HR Manager - Cambodia and Laos

Contract: Two-year fixed term.

Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia with regular travel to Savannakhet, Laos.

Salary: £45,000

Accommodation: HALO accommodation provided.

Reporting into: Regional Director Indo-Pacific.

About HALO:

The HALO Trust is the world’s largest and oldest international humanitarian mine action non-government organisation (NGO). For over thirty years, we have been saving lives and helping war-torn communities recover, by making their land safe. Our mission is to protect lives and restore the livelihoods of those affected by conflict.

HALO is known for its work to clear landmines, but we also lead on dealing with unexploded ordnance, from bullets to aircraft bombs, and we educate communities to keep them safe. We also build safe arms stores and systems for securing guns. HALO was established in Afghanistan in 1988 and now employs over 10,000 staff in 28 countries and territories.

We are extremely proud of the work we do and the people in our team. For us all, it is more than just a job. It is a shared purpose.

HALO has been working in the Indo-Pacific since 1992 when we established a mine clearance programme in Cambodia. Today we have over 3,500 staff working across the region in our programmes in Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Solomon Islands with plans to expand further. Based in Cambodia this role covers the senior HR functions of HALO’s programmes in Cambodia (1,200 staff) and Laos (1,400 staff). Ability to travel is essential both internationally between Cambodia and Laos and within the countries to visit the teams in the field (long car journeys along poor road surfaces).

About the role:

As a senior leadership role, the primary responsibility of the HRM is to lead, manage and motivate all HR activities in Cambodia and Laos. The successful individual will have a mandate to develop the programme HR departments in line with programme strategies set by the Regional Director and Programme Managers, the organisational strategy, in support of all regional operations while aligning with global HR initiatives and objectives. There will be a requirement to develop the HR and safeguarding capacities of the programmes.

Key Working Relationships:

The HRM has dual line reporting to the Programme Managers of Cambodia and Laos and the Global Head of HR – Programmes.  There will be supervisory responsibility for the local HR staff and a close working relationship with the regional leadership team. The Regional Director (UK based) would be the second reporting officer.

Responsibilities:

The HRM will provide a wide range of HR and safeguarding assistance to the country programmes and will actively engage with the programmes and HQ HR departments. The HRM will be responsible for all aspects of HR and safeguarding in Cambodia and Laos, including:

• Supervise local teams and provide ongoing 1:1 advise and support
• Assess and create a process of professional development for the local HR leadership
• Creating a culture of continuous improvement and review HR policies, systems and practices ensuring programme compliance with all relevant local legislation, working with external legal advisors and aligning with HQ HR initiatives and requirements
• Ownership of HR databases – oversee their development and implementation
• Assisting with the recruitment of national staff positions and supporting the recruitment of international staff positions
• Lead the rollout of HALO’s global staff survey on the programmes and support the action plans
• Advising on compensation strategy and appraisal processes

Act as safeguarding focal point:

• Manage the programmes safeguarding policies, processes, and practices together with Safeguarding Officer, including ensuring compliance with HALO’s global safeguarding policy
• Lead on or support safeguarding investigations, ensuring timely reporting and record keeping
• Provide capacity building training to the programme’s Safeguarding Officer and oversee the delivery of safeguarding training to programme staff
• Work with the Global Safeguarding Lead to develop suitable training material for the region

Support to Staff Livelihood Transition strategy:

Although the programmes in the region are some way off from completing landmine and UXO clearance activities, we will start developing a Staff Livelihood Transition strategy which aims at ensuring future sustainable livelihoods for our staff. The HRM will:

• Identify trainings and professional development courses that match both the skills of our workforce as well as the demands of the local labour market.

Requirements

Required

• Experience in all aspects of HR management, university degree in relevant field and/or professional certification preferred (e.g. CIPD)
• Significant experience in HR management in INGO in an international setting, preferably working on programmes of +1,000 staff
• Experience in implementation of HR database systems
• Project management experience
• Have proven experience of leading safeguarding in the humanitarian sector, across a diverse workforce, ideally including experience in designing and delivering safeguarding trainings
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills
• Demonstrated management and leadership skills
• Collaborative working and communication style
• Fluent English speaker with very strong written English
• Strong numeracy skills and data analysis skills
• Good cultural awareness, able to adapt to collaborating with different people
• A self-starter, able to organise and manage their own time and lead a team to deliver quality work in a timely fashion
• A practical and adaptable person, prepared to work in a challenging and fluid operating environment

Desirable (not essential)

• Previous work experience in South Asia
• Knowledge of Cambodian and/or Laos labour law
• Experience in humanitarian mine action

Benefits

This post is open to nationals as well as international candidates. Contract Terms and Conditions dependent on residency therefore some of the following benefits may vary:

• Living overseas allowance
• Shared accommodation in a rented HALO apartment or house, provided at nil cost plus food allowance.
• 49 days annual leave per year, increasing to 56 days after 2 years service
• Three economy return flights to the member’s official home address (or an alternative location up to an equivalent cost)
• Private medical
• health cover Insurance package: life assurance and emergency medical insurance, including evacuation and repatriation.

Please submit a CV (no more than 2 pages) and a cover letter (no more than 1 page) outlining how your experience matches the key skills and competencies required by 24th October 2024.

We reserve the right to amend the closing date depending on the number of applications received. 

The HALO Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any applicant for employment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. 

The HALO Trust is committed to a culture that is both diverse and inclusive and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. 

The HALO Trust is committed to ensuring that it provides a safe and trusted environment which safeguards and promotes the welfare and wellbeing of anyone who comes into contact with, or is part of, the Charity, with a zero-tolerance approach to behaviours which challenge this.