People & Culture Manager – Ukraine Refugee Crisis Response

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The Role

The conflict in Ukraine is resulting in a major humanitarian crisis with over 4 million people having fled to neighbouring countries, and millions displaced within Ukraine. Plan International is responding to the crisis and working in partnership with civil society organisations in Poland, Romania, and Moldova to meet the key needs of those affected by the crisis as well as host communities.  

This position will play a key role in establishing the HR function, providing support to country level activities and will provide HR expertise and guidance to Plan International teams and partners in Poland, Romania, and Moldova, Ukraine and Germany-based Ukraine Response Hub staff.   

The Ukraine Response Hub is a service-oriented structure to support initiation of activities, and to help find solutions to problems as and when arise. Creative thinking and identifying work arounds to problems faced will be a critical element of the role. 

The position of HR Manager is an integral part of the team responsible for the HR set up and the overall management of all areas related to Human Resources; to provide guidance on all HR matters and ensure compliance with local laws and Plan International policies. Be responsible for induction of all staff and to manage specific projects within HR, to input to the review and development of guidelines and procedures for international and local staff, to manage relationships with key service providers, and implement/maintain systems including payroll and procedures for efficient and effective HR Operations.

Accountabilities

• Set up the HR Function for the Ukraine Response Hub response, ensuring compliance with local employment requirements and alignment to Plan International values and behaviours.
• Have overall responsibility for the design and implementation of relevant HR policies and systems to meet the needs of the response, including but not limited to local and internationally deployed benefits, recruitment and selection policy and procedures.
• Responsible for monitoring staff welfare and ensuring that staff have access to resources to support their well-being.
• Ensuring that the Ukraine Response Hub has effective, efficient, and compliant resourcing strategies in place to ensure that the right numbers of staff with the right skills are recruited in a timely and safe way. These resourcing strategies cover local and international recruitments, international deployment and as well as other resourcing options such as volunteers or external agencies.
• Working with senior managers to ensure that the response program is structured to efficiently deliver effective program outcomes.
• Ensuring that all new staff who are recruited for the response receive a clear induction which provides a thorough understanding of both their own role and responsibilities as well as key organisational priorities and information, including but not limited to the CPP and Whistleblowing Policy.
• Support response locations, assess occupational Safety and Health issues covering both international and national staff working on the Ukraine Response Hub.
• Providing line managers and staff at every level with HR advice and support as required to deal with HR issues and questions that arise related to the response.
• Responding to requests for information or HR reports and trackers from Global Hub or managers as required.
• Provide effective HR business partnering support to the response management so HR issues and needs are understood and captured in strategies, proposals and programs.
• Liaising with Finance to ensure all required HR budget requirements are incorporated in to the response master budget.
• Support proposal development, ensuring appropriate HR costs are incorporated in to funding submissions.
• Provide regular input to the response sitrep.
• Ensuring HR records, including personnel files are set up, accurate and well-maintained in compliance with Plan standards and local requirements.

• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures

Skills, Knowledge and Behaviours required; 

Skills

• Proven HR Management Experience, including establishing HR functions and working in challenging environments.
• Experience of working in humanitarian crises. 
• Proven effective and practical HR management working across several sites and operating in a multicultural and matrix management structure.
• Fluency in English essential. Language skills in German, Ukrainian, Polish, Moldovan or Romanian are an advantage.   
• Proficient in Microsoft office packages, and HRIS systems

Behaviours

• Striving for high performance across the team and for Plan’s business 
• Strategic thinking and innovation – finding efficiencies in the use of resources 
• Decision making and risk management – identification and action on HR Management in line with compliance requirements and humanitarian ways of working.  
• Influence and communication – able to communicate concerns to managers and teams 
• Building effective teams and partnerships – with teams and suppliers 
• Developing people – leaving a legacy of a locally able team 
• Self-awareness and resilience – operating in a highly volatile and developing context 

For the full role profile please follow this link Role Profile_People Culture Manager_Ukraine Response Hub_Revised June 30-22.docx

Location: Germany or other locations where Plan International has a legal entity and the applicant has the pre-existing right to work and live will be considered. Signifiicant travel to Poland, Romania and Moldova will be required. 

Applicable locations may include: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Type of Role: Fixed Term

Reports to: Response Operations Support Manager

Closing Date: Monday 8th August 

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.