order to develop an improved HR experience across the global Mercy Corps team. 
• Track performance review dates and generate reminders; coordinate timely and accurate completion of personnel transactions for all changes and end of service activity. 
• Identifies HR initiatives and solves people management issues in a manner that complements Mercy Corps culture and programming priorities. 
• Reviews and maintains all internal documents, notices and templates; makes necessary adjustments after seeking feedback from key stakeholders. 
• Processes all independent consultant requests, ensuring the necessary approvals and supporting documents have been received and appropriately documented. 
• Responsible for providing technical support to national offices upon request and, if needed, during emergency operations; including development or review of National Team Handbook submissions, national Salary Scales, national Benefit Summaries, etc. 
• Assists with all internal and external audit requests relating to HR files and benefits for the assigned region of responsibility. 
• Triages and implements improvements in field-based HR systems and processes in a manner consistent with established Mercy Corps Global HR practice. 
• Conducts exit interviews of departing team members as needed. 
• Serves as point of contact for HR technical support to field HR practitioners. 
• Represents the Regional Human Resources team in People Team special projects and initiatives at the Region. 
• As the focal point for the Regional HR team supporting expatriates, works to ensure that HR work streams supporting expatriates are consistent and that the HR experience across the global Mercy Corps team is comparable. 

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders 

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects. 

ACCOUNTABILITY: 

• Reports Directly To: Senior Regional HRBP  
• Works Directly With: The Regional People Team, Region Leadership Team and Country Teams 
• Supervisory Responsibility: None. 

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE 

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, or personnel management.  
• Degree or equivalent experience in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field, preferred. 
• Multilingual is a ‘plus’ (English required with French, Swahili and/or Arabic as a second language). 
• Able to maintain operational consistency with other team members and actively keep management informed. 
• Demonstrated history of providing excellent customer service and a high level of attention to detail.   
• Ability to follow procedures, complete tasks with high quality outputs, meets deadlines and works well under pressure and cooperatively with team members. 
• A historically demonstrated ability to maintain confidential information. 
• Must have strong analytical, mathematical and problem-solving skills, effective organizational and interpersonal skills; strong written and verbal communication.   
• Understanding of HR processes and data, common analytical techniques and methodologies to share information and trends with non-HR professionals.  
• Understanding of major US employment laws including COBRA, FMLA, and FLSA is a plus.