Senior Associate, People and Culture at The Pharo Foundation
The Pharo Foundation
- Nairobi
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Design and implement a talent development approach that strengthens leadership capability and builds a healthy pipeline across levels and functions, aligned to Pharo’s growth plans.
- Lead the development and coordination of leadership programmes partnering with internal stakeholders and external providers as needed.
- Support succession planning efforts by working with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and country teams to identify critical roles, talent risks, and development actions; maintain basic succession data and follow-up rhythms.
- Lead end-to-end recruitment for designated roles across Pharo entities and geographies, ensuring timely and high-quality hiring decisions aligned with business needs.
- Anticipate hiring needs and work with the SLT to build hiring plans.
- Further craft the organisation’s employer brand and value proposition for candidates and create content and/or events to position us as an employer of choice.
- Strategically source potential hires from different backgrounds, helping Pharo build a diverse, competitive team across all its offices.
- Identify, lead, implement & manage optimal learning & development solutions for Pharo’s internal & external learning programs.
- Build and manage an annual training calendar that reflects organisational priorities, country needs, and delivery capacity, ensuring timely communication and coordinated execution.
- Support training budget planning and management (forecasting, tracking spends, vendor support where applicable) and improve cost-effectiveness over time.
- Support the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of Pharo’s performance management approach across countries, ensuring it is clear, fair, and consistently applied.
- Coordinate performance cycles end-to-end, including timelines, guidance materials, manager communications, and completion tracking.
- Build manager capability on performance practices (setting measurable goals, coaching for performance, feedback conversations), in partnership with the Global Director, People and Culture and relevant stakeholders.
- Partner with stakeholders to link performance management outputs to development actions (training, coaching, mentorship, succession planning, and career progression), ensuring follow-through on agreed plans.
- Partner with People and Culture colleagues and leaders to strengthen the end-to-end employee experience, using data and feedback to identify friction points and implement improvements.
- Support culture-building initiatives across geographies that reinforce Pharo’s mission and ways of working.
- Own and continuously improve a consistent onboarding approach across countries.
- Coordinate onboarding logistics with country People and Culture teams and hiring managers (contracts readiness, systems access, induction plans, compliance documentation).
- Implement structured feedback loops (new hire and manager) and translate insights into onboarding experience improvements.
- Support the development, rollout, and understanding of core HR policies and People and Culture ways of working across countries, ensuring staff and managers can apply policies consistently.
- Provide practical guidance to stakeholders on policy interpretation and process adherence, escalating complex matters to the Global Director, P&C as needed.
- Coordinate periodic HR audits and compliance checks (e.g., completeness of personnel files, onboarding documentation, contract and policy sign-offs, statutory documentation tracking where applicable).
- Document findings, agree corrective actions with relevant owners, and follow through to closure while maintaining strong records and audit trails.
- Establish simple audit-ready routines (checklists, calendars, templates) that can be used consistently across countries.
- Improve and standardize core People and Culture processes (templates, SOPs, service levels, workflows) across countries, with a focus on efficiency, consistency, and staff experience.
- Maintain high-quality People and Culture documentation and data hygiene, ensuring records are complete, secure, and easy to retrieve when needed.
- Use metrics and stakeholder feedback to identify bottlenecks and propose practical improvements to tools, processes, and coordination rhythms.
- Support effective use and continuous improvement of people systems used.
- Provide support to People and Culture leaders and teams for adequate use of the HR systems.
- A Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources or advanced training in complementary fields like learning and development, organizational management, psychology, or sociology.
- At least seven (7) years of experience in HR, learning and development, organizational psychology, or a related domain.
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