Talent Researcher and Employer Branding Specialist at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• Provide specialist advice and support in positioning Absa as a top employer of choice to the external tech market. Work closely with the Talent Acquisition team to identify branding challenges and key differentiators that will re-define how candidates experience the Absa brand. Advise and support in the creation of content that conveys the company’s culture, employee experience, and employee value proposition (EVP). Create and drive the implementation of innovative and competitive employer brand strategies on digital platforms that promote awareness of Absa as a top tech employer.

Job Description

• Stakeholder Management
  • Build relationships with and gain an understanding of what drives the business by engaging effectively with business stakeholders and internal business partners (i.e., Reward, Talent Acquisition, Group Transformation, Candidates, internal clients, and internal and external vendors/suppliers) to inform the content and development of employer branding strategies.
  • Liaise with Tech Stakeholders across Absa Africa in order to gain a comprehensive view of their core business, strategic objectives, EVP, employee experience, and culture, and use this understanding to inform employer brand strategies.
• Employer Brand Strategy
  • Be a subject matter expert in employer branding by providing guidance on best practices, latest research, market trends and benchmarks to ensure competitive strategies are adopted.  
  • Partner with Talent Acquisition and the Absa Brand team to optimize our digital portfolio. Develop innovative digital-, social- and traditional media initiatives targeting both active and passive diverse tech talent. This includes but is not limited to the development of the messaging, content, positioning and communication of the initiative.
  • Assist in the innovation, planning, execution and management of employer branding campaigns, events, and recruitment channels for tech talent to increase tech talent engagement.
• Brand Custodian and Support
  • Manage the integrity of the brand by overseeing Absa’s social media and online presence used to promote employer branding. Ensure the presence is effective in attracting talent, building candidate pipelines, and is aligned to the organisation’s overall strategy.
  • Define and implement measurements of success to assess the impact/ROI of employer branding strategies. Implement a system to review the results of these measurements and provide recommendations accordingly.
  • Be a brand ambassador and personally embody the Absa Tech EVP.

Qualifications / Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Commerce and Management Studies / Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing / Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources
• 5-8 years of Employer Branding and/or Talent Acquisition experience preferred  
• Social media and online channel knowledge and experience
• Technology industry knowledge and experience

Competencies

• Creative and innovative thinking
• Digital affinity
• Effective communication – advanced 
• Marketing management
• Leading change
• Enabling team success
• Relationship building 

Talent Acquisition and Selection:

• Define and ensure implementation of innovative sourcing strategies that will enable the establishment of a diverse pool of talent geared to meet the evolving needs of the Cluster Workforce Plan.
• Proactively explore all available channels and processes to build diverse pools of talent
• Develop and drive a cost saving resourcing strategy for the Cluster and proactively explore solutions which will decrease the dependency on external resourcing partners by implementing creative direct to market talent capturing solutions; i.e. Headhunting, Talent Mapping, establishing candidate data base, advertising on web based job search sites, researching competitors, building industry networks, attending industry Specific events and fairs, partnering with Government Labour Agencies, tapping into Global networks etc.
• Manage the delivery of search strategies designed to recruit senior and niche candidates.
• Partner with Group Talent to deliver an increased capability for internal mobility by ensuring that internal Candidates are considered before moving to external sourcing solutions.
• Engage in recruitment for senior level positions for the relevant Cluster’s Participate in interviews on request for key roles.
• Ensure that the recruitment and selection of senior leaders takes place according to policy and governance.
• Assess candidates to ensure cultural fit for the Group, values alignment, long term potential, and technical fit for roles, setting realistic role expectations before presenting candidates to Business.
• Advise hiring managers on which candidates to progress to the next stage, ensuring the right recruitment decisions are made, challenging the business’ recommendations as required
• Work with Cluster head to compile high Remuneration package offers and buy-outs.
• Assisting in the negotiation of release dates and backfill requirements where applicable.
• Ensure timely on-boarding of senior hires and adherence to on boarding policies and procedures.
• Identification of critical senior vacancies – build proactive pipelines Agree transformation plans with the Cluster seniors including targets and timelines.
• Drive the Group’s transformation agenda. Together with HR Head, identify key senior roles for succession planning in the portfolios

Stakeholder Management:

• Liaise with BU Stakeholders in order to gain a comprehensive view of their Core Business, Strategic Objectives Employee Value Proposition and Culture.
• This understanding and interaction will drive the Placement of the right candidate, with the right skill and the ability to thrive in the relevant environment.
• Provide regular feedback to Cluster Resourcing Head, Cluster Head and BU Leaders on Resourcing Strategy deliverables and status (Scorecard). Define, socialise and agree SLAs with BU's and HR Head’s against which all parties’ performance will be driven.
• Build a Resourcing scorecard for the Business Unit by which these metrics can be presented and managed through discussions at the BUs Management Forums.
• Ensure effective interaction with, and responses to candidates, building sustainable relationships, setting and managing expectations clearly, identifying and resolving the root cause of any issues and escalating as required.
• Drive level of excellence within the Resourcing Team.

People Management:

• Oversee the activities of the Cluster Resourcing Team to ensure effective delivery of the agreed Workforce Plan, Talent Acquisition Strategies and Recruitment Governance and process
• Develop a high performing team by embedding formal performance development and informal coaching.
• Encourage frequent knowledge sharing between team members.
• Determine and analyse development needs for the team and ensure that identified training requirements are budgeted for and executed.
• Establish and maintain a succession plan for the team. Interview and recruit new members of the team, including determining appropriate compensation levels with input from HR for HR.
• Create effective Workforce Plans and Recruitment demand plans for the Cluster Resourcing team to ensure that current and future business requirements can be met.
• Plans should be revised at least twice a year.
• Review and update the Cluster Resourcing department’s organisation structure and role profiles on at least an annual basis to ensure that they are fit for purpose and contain all the accountabilities of each team member.
• Motivate to and obtain approval from the Resourcing Head for any additional headcount for the team.
• Approve leave requests for team members and create leave plans to ensure adequate coverage.
• When required, initiate disciplinary processes for team members calling on support from Human Resources when required.
• Resolve grievances raised by team members and escalate only if required
• Address poor performance of any team member through the formal Performance Accelerator programme and ensure that continued poor performance is appropriately dealt with.
• Lead and development of a people management strategy for Resourcing Ensure processes, control requirements and risk management frameworks that impact the area are documented and understood by all members of the Resourcing team.
• Motivate team members and ensure that their efforts are recognised

Business Management:

• Drive Strategic Resourcing Agenda through managing relationships with stakeholders, extended HR Community and Resourcing teams.
• Allocate duties to team members in order to achieve operational targets including prioritisation and work Schedules.
• Based on gaps identified, motivate requests to the manager for additional resources including people, budget and equipment.
• Obtain a thorough understanding of the Cluster’s strategy and explain it to team members in such a way that they understand the contribution they have to make.
• Explain targets and take accountability for the monitoring and achievement of performance objectives in the department in terms of employee satisfaction, customer experience, cost performance, return on investments, risk, compliance and governance requirements.
• Create quarterly and monthly plans to ensure delivery for the year.
• Manage departmental budgets including signing off of invoices and quotes within mandate.
• Escalate out of budgets or items higher than approved mandate to the next level manager.
• Rigorously monitor expenditure against approve budgets and put measures in place to address variances.
• Continuously identify areas for improved efficiency and reduced cost.
• Conduct basic statistical analysis to track performance variances and determine the root causes of errors.
• Make recommendations for productivity or process enhancements to process owners.
• Implement productivity improvement measures by coaching staff on any new processes or on their areas for improvement. Populate balanced scorecards for the specific department on a monthly basis.
• Work with the team to address shortcomings during the next month.
• Escalate any major issues identified to the next level manager.
• Participate in the measurement and reporting of internal and external Service Level Agreements on a monthly basis.
• Address any process failures specific to the department under management

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Human and Social Studies (Required)