Director, HR Operations at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region. Considered one of the pillars of the African Economic Community, the organization was founded in order to achieve collective self-sufficiency for its member states by creating a single large trading bloc through an economic and trading union. It also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region. The organization operates officially in three co-equal languages French, English, and Portuguese.

We are currently recruiting for the position below:

Job Title: Director, HR Operations

Reference: ECW-COMM/REC/HR-D /001/2015
Grade: D1
Location: Abuja
Department: Human Resources
Directorate: Human Resources
Supervisor: Commissioner, Human Resources
Duration: Permanent

Job Descriptions

• A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Statutory Appointees or D2 level Officers. Directorates are headed by Directors or Officers holding Director level positions.
• Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
• Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution's mandate.
• They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies', the President's and the Commissioner's broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate. D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff

Duties and Responsibilities
Leadership Tasks:

• Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:
• Clearly communicating the Department's vision to staff, explain how the Directorate's activities aligns with them as well as ways of carrying out set tasks on it;
• Staying on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes;
• Remaining in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.

Managerial Tasks:

• The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff.
• He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.

Managerial tasks will include:

• Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Department's overall plans; measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;
• Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;
• Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;
• Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;
• Set standards of work and create mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;
• Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;
• Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reports;
• Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;
• Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourages staff participation.

Use of Personal Expertise
While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:

• Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
• Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;
• Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;
• Advise on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;
• Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.

Technical Tasks:

• The strategic and core component of this role is providing advice, leadership and operational support across the Commission, under the supervision of the Commissioner, Human Resources.

Duties

• Develop the employee relations policies and procedures.
• Develop and regularly review the Commission's HR guidelines in terms of sickness, leave, absence, lateness.
• Develop, plan, organize, and supervise the Commissions database in terms of Human Resources operational functions (salaries, benefits, etc).
• Develop and regularly review the job evaluation policies and procedures.
• Responsible for the education of the staff of the Commission in line with the Staff Rules and Regulations.
• Develops and regularly reviews the employee life cycle in the Commission.
• Ensures that the HR Operations policies are clearly defined, regularly reviewed, and constantly updated.
• Responsible for driving process efficiency, continuous improvement and key performance measures within the Commission.
• Any other functions assigned by the Commissioner.

Qualifications/Experience/Skills

Qualifications:

• A Master's in the Social Sciences or Humanities is desirable but any other with the relevant work experience would be considered.

Experience:

• Twelve (12) years professional experience including six (6) years relevant international experience and five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
• Possession of higher degree would reduce the required professional experience to ten (10) years with five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity;
• Membership of any affiliate professional bodies would be an advantage.

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities)

• Must be good a good negotiator and highly analytical.
• Good stress management skills.
• Should be emotionally resilient and good in complaint handling.
• Should have excellent people management skills.
• Grievance and discipline management.
• Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving).
• Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression).
• Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, takes on share of the work, reliable).
• Ability to align self and Directorate to the Community;
• Drive and energy;
• Demonstrates fairness;
• Self-control and stress management methods;
• Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;
• Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.

Age:

• Candidates should not be over 50 years old at the point of recruitment and must be citizens of one of the ECOWAS member states.

Language:

• Candidates must be fluent in one of the official languages of the Community; English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of another would be an advantage.

Remuneration
Annual Salary: USD 60,372 - USD 75,005.

Application Closing Date
30th June, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online