Human Resources Manager, P-4 at UNICEF

Job Number: 514313
Work Type: Fixed Term Staff

Brief country context

• Nigeria is a populous country with extremely diverse cultural, demographic and development profiles.  The country combines both development and emergency context as there is an ongoing major humanitarian operation in the conflict prone North East. 
• Economically, the country presents huge potential for leveraging domestic resources (from both public and private sectors) for child-centered development.  Within its capital, Abuja, it hosts the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a large number of development partners.
• The UNICEF Nigeria Office is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices and has a staffing complement of almost 400 staff. The office is also supported by approximately 130 consultants at any given time. 
• Staff and consultants are located in the national office (Abuja) and nine field offices, some of which are the size of a small country office with 30 - 40 staff members.
• The Human Resources unit is centralized in Abuja, serving all the staff and consultants as necessary.

Country Typology:

• Country Income Level: Nigeria is a lower middle income country.
• Duty Station: Abuja is a "C" family, and non- emergency duty station.
• Office Size: (375 established positions, 9 Field Offices plus a country office)
• Annual Budget: (USD296,200,000)
• Schooling: international schools available, covering different curriculum (British, American and French)

How can you make a difference?

• As HR Manager you will work closely with programme and operations managers and your HR Team on all staffing issues in this highly decentralized setting and high-risk environment.

Working under the direct supervision of the Chief of Operations, your key functions and accountabilities would include:

• Developing Human Resources strategy and workplan
• Playing a key role in the staff planning process (CPMP/{PBR) ensuring principles of equity, transparency, consultation and feedback to all staff
• Recruitment of new personnel
• Management of staff contracts and entitlements
• Ensuring staff receive any necessary psychosocial support
• Coordination of nation-wide HR related activities eg. Staff learning; and wellbeing including efficient management/staff relations in the various field offices.
• Inter-agency engagement with HR managers from other UN agencies
• To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Qualifications
Education:

• An Advanced University Degree in Human Resource Management, Business Management, International Relations, Psychology or another related field is required.

Experience:

• Eight years of professional experience in human resource management in an international organization and/or large corporation is required.

In addition to the above, the following experience would be beneficial:

• Knowledge/experience of managing the people aspects of change 
• Experience in providing remote HR support to managers and their staff working in field offices
• Oversight /management/leadership of a centralized HR unit supporting field based staff and large number of consultants;
• Leading Staff learning and development – career coaching conversations, performance management
• Authoritative technical knowledge of the principles and concepts of human resources management
• Capacity to adapt policies, approaches and models to meet emerging needs
• Ability to identify and analyze systemic issues, formulate opinions and make conclusions and recommendations to resolve same.
• Excellent knowledge of organizational and HR information technology systems and tools.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in a diverse organization tailoring language, tone, style and format to match audience
• Ability to empathize with client managers, supervisors and staff while advocating for consistent and equitable applications of promulgated HR regulations and rules
• Experience and ability to help design and implement targeted and innovative human resources strategies to address clients’ people-related needs.
• Ability to help design and implement innovative HR programmes within a fast paced, evolving,  large, decentralized setting.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.  Knowledge of another official UN working language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

Person Profile

• The ideal candidate will be a strategist and a leader able to acquire and retain a talented multicultural and diverse workforce through effective performance management by directing the country programme towards results for children while implementing UNICEF’s vision, mission and objectives. 
• S/he will have strong management skills and demonstrated ability to foster partnerships with governments, the private sector, UN agencies and civil society.

The ideal candidate will have also demonstrated as follows:

• People leadership skills: Able to provide inspiration, vision and effective direction, and unleash high performance from an increasingly diverse and/or dispersed team
• Team leadership skills: the ideal candidates will have built, developed and led diverse, cross-functional teams of significant size at the international level.  The most critical element will be demonstrated ability to attract and retain talent through effective performance management
• Result orientation skills: able to create an environment of accountability, to make tough decisions when necessary and focused on results
• Collaboration and Influencing skills: able to encourage collaboration throughout the country office and support integrated and cross-cutting programmes.  Ability to develop positive and effective relationships and build consensus through effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Change leadership skills: able to create, operational, and optimize change initiatives that contributes to strengthen UNICEF’s presence and relevance globally