Head – Talent & Projects

Job Role: Head – Talent & Projects

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference HTP/POD/05/2024

AGRA and its Work to Transform Agriculture

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets.

In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.

Why Join Us?

People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success.

We have cultivated a workplace that fuels Depth in Collaboration, Excellence in Execution, Constructive Engagements, and a spirit of being Increasingly Entrepreneurial; all underpinned by our cherished I-RISE Values (Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity)

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 25 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

We are looking for people who are passionate about being part of a mission-driven team that is making a real difference on the continent; love to work on cutting edge Ag technologies; and able to grow their skills, expertise, and experience career growth, while enjoying very competitive compensation and benefits.

Are you ready to embark on this exciting transformative journey with us?

The Position

Head – Talent & Projects Job Reference: HTP/POD/05/2024

The Head of Talent & Projects plays a critical role in driving AGRA’s organizational success through strategic talent management, encompassing recruitment, development, and retention of top-tier employees. Reporting directly to the Director – People & Organizational Development, they will be responsible for defining our talent management strategy and ensuring its alignment with our overall corporate goals.

S/he will be pivotal in shaping a high-performance culture and will also play a crucial role in overseeing projects within the POD Team, ensuring they align with the organization’s goals and objectives, and to position AGRA as a strong employer brand.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Develop and implement a comprehensive talent management strategy that encompasses recruitment, retention, succession planning, and employee development.
Identify and implement retention strategies that encourage employee engagement, satisfaction, and long-term commitment to the organization.
Ensure the effectiveness of the performance management framework that aligns with our mission and corporate goals, promotes high performance, and addresses underperformance effectively.
Lead succession planning efforts to ensure critical roles are identified and that there are clear plans for filling these roles.
Analyzes and determines the future talent needs, develops a talent pool and repository for current and future AGRA needs.
Designs and develops innovative and highly effective talent management programs and processes to improve the depth and diverseness of AGRA’s global leadership talent, assuring the appropriate connection of proposal and delivery methods, education, and development programs.
Maintain a process of creating new and revising existing job profiles and competencies.
Manage and administer employee benefits programs, including health insurance, retirement plans, wellness initiatives, and other perks or incentives.
Lead and manage HR projects from inception to completion, ensuring that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and to a high quality.
Manage and monitor project risks, and develop mitigation plans to minimize project impacts and provide regular project status reports to the Director _ POD and other stakeholders.
Perform business analysis services by working collaboratively with POD and cross functional teams to identify project requirements, scope, objectives, and outcomes; and conduct process analysis to identify process improvements and efficiencies to optimize project delivery.
Collaborate with key stakeholders across the organization to understand their talent needs and challenges.
Leads the line managers on the implementation of the performance management system that includes individual development plans (DPs) and employee development programs.
Supports line managers on all phases of talent management such as succession planning programs to identify and develop high potential employees for key and leadership positions, assessment, talent pipelines, and selection processes.
Partner with Employee Development to create and maintain high-potential career development programs, including building procedures, tools, and guidelines/framework.
Support Business Partners by identifying and addressing organizational and people issues, think through how the teams remove barriers, increase engagement and effectiveness across teams.
Partner with Business Partners on strategic and operational execution activities including employee relations issues, team effectiveness, change management, organizational design, performance management, retention, engagement, talent planning, professional growth and more.
Provide guidance and support to HR business partners, managers, and executives on compensation decisions, salary offers, promotions, and retention strategies.
Enables talent management and development of existing staff, acquiring new staff as necessary and manages team dynamics to ensure high-performance and positive employee experience.
Communicates results through presentations, written and verbal communication.
Contribute to the creation of skills-based organization by regularly conducting skills and competency mapping activities to ensure there is a robust skills library and that development initiatives address skill gaps, and the organization is future-ready.
Utilize data and analytics to inform talent decisions and demonstrate the impact of talent initiatives on organization outcomes.
Prepare and present reports to leadership on talent metrics, challenges, and opportunities.
Ensure the development and implementation of core competencies and key performance measures into the performance appraisal system. Analyze and report on measurement results.
Administer measurement tools to determine success of organizational development programs.
Develop and execute a plan that enables our key stakeholders to utilize data outcomes from performance management for their operational and strategic decision-making.
Champion the use of innovative People practices and project management techniques. Promote a culture of continuous improvement within the POD Team.
Develop and implement effective communication plans to ensure that project stakeholders are informed and engaged throughout the project lifecycle.
Conduct regular benchmarking and market analysis to stay informed about industry trends, best practices, and emerging benefits offerings.

Key Qualifications and Experience required:

Essential
Bachelor’s Degree in HR Management, PA, BA, Psychology, Law, or equivalent degree.
Desirable
MBA
Project Management
Experience in Human Resource Management, HR regulations and reporting requirements.
Demonstrated experience leading large scale organizational wide change programs including reorganizations and workplace restructures.
Experience in project management and broad generalist HR experience and a proven track record at a senior level in delivering quality, business-focused HR solutions in large and complex organizations.
Experience with working on HRIS Technologies for purposes of data capture, process integrity, analytical functionality, and management reporting.
Has held leadership positions where there was demonstrable ability to inspire trust and passion in the mission of the organisation and be able to coach, develop and lead high performing teams.

Technical Competencies

Job Analysis and Evaluation
Compensation & benefits administration methods
Performance Management methodologies
Outstanding communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills, and ability to provide credible strategic advice at a senior level.

Behavioral Competencies
Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking siloes, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and increasing accountability to deliver impact at scale.
Ability to be sincerely constructive in interactions with others by demonstrating trust, sincerity, and care, in recognition of our joint purpose.
Ability be increasingly entrepreneurial by breaking hierarchies, embracing learning and innovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas.

If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 11^th June, 2024. Due to the large volumes of applications, we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer