People and Culture Associate - Bonga, Keffa

Employer: Village Enterprise  

Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship

Job Title: People and Culture Associate 

Position Type: Full time 

Reports to: Regional People and Culture Manager 

Location: Bonga, Keffa, Ethiopia

Duration: One year, renewable based on satisfactory performance and subject to availability of funds.

Project Overview:

Village Enterprise and HereWeGrow are partnering to address the interwoven challenges of poverty, gender inequity, and climate vulnerability facing smallholder coffee farmers in Ethiopia’s Keffa Zone. HARVEST - Households Advancing Resilience, Value chains, and Sustainable Transformation is a three-year, integrated project to address the poverty cycle in coffee producing small holder farmers in Gimbo and Shisho Ende districts of Keffa Zone.

The proposed project combines Village Enterprise’s proven 12-month poverty graduation model–including seed capital grants, business and financial literacy training, mentoring, and savings groups with tailored climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and market linkage interventions. This integrated model will be delivered to households living in extreme poverty in the coffee-growing Keffa Zone.

The project will train 8,100 entrepreneurs to launch 2,700 small businesses, enabling households to improve coffee quality and yields and increase and diversify incomes, ultimately lifting 52,000 individuals from poverty.

Position Overview:  

Reporting to the Regional P&C Manager and with a dotted line to the Country Director, the P&C Associate – Ethiopia will support and contribute towards the achievement of the overall strategic business plans and objectives of the human resource function of the Ethiopia Field Office. Specifically, s/he is responsible for staff recruitment and placement, staff policy implementation and ensuring P&C activities are conducted in line with Village Enterprise policies and procedures and in accordance with Kenya employment laws.

Your primary job duties and responsibilities shall include, but are not limited to:

• Implementation of P&C Strategies and Policies.
• Coordinating Staff recruitment, Induction and retention.
• Ensuring Legal Compliance in all processes.
• Facilitating implementation of Staff Professional Development activities.
• Safeguarding

Detailed Roles and Responsibilities

Implementation of P&C Strategies and Policies

• Provide administration of the HRIS system to ensure staff have access to the systems and information is up to date.
• Make suggestions for improvement of the P&C system, policies and procedures and contribute to their definition, elaboration and implementation.
• Support initiatives geared towards creation of a safe, healthy and happy workplace.
• Create and track employment contracts.
• Maintain an active and organized data bank of applicants for various positions.
• Develop procedures for staff retirement taking into consideration any packages that might come with it.
• Maintain and update Field Staff P&C Manual, working closely with other P&C staff and legal Counsel to maintain legal compliance in liaison with the P&C Manager.
• Develop Manual for any P&C activities that fall outside of core P&C manual.
• Source, manage and maintain insurance contacts ensuring staff benefits are well handled, and timely renewal of insurance schemes.
• Interpret Leave policy to staff for all leave types to ensure proper usage while ensuring proper planning and leave management in the system and as a practice.
• Maintain staff data ensuring personal files are frequently updated with relevant information.
• Preparation of P&C reports as requested from time to time

Coordinating Staff recruitment, Induction and retention

• Coordination of transparent and competitive recruitment and selection processes.
• Review, standardize and prepare recruitment materials including job descriptions, job specifications, adverts and interview questions for positions to be filled.
• Carry out short listing, coordinate & participate in interviews.
• Manage all employment forms and materials for new hires.
• Plan and conduct/coordinate new employee orientation including provision of information about policies, job duties, working conditions, wages, and opportunities for promotion and employee benefits etc.
• In consultation with the Country Director and P&C Manager, advice staff changes monthly in preparation of the payroll and submission to Finance by 20th of every month

Ensuring Legal Compliance

• Display in-depth knowledge of legal requirements related to day-to-day management of employees, reducing legal risk and ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Ensure recovery of all organization items in possession of any staff departing from the organization.
• Act as the focal point on the administration of complaint/grievance and disciplinary matters and processes ensuring clear documentation of process.
• Ensure exit interviews are carried out and appropriate records are maintained.

Facilitating implementation of Staff Professional Development activities

• Assist field management team with development of professional development goals for staff.
• Ensure that all promotions are properly justified and documented both in terms of performance and compensation.
• Work with different teams leads to facilitate completion of Performance Reviews within the stipulated period, and develop appropriate tools for staff capacity building

Safeguarding - "Safeguarding at Village Enterprise is everyone’s responsibility and it begins with me"

• Continuously sensitize program participants on safeguarding.
• Ensure compliance with Village Enterprise safeguarding policies.
• Report any incident of safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action/follow up. 

Any other tasks that may be deemed necessary

Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in human resource management, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or other related academic disciplines.
• A higher diploma in Human Resources Management is an added advantage
• Minimum 3 years’ relevant human resources management experience in a corporate or I/NGO environment.
• Member of IHRM is added advantage.
• Excellent planning, coordination, and reporting skills, with the ability to organize substantial workload comprised of complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities.
• Strong communication, people management and interpersonal skills in English, with experience in working with international staff.
• Expertise in HR Information Systems is an added advantage
• Knowledge of facilitating adult learning.
• Ability to negotiate, advocate and influence effectively.
• Listening, coaching and counselling skills with ability to manage change effectively.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Amharic is a must and Kaffagna an added advantage.

Living Our Values:

• Ubuntu: We serve people living in extreme poverty with respect, empathy, and dignity regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, or education level, and value our common humanity.
• Passion: We believe passionately in our mission and the ability of people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives.
• Integrity: We operate with the highest levels of integrity and trustworthiness.
• Innovation: We value innovation as a means to reduce poverty and treat new ideas, new technologies, and new partners as opportunities to grow our impact.
• Sustainability: We are committed to ensuring that our businesses and our organization are sustainable in the long term.

Indicators of success

• HRMIS implementation, usage and adaptation success rate (Both self and Project level)
• Employee hiring, orientation/Induction and retention
• Time to Hire
• P&C processes adherence (Quality and Quantity)
• Promoter Score index - eNPS 
• Engagement Survey Score
• Number of Safeguarding Cases
• Number of Disciplinary Cases
• % Low Performers - PIP
• % Quarterly Review Completion at Country Level
• % Mid-Year Review Completion
• % End Year Review Completion
• Onboarding and Offboarding Procedures
• Statutory Compliance
• Document & procedures audits

To Apply

Interested candidates who meet the required qualifications coupled with a passion for changing lives of the extreme poor are invited to submit their applications and resume (PDF) – your cover letter should explain why your experience and background make you the ideal candidate for this position and should be no more than one page.

Submit applications until November 28, 2025.

Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action:

Village Enterprise will provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Village will be based on merit, qualifications and abilities. Village does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status or any other characteristic protected by the law. Village Enterprise will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.

Village Enterprise is a corruption, solicitation or bribery free organization. We or any of our employees or associates do not charge money from job applicants before, during or after recruitment. Please report malpractices through our safeguarding Tollfree hotline 8495.