Position Overview
Educate! is seeking a people and systems-oriented HR Coordinator to take on the Human Resources function in our Kenya Country Office supporting a new Out of School Youth Program. We are looking for someone flexible, driven, knowledgeable, passionate, and eager to learn more about all facets of HR and talent, to take on a full range of HR responsibilities including recruiting, on-boarding, payroll and benefits administration, compliance, culture and engagement, and more.
Educate! is growing fast and with this growth we are looking for individuals excited to work and grow in an entrepreneurial, fast paced environment. As a member of the HR department, you will work in a high-performance culture with a motivated and supportive team of talented individuals, including our global talent team. This is a unique opportunity for the right person to help build the HR function in our Kenya office as part of a team that makes recruiting and talent development a top priority.
About Educate!
Educate! prepares youth in Africa with the skills to succeed in today’s economy. We tackle youth unemployment by partnering with schools and governments to reform what schools teach and how they teach it, so that students in Africa have the skills to start businesses, get jobs and drive development in their communities. Our model is delivered through practically-trained teachers and youth mentors. Educate!’s goal is to make this practical, skills-based model part of national education systems.
In 2019, we partnered with the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya and measurably impacted over 46,000 youth in and out of schools while reaching 470,000 learners more broadly, making us the biggest youth skills providers in East Africa. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve pivoted to create and deploy a distance learning model based on our proven in-school experience (leveraging radio, sms and phone and in-person intensive mentorship), and reached over 100,000 students by October 2020.
Educate! is a non-profit social enterprise with a team spread across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and the US. We have received various recognition for our impact, including from the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative, and by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator.
Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.
Performance Objectives
Recruiting, Onboarding, Compensation and Contracting
Source and recruit high performers to build our growing team in Kenya.
Run a structured and efficient interview process to select top candidates, ensuring a seamless experience for both hiring managers and candidates.
Build on and represent Educate!’s brand in the Kenya talent market.
Negotiate and finalize offers with new hires.
Draw up and maintain employee contracts, including ensuring that contracts meet Kenyan legal and regulatory standards.
Run a welcoming, high-quality orientation and onboarding experience to ensure that new staff are well prepared for their roles, understand the organization, and are engaged from the beginning.
Manage and negotiate contract renewals and promotions.
Communicate compensation philosophy to team and conduct market research to regularly update salary scale .
HR Administration and Reporting
Secure, track, and/or administer employee benefits including insurance and annual leave.
Secure and maintain work authorization for foreign employees as needed.
Work together with Finance & Operations Coordinator to administer payroll efficiently and accurately.
Maintain employee personnel files.
Compile monthly HR report concerning staff, contractors, and volunteers.
Culture, Engagement and Performance Management
Run performance management and goal-setting and reporting systems for staff, focused on strong individual growth.
Ensure that the entire team understands and lives Educate!’s culture, including fostering open and strong relationships within the team.
Establish an environment of open and honest communication and high engagement among Educate! staff in Kenya.
Manage performance and disciplinary challenges, including administering disciplinary procedures and performance improvement plans when necessary.
Policies, Procedures and Compliance
Propose, write, and revise and write HR policies as needed and ensure staff know, understand and abide by these.
Lead creation of training manuals, HR manual and employee handbook, drawing from our manuals in other countries and with support from our Regional Operations and Finance Director.
Ensure that all policies and procedures are in compliance with the employment law, engaging the services of lawyers where necessary.
Have knowledge and mastery of the Employment Act and other legal instruments for reference purposes and to inform policy.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in human resources or a related subject.
At least 2-3 years of professional experience, with at least some exposure to human resources administration or a related area.
Some experience working in a startup or social enterprise environment strongly preferred.
Passion for recruiting and developing top talent.
Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here.
Terms
- Compensation will be competitive for the social enterprise sector and commensurate with experience.
Benefits include a generous vacation policy and medical insurance.
This position will be based in our office in Nairobi.
Why You Will Brag About Working At Educate!
- We’ve got the impact.
Educate! is designed for scale. We quadrupled operations in 2014, going from 54 to more than 200 schools served. We carefully measure our outcomes, and — here’s the best part — we are maintaining quality at four times the size.
We believe in local leadership — 96% of our staff is African.
Our model has gone nationwide in Uganda — Educate!’s model is now incorporated into the national curriculum and exams, impacting many thousands more students than we can reach directly.
Educate is a well-oiled learning machine. We built our model by methodically testing hundreds of assumptions and we are constantly experimenting, evaluating, and improving.
We’re honored that luminaries and leaders like Oliver Wonekha, the Ugandan Ambassador to the US, and Ann Veneman, a former Secretary of Agriculture and head of Unicef, believe in us enough to have joined our advisory board.
What Is Educate! About?
We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.
We Put Youth First - The youth we serve come first. Always. In everything. That means we wake up thinking of ways we can serve youth even better and get the highest impact out of every dollar that we spend. It means Educate! doesn’t own a single vehicle, because we’d rather take the bus if it means one more student can participate. It means making every decision like the future depends on it — because if we get our way, it does.
We Are Always Learning - When you work at Educate!, educating yourself is part of your job too. We encourage every employee to find the best book on management; share the latest article on graphic design; bring in your favorite college mentor; or meet the researcher pushing the edge of the field. We are always thirsty for knowledge and love to share.
We Only Solve a Problem Once - We are allergic to band-aids so we love the person who brings the new system to solve the problem for good, even problems we haven’t recognized yet.
We Are Flexible - We thrive on change — we’re driving it. We are growing every day, so we have to adapt quickly to meet new challenges, and our team keeps up.
We Exceed Expectations - We assume we can achieve the impossible because we already have, year after year. We want our staff to create your own challenges, ask the toughest questions, and dream scary big!
Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.
Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.
Educate! is seeking a people and systems-oriented HR Coordinator to take on the Human Resources function in our Kenya Country Office supporting a new Out of School Youth Program.
