Vacancies at African Union (AU) 2021

Purpose of Job

• To provide strategic leadership for managing the Human Resource policies and programs in line with the Commission’s vision and corporate strategy.  

Main Functions

• Provides overall strategic leadership on HR Management and Development to the entire African Union Organs.
• Leads and manages the directorate’s personnel in all HR functions, budget, performance, quality, employee relations matters and training in conformity with relevant rules and procedures.
• Contributes to the development of the overall strategy of the organization
• Determines, develops and executes the overall strategy of the Directorate and ensure alignment with Commission-wide strategy;
• Designs and develops business continuity plan to address unforeseen circumstances
• Develops and oversees policy development and guidelines according to the organizations legal framework.
• Designs policies consistent with the AU’s goal in order to address the pertinent issues in the relevant area.
• Manages risks and recommend mitigation strategies in the implementation of HR functions  
• Prepares and oversees integrated programmes projects of overall activities of the organisation.
• Builds and maintains a strategic plan to form good working relations with other directorate / department.
• Develops and maintains regular working relations with top level stakeholders in appropriate agencies of Member States and partners.
• Ensures the organisation of meetings between the organisation and other relevant partners
• Leads and delivers a continuous successful change management process that responds to changing delivery expectations of the Commission;
• Ensures the preparation of periodic financial and budget execution reports and other reports.
• Oversees the collection of contributed funds to the organisation.
• Initiates and takes necessary actions to collect funds of and for the African Union as a whole.
• Proposes training programmes relating to programme designing and coordination.
• Promotes awareness and training of best practices in areas of expertise.
• Develops and maintains regular working relations across the African Union and with all relevant stakeholders in driving organizational change and institutional reform through HR management and development activities and programmes
• Ensures the preparation of periodic budget execution reports and for monitoring and evaluating the directorate’s performance and the implementation of HR annual operational master plan.
• Reviews, develops and delivers human resource policies that reflect best contemporary international practice.
• Conducts Human Resource Management/Development related risks analysis and develop risk management and mitigation plan.
• Represents the Commission externally including managing relations with partners, external Human Resource service providers, etc.;
• Coordinates the implementation of the performance management function including supervision, coaching and mentoring of all staff in the Directorate.

Specific Responsibilities

• Develops, Reviews and Implements HR strategies to address emerging organizational needs and initiatives including organizational development, job design, work-life balance, acquisition and retention of talent, achievement of diversity and inclusion targets, ethics, career development, rewards and recognition, performance management as well as fair compensation and benefits;
• Leads the development, implementation, coordination and monitoring of HR policies, procedures, practices, guidelines, standards and information systems;
• Serves as Human Resources advisor and strategic partner to Senior leadership by providing strategic, technical and tactical direction and guidance on Human Resources management and organizational development while promoting innovative HR solutions with the view of overall management of the Commission’s activities, operations and strategic goals achievement;
• Develops a comprehensive Human Resource planning system for the Commission aligned with the program planning and budgeting cycles, and oversee the provision of support to other Departments’ Human Resource planning, resourcing and deployment;
• Develops and leads implementation of qualitatively enhanced performance measurement and management systems, including initiating policies to strengthen performance management, training, and reward management;
• Manages relations with the Staff Association and promote good employee relations through dialogue, consultation and continuous staff engagement on Human Resources matters.
• Coordinate diagnostic surveys, Human Resource audits, stakeholder and employee surveys as needed in order to monitor and evaluate organizational culture and climate;
• Drives innovation and change initiatives to ensure effective and efficient HR support and services and promote quality management;
• Optimizes use of ERP system for effective and efficient processing of personnel matters, providing self-service HR support, developing new HR services, conducting people’s analytics and supporting organization change.

Academic Requirements and Relevant Experience

• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business or Public Administration or Management, Law, Social Sciences or a related field with 15 years post qualification working experience of human resource management in a large organisation 7 of which should be at managerial level and 5 years at supervisory level. Experience from an international organization is an added advantage.
• Professional certification in Human Resources from a recognized institution is mandatory.
• Professional certification in project management is an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in applying management principles and practices, change management and promoting open communication and collaboration, self-development, innovation and high performance.
• Demonstrated experience in maintaining, with empathy, an appropriate balance between the organization’s needs and the welfare of staff.
• Demonstrated experience in solving people-related issues effectively.
• Demonstrated experience in delivering briefings to diverse audiences, and to conduct effective meetings with senior management, representative of staff associations, representatives of Member States and other stakeholders.

Required Skills:

• Leadership and supervisory skills
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to identify key strategic opportunities and risks
• Ability to actively seek, identify and apply appropriate technology to improve programme delivery
• Innovation and decision making skills
• Proficiency in one of the AU official working languages (French, English, Portuguese, Arabic & Spanish) and  fluency in another AU language(s) is an added advantage.

Leadership Competencies:

• Strategic Focus
• Developing Organisational Capability
• Change Leadership
• Strategic Risk Management.

Core Competencies:

• Building Partnerships
• Drives Accountability Culture
• Learning Orientation
• Communicating with impact.

Functional Competencies: