Senior Human Resources Manager

Job description

Role: Senior Human Resources Manager

Position overview

Function: Group Human Resources

Role title: Senior Human Resources Manager, OASA

Reports to: Group human Resources Director

Direct reports: 1 (HR business partner/s, potentially 1x intern)

Location: 3 Sandown Valley Crescent

Context and strategic importance:

This role is custodian of TBWA's people and culture agenda, responsible for creating a differentiated, authentic employee experience that reflects the collective's brand, values, and Innovation mandate. Leading culture and EVP transformation, organisational
effectiveness initiatives, employee relations, and embedded HR partnering, this role bridges corporate HR strategy with agency-level employee experience delivery, ensuring culture is both collective-aligned and locally optimized.


 


 

Primary Accountabilities

Culture and engagement leadership:

• Co-own agency culture strategy aligned to innovation and “Inclusive by Design” mandate and DEIB imperatives; facilitate definition of "Collective culture" principles while enabling agency autonomy.
• Lead culture assessment, diagnosis, and transformation initiatives addressing identified gaps (leadership accessibility, DEI, psychological safety, innovation culture).
• Operationalize signature EX framework; ensure consistent, differentiated experience across collective while respecting agency distinctiveness.
• Drive the “Inclusive by Design” DEIB and EE initiatives as culture and competitive advantage differentiator; create belonging for all talent.
• Partnership with Employment Equity committees to drive development and attainment of annual numerical goals and systematically address barriers through implementation of relevant initiatives in line with 2030 objectives.
• Lead culture change communications and narrative; inspire adoption of new cultural norms and behaviours.
• Support the GHRD in building and sustaining a high-performing HR functional culture; model coaching, psychological safety, diversity.

Employee experience and relations:

• Partner with senior managers on day-to-day employee relations, ensuring consistent, fair, and supportive approach to employee issues.
• Create visibility of and ensure compliance with employee relations policies, guidelines, and processes (performance management, conduct, grievance, wellness) aligned to labour law and business needs.
• Coach people and culture partners on difficult employee relations conversations; maintain consistency in decision-making.
• Manage escalated employee relations cases, represent HR in disciplinary/grievance proceedings as required.
• Oversee wellness and mental health initiatives, build psychological safety culture, support manager wellbeing.

Fair compensation, benefits and rewards:

• Partner with the group HRD, selected external partners and executive leadership on job
• OD and job evaluation required to conduct salary benchmarking, pay equity, and reward strategy.
• Lead strategic workforce planning discussions and WW Hiring approval process in collaboration with finance leads and payroll.
• Own compensation positioning and recommendations (market competitiveness, internal equity, talent retention risk).
• Oversee benefits administration activities in collaboration with HR operations, to ensure proactive visibility of benefits and optimal utilisation; ensure benefits are competitive, relevant, and well-communicated.
• Collaborate with HR operations for case management relating to Incapacity, medical boarding, and EWP referrals.
• Lead reward and recognition strategy aligned to culture and engagement drivers.
• Manage annual compensation review process in collaboration with Finance and payroll and HR; track compensation ratios and other relevant metrics.

Embedded HR partnership model management:

• Manage people and culture partner role accountabilities, success measures, and partnership expectations.
• Develop and deliver people and culture partner training and coaching, build capability for strategic partnering.
• Conduct monthly/quarterly business reviews with agency leaders and people and culture partners on people metrics, talent status, culture health.
• Ensure consistent application of HR policies, processes, and best practices across agencies.
• Escalation point for strategic people issues; provide guidance to agency leaders on people strategies.

Strategic contributions:

• Partner with Group HR Director on People & Culture strategy, operating model, and organisational effectiveness initiatives.
• Contribute to succession planning and leadership development for senior leadership roles.
• Represent People & Culture function in executive leadership discussions; provide talent/culture risk briefings to CEOs.
• Track and report on people-related business metrics: retention, engagement, DEI, manager effectiveness, culture health.
• Lead the preparation for Bi-annual Manco Talent ExCo dialogue, including but not limited to implementation of talent audits, performance and potential assessments, development and maintenance of talent slates and analysis of data with recommendations for succession planning and capability investment decisions.
• Drive the execution of all agency -related talent outcomes and actions from the Manco Talent
• Dialogues.

Experience and qualifications requirements

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in human resources, organisational psychology, business administration, or related field (minimum).
• Advanced qualification preferred: MBA, MSc in organisational development, or professional HR certification (CIPD, SABPP).

Professional experience:

• Minimum 10-12 years' HR experience, with at least 5-7 years in Human Resources
• Management, employee relations, or strategic HR roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading culture transformation or organisational development initiatives.
• Experience managing people and budgets (typically 3+ direct reports; budgets ZAR 1M+).
• Demonstrated expertise in employee relations, labour law compliance, and people management i.e. initiating disciplinary cases and CCMA representation for arbitrations.
• Experience in matrix or multi-location organisational environments preferred.
• Familiarity with global or multi-agency operating models preferred.
• Experience in professional services, advertising, media, or creative industries strongly preferred.

Desirable experience:

• Experience with culture assessment and transformation frameworks.
• Exposure to compensation and benefits strategy.
• Experience leading D,E,I,B transformation initiatives in a South African context.
• Experience with engagement measurement and action planning.
• People manager coaching or mentoring experience.

Success measures and KPIs

• Culture and engagement: Improve overall engagement score (e.g. Gallup Q12 or selected survey) by 5+ points every 12 months; reduce engagement variance across agencies to <5 points; increase culture health assessment scores by 15%+ within 18 months.
• Talent retention: Reduce voluntary attrition in target talent segments (high-performers, high-potential, emerging leaders) by 15-20% within 18 months; reduce exit interview mentions of culture/environment concerns by 25%+.
• DEIB progress: Achieve BEE transformation milestones; demonstrate progress on gender balance in leadership (target: 40%+ Black women in management by 2027); improve diverse talent retention by 10-15%; increase psychological safety scores by 15%+.
• People and culture partner effectiveness: 360° feedback with HR team; shows improvement in strategic partnering capability; engagement scores on "HR support" improve by 2+ points; Executive satisfaction with People & Culture partner support >4/5.
• Employee relations consistency: Maintain <2% complaint/grievance/legal exposure ratio; zero material legal outcomes; consistent application of policies across agencies (audit confirmation).
• Compensation competitiveness: Maintain compensation positioning at market percentile TBD, influence attainment of target 54% compensation ratio for agencies; reduce voluntary attrition due to pay.
• Benefits satisfaction: Achieve 65%+ benefits satisfaction score; maintain >85% benefits participation rates where applicable.
• Budget management: Deliver people and culture initiatives within agreed budget; demonstrate ROI on major programmes.

Critical success factors and risks

Critical success factors:

• Strong partnership with group HR director and executive leadership alignment on culture
• agenda.
• Authenticity and credibility with employees, ability to build trust and psychological safety.
• Genuine commitment to DEIB, not performative but systemic change orientation.
• Capability to navigate complex organisational politics while maintaining integrity.
• Deep understanding of advertising/creative industry culture dynamics and talent
• expectations.
• Strong coaching and development skills for HR partner capability building.

Key risks to mitigate:

• Culture transformation seen as "HR initiative" rather than business imperative secure executive sponsorship; link to business outcomes; MD visibility on culture.
• DEIB fatigue or backlash → sustained communication on business case; employee voice integration; demonstrate progress; address concerns respectfully.
• People and culture partners not operating as strategic partners → clear role definition; capability development; manager coaching; accountability. Disengagement despite culture initiatives → deeper root cause analysis; ensure initiatives address real concerns; employee listening; adapt approach.
• Compensation strategy creating retention risk or equity concerns → regular benchmarking, transparent communication on philosophy, pay equity audit, address concerns.

Posted on 09 Mar 12:06, Closing date 4 Apr