HR Coordinator - Lively Minds

Lively Minds is an award-winning NGO working to get pre-schoolers in rural Ghana & Uganda school-ready. Over 250 million children under 5 years globally do not get the early childhood care and education (“ECCE”) they need, leading to poor health, poor education, lost life opportunities and poverty.

We believe that one of the main barriers to ECCE is that parents in remote resource-poor villages lack the information, education and aspiration to provide basic and affordable opportunities for their children.

We have developed an innovative behaviour-change programme that empowers marginalized, poorly educated mothers to run educational Play Schemes for preschoolers and to provide better home-based care, using cheap local resources. Not only does this result in positive outcomes for child development, but also has positive impacts on the Mothers too.

These are exciting times for Lively Minds. In Ghana, we are finalising a partnership agreement with Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service (“GES”) to integrate the programme in to the national kindergarten system and to support them to scale it across 60 rural districts in the northern regions of the country, reaching approximately 4000 kindergartens and 1.1 million children.

In Uganda, we are in a 3-year period to test and position our programme for scale.  Over this period, we will support district and sub-county officials in Mayuge District to deliver the programme across all eligible communities in the District (approximately 420 communities).

We will also conduct a mixed-methods independent evaluation and build the case for Government adoption and replication.  Our funders include USAID and Echidna Giving.   

Our goals 2021-2025

Our key goal is that over the next 5 years, GES scale the Lively Minds programme to 60 districts/4000 communities and run and sustain it to quality standards. We also want to parents see themselves, and be seen by Government, as the key ECD providers.

The Lively Minds staff team will provide an agreed level of technical assistance to national, regional and district GES teams so that they have the motivation, the technical ability and the tools to integrate the programme and its activities and run and sustain it to quality standards.

Lively Minds has recruited approximately 50 new staff to support the scale-up programme. 2021 and 2022 will therefore be an exciting period of growth and change for Lively Minds in Ghana, with an enlarged team and strengthened systems and processes across many areas to support the change. 

We are looking for an HR Coordinator to lead recruitment initiatives and ensure Lively Minds is an excellent employer by implementing efficient processes and systems to improve the service and support provided to staff.

The HR Coordinator will be responsible for feeding into and implementing HR strategies and initiatives aligned with the overall programme strategy.

The HR Coordinator will be the first point of contact for HR matters for the Ghana team. The HR Coordinator will also provide support to the team in Uganda as needed and as agreed with the Head of HR and L&D.

The HR Coordinator will be responsible for HR advice and project work, delivering training and inductions, recruitment coordination and ensuring compliance with Ghana labour law.

The position may require liaising with our UK and Uganda teams to support the Head of HR and L&D. This position will be based in Tamale. This is a unique opportunity to be involved in building HR systems that contribute to our scale up and make a huge impact for a small charity.

There is also scope for this role to evolve and grow over time into an HR Manager role, provided that the post holder exceeds performance goals over a sustained period.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Recruitment and Selection Coordination

• Coordinates the end to the end recruitment process, ensuring the timeline meets the required start date and working closely with the Head of HR, L&D.
• Longlists applications and prepares a small number of applications for the recruiting team to shortlist.
• Coordinates assessments and interview processes, ensuring all candidates are treated fairly and professionally with timely updates on the recruitment process.
• Coordinates pre-employment process and necessary paperwork.
• May be required to support recruitment processes in Uganda or for the global team.

HR Advice and Project Work

• Provides advice to managers on staff on HR queries including absence management, contracts.
• Role models the Lively Minds culture in all aspects of their work.
• Implements HR projects as agreed with the Head of HR, L&D.
• Supports the implementation of performance management initiatives. This may include delivering training and reviewing the effectiveness of the new performance management system.
• Updates HR policies as agreed with Head of HR, L&D in line with HR Workplan ensuring alignment to Ghana labour law
• Supports employee relations cases under the guidance of the HR, L&D Manager including taking notes of investigations, grievance, disciplinary and performance improvement meetings.
• Leads on HR projects based on workload. This may include leading on salary benchmarking, wellbeing initiatives for the Ghana team, contributing to team building activities and improving our HR systems and processes.
• Plays a proactive role in contributing to a productive, fun and happy working environment across all the Ghana offices. Looks for ways to incorporate Lively Minds culture into their work.
• May be required to lead on HR projects covering the Uganda team or provide HR support on policies or offer HR advice to the Uganda team.
• May be required to travel to the other Ghana offices to support with recruitments and/or support Ghana managers in any other HR matters.

Training and Inductions

• Facilitates training for managers and staff including but not limited to: performance management, management development, competencies and HR systems and policies.
• Leads on certain aspects of inductions including HR policies, contracts and absence in agreement with the Head of HR, L&D.
• May be required to coordinate the inductions for new starters in consultation with the Ghana Country Director and Head of HR, L&D.

HR systems and administration

• Prepares all HR letters and contracts for staff.
• Monitors contract end dates and alert Country Director in a reasonable time.
• Maintains HR systems ensuring accurate and timely data entry.
• Keeps all employee files up to date.
• Provides monthly updates on payroll changes to the Ghana Finance team.
• Ensures timely processing of starters and leavers.
• Monitors all employee annual leave, alerts managers where there is significant unused leave entering the final quarter of the year.
• Tracks completion of performance reviews and alerts Head of HR, L&D of any concerns.
• Investigate accidents and prepares reports for the insurance carriers, working in coordination with the Finance and Admin Manager.
• Identifies and communicates HR risks for safety, security, compliance or staff welfare to senior management.
• Manages the resident and work permits needs of visitors and LM expatriates in Ghana.

Support to the Finance and Admin team on admin Duties

• May be required to support the Finance and Admin team with administration tasks during the absence of team members or during busy periods.

You may be assigned any other responsibility in agreement with your line manager, in contribution to Lively Minds work and in recognition of your experience and skills. It is therefore expected for staff to be flexible and willing to contribute to the work of the wider team.

Experience and Skills

Essential Experience and Skills

• 3-5 years experience in an HR role
• Professional HR qualification (PCP, CVE or equivalent)
• Experience creating and updating policies
• Recruitment experience (all aspects of process)
• Experience supporting investigations, disciplinaries and terminations
• Extensive knowledge of Ghana employment law
• Clear and professional written, visual and oral communication skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Able to learn and adapt to IT systems (MSTeams etc.)
• Experience working with HR software
• Able to manage a varied workload
• Confident in setting up new HR processes and improving on existing processes
• Excellent attention to detail
• Able to collaborate effectively with a team.

Desirable Experience and Skills

• Experience working with remote teams
• Experience designing and implementing HR strategies
• Experience in managing people.

You will be expected to perform against the Lively Minds Competencies.