Head: Employee Relations (PPB Pan-Africa)

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Accountable for leading and embedding the Employee Relations strategy across the HC Pan Africa Business Unit, aligned to Group ER frameworks, governance and risk appetite.

Translates enterprise direction into actionable Pan Africa BU practices, providing oversight of labour risk, complex ER matters and governance.

Acts as a trusted advisor to Pan Africa BU leadership, ensuring consistent, ethical and defensible ER practices that mitigate people risk and support business performance and stability.Job Description

Key Focus Areas:

• Pan-African multi market leadership
• Pan Africa BU ER Strategy Execution and Integration
• Governance, Risk and Compliance across the BU
• Oversight of Complex and High-Risk ER Matters
• Pan Africa BU Stakeholder Advisory and Influence
• ER Insights, Prevention and Continuous Improvement
• Capability Building and BU ER Practice Leadership

Key Accountabilities:

ER Strategy Execution and Integration:

• Translate and implement the Group ER strategy across the Pan Africa BU, ensuring alignment to business objectives, people strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Embed ER frameworks, policies and operating models across the Pan Africa BU to ensure consistency with enterprise standards while accommodating business-specific and market-specific needs.
• Monitor and adapt ER practices in response to Pan Africa BU dynamics, regulatory developments and labour environment shifts.

Governance, Risk and Compliance:

• Ensure effective application of ER governance frameworks, maintaining compliance, defensibility and ethical integrity across Pan Africa BU ER practices.
• Identify, assess and manage Pan Africa BU-level employee relations risks with potential financial, reputational or regulatory impact.
• Partner with Pan Africa BU leadership, Legal, Risk and Compliance to support informed decision-making and risk mitigation within the Pan Africa BU context.

Oversight of Complex and High-Risk ER Matters:

• Oversee and quality assure complex, high-risk and sensitive ER cases across the Pan Africa BU, ensuring alignment to Group standards and legal requirements.
• Intervene in matters requiring escalation, neutrality and senior judgement, particularly those with potential precedent or reputational risk.
• Ensure appropriate escalation to Group ER for cases with enterprise implications or regulatory exposure.

Stakeholder Advisory and Influence:

• Act as a senior ER advisor to BU executives, leadership teams and governance forums on employee relations and labour matters.
• Influence BU decision-making by balancing commercial, employee, reputational and legal considerations.
• Represent the BU in ER-related engagements, ensuring alignment with Group ER positioning and standards.

ER Insights, Prevention and Continuous Improvement:

• Analyse BU ER data, trends and insights to inform proactive interventions, risk mitigation and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Drive preventative ER initiatives within the BU to address root causes of disputes and enhance organisational culture.
• Monitor ER outcomes within the BU and contribute insights to Group ER for enterprise-level strategy refinement.

Capability Building and BU ER Practice Leadership:

• Build and enhance ER capability within the BU HC team, ensuring alignment to Group ER standards and maturity expectations.
• Provide coaching, guidance and professional leadership to ER practitioners and HC stakeholders within the BU.
• Embed lessons learned from ER matters into BU-specific practices, policies and leadership capability development.

Knowledge & Skills:

Knowledge:

• Advanced labour legislation applicable to the BU operating jurisdiction(s)
• Employee relations governance frameworks and operating models
• Risk management within a regulated financial services environment
• Organisational behaviour and drivers of workplace conflict
• ER analytics and trend interpretation at a business unit level
• Regulatory and ethical standards applicable to financial services

Skills:

• Strategic application of ER frameworks within a business context
• Advisory and stakeholder influence at senior leadership level
• Analytical thinking and problem solving in complex ER environments
• Policy interpretation and operationalisation
• Conflict resolution and negotiation
• Capability building and practitioner coaching

Qualifications and Work Experience:

Education/Qualifications:

• Postgraduate Degree: Honours Degree, Postgraduate Diploma or relevant Professional Qualification (NQF Level 8) in Human Resources, Labour Relations, Industrial Psychology, Employment Law, Governance or a related discipline.

Work Experience:

• 12-15 years’ experience within employee relations or a related HC discipline, including experience in managing complex ER matters within a large organisation.
• Proven experience in implementing enterprise frameworks, policies or practices within a business unit or functional environment.
• Pan-African/Multi Market Leadership - Proven track record of leading, scaling and aligning the function across diverse geographic markets.
• Cross industry versatility - Experience driving innovation in non-banking sectors (e.g. FinTech, Telecoms, FMCG, or Tech (advantageous)
• Experience partnering with senior stakeholders and supporting risk-informed decision-making within a regulated environment.
• Exposure to data-driven decision-making and ER analytics within a corporate or financial services context is preferred.

Competencies:

Technical Competencies:

• Employee relations practice execution
• ER governance and compliance application
• Labour law application
• Policy implementation and interpretation
• ER analytics and insight generation
• Stakeholder advisory capability
• Change enablement
• Capability development

Behavioural Competencies:

• Strategic Thinking
• Decision Making
• Business Acumen
• Influence
• Leadership
• Collaboration
• Adaptability
• Resilience

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic Thinking
• Business Acumen
• Communication
• Influence
• Leadership
• Creativity and Innovation
• Delivering Results
• Adaptability
• Collaboration

Education

Postgraduate Degrees and Professional Qualifications: Human and Social Studies (Required)Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised