The British Council is the world's leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

POSITION : HR Business Partner

Purpose of Job

• To support the Head of HR in the delivery of HR services in line with corporate standards.
• The post holder will undertake specific work within HR to support the effective management of the BC operation, focusing on our Abuja and Kano operations.

British Council Operating Context
Current:

• Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 180 million citizens. The UK is its largest trading partner. Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK.
• Therefore, there continue to be major opportunities for the UK and BC to build on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences. However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance.
• Nigeria is the British Council’s largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities - Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja the Federal capital and Lagos the commercial centre. We also have a number of project offices across the country.
• Our 200 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income (current annual income is £27.2 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further.
• Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organisations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK mission including DFID and UKTI.

Future:

• 42% of Nigeria’s population is under 14. The government has recognised that its Vision 2020 must address the aspirations of this young population as part of its drive to achieve peace and prosperity. This has led to unprecedented interest and investment in Education, the Arts and good governance. This alignment with the UK’s priorities creates a growth environment for the British Council.
• To be successful in this, we need to build understanding with our UK stakeholders of Nigeria as an emerging economy with substantial commercial and development opportunities as well as the challenges they may be more familiar with. In this we will seek to integrate our approach with that of the wider UK mission.
• We intend to expand and scale up our existing programmes, contracts and services in the Arts, Education & Society, English & Examinations and develop offers to fill important gaps such as in Skills. We also intend to ensure that we have a good balance of partnership, customer services and client funded work across all these sectors.
• To do all this we need to create the right enabling environment. In addition to developing the professional and technical expertise of our staff, we need to support them to build their relationships within Nigeria, the region and the wider global network. This will ensure we develop as well as adopt and use best practice.
• We also need rigorous and compliant frameworks to support our work in areas such as finance, tax & status, security, procurement, compliance and quality management. We have new premises in Kano and have a major premises project under development in Abuja. However, there is still more work to be done, especially in Lagos and Port Harcourt to ensure our premises and technology support our brand reputation for integrity, innovation and professionalism.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
HR Operations:

• To ensure that managers carry out recruitment and selection according to corporate and equal opportunity standards ensuring adherence to local employment laws. Ensuring utilization of the HRIS; e-recruitment in the selection of new staff.
• To oversee the induction for all new staff and actively quality checking elements of the induction programme to ensure consistency in the process across all offices. Collecting feedback on induction programmes and acting on feedback provided to improve the process.
• Manage all aspects of risk associated with the working staff including Health Insurance, Life Assurance and Employee compensation. To ensure that all staff is covered under the health and life insurance scheme. Manage day to day relationship with vendor teams; health maintenance organizations, insurance brokers etc. - providing feedback to vendor on performance, communicate issues back to Head of HR as needed.
• To contribute to HR team objectives by attending and contributing to staff meetings.
• Assist in managing communications for effective dissemination of information to employees on wages, Equality Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) issues, disciplinary procedures, grievances, benefits and other HR policies and practices.
• Manages employee data with available HRIS (e-HR) system such as hires, promotions, transfers, performance reviews, terminations, and employee statistics for reporting. To prepare regular or special reports necessary for business decisions.
• To support Head of HR on the delivery of corporate HR strategies and plans. To ensure HR plans, issues and failings and risk are actively managed and reported to Head of HR for reporting at FCCF and ERMF meetings.
• To ensure adherence to Information Knowledge Management standards of the team.

Learning & Development:

• To promote a culture of learning, knowledge sharing and teamwork by aiding collaboration and creating models for change management.
• To assist in arranging regular training on recruitment & selection, performance management etc.
• To take responsibility of own personal development by undertaking relevant developmental programmes; self-learning, job shadow, on the job training. Etc.

Employee Relations:

• In consultation with Head of HR, to receive and respond to inbound employee relations enquiries.
• To maintain an up to date record of employee relations issues
• In consultation with Head of HR, to provide guidance, consultation and assistance to Line Managers and Staff on matters relating to employee disciplinary actions.
• To respond to request for information on HR policy interpretation from internal and external clients.
• To encourage at least 90% of staff to complete the staff survey.

Performance Management:

• To assist Line Managers in ensuring that their team performance management system operates to corporate standards and guidelines.
• Assisting Head of HR in coordinating annual moderations of performance reviews.

Equal Opportunity and Diversity:

• Assisting Head of HR to ensure BC Nigeria’s strategy identifies and responds to EDI
• To manage face to face training on specific EDI topics
• Support head of HR in collating evidence for Diversity Assessment Framework ( DAF) submissions.

Financial Management:

• To prepare operational budgets. Ensuring value for money in the procurement of services on behalf of the team.
• In liaison with the Finance team, develop effective strategies for financial wellbeing of the team.

Key relationships: (include internal and external)

• BC Employees, Staff Association, Senior Leader team Nigeria, SSA regional HR team, Local Labour Lawyers, Health Maintenance Organization, Insurance Brokers.

Other important features or requirements of the job: (e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc):

• The post holder is expected to visit all four centres of BC Nigeria regularly and may be expected to attend events in the evenings as required.

Person Specification
Behaviours (Essential):

• Making it happen  (more demanding) Do I regularly review results and look for ways of raising levels of achievement for myself and others?
• Connecting with others (more demanding) Do I integrate people of different backgrounds into teams to achieve business objective
• Working together (more demanding) Do I work with clients to come up with solutions and gain support
• Being accountable (demanding) Do I meet my commitments and take personal responsibility for the results? Required but not used for recruitment
• Shaping the future (essential)
• Creating a shared purpose (essential)

Skills and Knowledge - Essential:

• Managing Projects Level 2
• Communicating & Influencing L2
• Planning & Organising L2
• Analysing Data L2

Experience
Essential:

• About 3 years’ experience in HRM in a multinational organisation
• Proven track record in:
  • HR Management, able to demonstrate understanding of best practice in HR processes and systems

Desirable:

• Managing change
• Knowledge of Nigerian Labour law

Qualification

• Degree level education - Essential
• HR qualifications - Desirable