Regional Head of HR ( Re-advertised) - Region Central and West Africa

NRC is looking for an experienced, French and English speaking, HR leader with solid humanitarian background to be our Central and West Africa Regional Head of HR, based in Dakar.

The NRC Central and West Africa region is composed of country offices in Mali, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), North-east Nigeria, and in Cameroon. All countries are experiencing a deterioration of the security situation, increasing humanitarian needs and displacements numbers due to conflict. Displacement across the region is fluid and complex. Across the region new displacements occur alongside secondary displacements of people who are trying to return home, but often find themselves unable to reach their place of origin. An increasing number of people across the region live in protracted displacement, and are dependent on humanitarian assistance for survival.

The Central and West Africa Regional Office (CWARO) is overseeing the country programmes in the region, and provides strategic guidance across core programme, advocacy and support functions. The Regional Office for Central and West Africa will move from NRC Oslo to Dakar in Senegal during the spring of 2018. The new office includes quite a focus on nationalising of posts, which will likely mean staff without previous NRC experience since NRC will not have operations in Senegal. This will require more focus on trainings to ensure that the Regional Office is able to provide quality service to the country programmes in the region.

Role and responsibilities

The purpose of the Regional Head of HR position is to assume the overall responsibility of HR management in the region promoting learning, organisational and staff development and duty of care for staff. The Regional Head of HR will be instrumental in ensuring a good transition to the new regional office in Dakar.

Part of the Regional Head of HR’s role is to implement Global HR initiatives, tools and systems in the region as well as develop and implement region specific HR procedures. In addition he/she should ensure HR control mechanisms in the NRC operations in the region.

The position will have line management responsibility and should manage and develop the Regional HR Unit as well as ensure guidance and training in HR processes to HR Staff and line managers in the regions Country Offices. The Regional Head of HR is also responsibility to provide support to senior line manager in personnel issues, conflicts and eventual legal issues as well as provide support and staff care after incidents or particular stressful situations.  

Specific responsibilities

• Develop and contribute to the implementation of an action plan with the objective to providing induction and training for staff in the new regional office, as well as for staff in the country programmes
• Develop and contribute to the implementation of an action plan with the objective to increase nationalisation of management positions (Coordinator level and above) in the region. 
• Contribute to the strategic development and planning of the NRC CWARO structure in relation to CO needs and HO requirements.
• Advise members of the Regional Management Group and Country Management Groups on workforce planning and organisational development, including scaling of the organisational structures at regional and country level.
• Ensure HR synergies across region and country programmes, e.g. recruitments, job rotations, gap fillings, internal secondments as well as procedures in other HR areas
• Share best practises on operative HR issues with other HR advisers in NRC, through regular fora for cooperation (operative issues)
• Contribute to global HR development through the strategy process for HR Global and take part reference groups for new HR initiatives or thematic issues established by HR Global 

We are looking for:

An analytic and strategic senior HR manager with minimum 5 years of relevant HR Manager/Adviser experience within the humanitarian field.  The successful candidate should have knowledge and experience from strategic HR work as well as experience from working with start-up, exit or similar. An understanding of the context in Central and West Africa is vital.  

We are seeking a candidate who has good knowledge about own leadership profile and has a passion for working with people from different places and backgrounds. A positive person that likes to manage change, who will encourage people to engage and interact and can empower and build trust in the organization. We are looking for a HR Manager that is strong in planning and delivering result. Excellent communication skills with ability to communicate with impact and respect as well as being strong at managing performance and development.

Our ideal candidate has experience from working in complex and volatile context and proven abilities to handle insecure environments.  Fluent in English and French, both written and verbal is a must as well as documented results related to the position’s responsibility.  NRC experience is an advantage.

If you fit into the above profile and want to be a part of a stimulating and rewarding work environment, a collaborative workforce and a genuine place of passion responding to global refugee crises we look forward to your application. 

Contract period: 2 years

Duty station: Dakar

Family Duty station: Yes

Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s general directions

Grade: 10 ( see attachment for NRC Grade structure)

Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the "Company name" field for both company and location.

Only CVs and applications written in English will be assessed

If you submitted your application the first time it was advertised you do not need to resubmit.