CARE Ethiopia Program

CARE started working in Ethiopia in 1984 in response to severe drought and famine that devastated the population and claimed the lives of nearly one million people. Since then, the organization’s activities have expanded to address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability.

In 2008, CARE Ethiopia’s office moved from a project-based approach to a more focused and strategic program-based approach. Over the eight years since that transition, CARE Ethiopia has implemented a series of programs with successful outcomes, while simultaneously impacting the policies and practices of government, serving as a thought leader amongst NGOs, and bringing transformative change to rural communities. These broader and deeper impacts go beyond the direct impacts of its programs and are a result of CARE Ethiopia’s overall country strategy, which enables CARE to design for scale.

CARE Ethiopia works in various sectors but has particularly targeted the following: Food Security and Resilience; WASH+; Nutrition; Dignified Work; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Humanitarian Response as cross-cutting (focusing on the above sectors).

Job Summary

Collaborating with the leadership team of the Country Office program you will be at the forefront of defining and implementing the human capital strategy across a diverse portfolio of programs in Ethiopia. Critical to success in the role will be your ability to help infuse the vision, mission and values of CARE and create the culture that derives from these principles. Your role in ensuring a positive employee experience is key to the overall success of the Country program. Key to this will be defining and leading the organization’s approach to employee engagement in the Country.

This strategic Human Resource (HR) position requires you to understand the objectives, goals of CARE and to work with the teams to create human capital strategies that align with these objectives in Ethiopia. Capable of being a mentor and guide to your HR reports and to the wider Country Office team, you will ensure the implementation of best practice HR policies and procedures. This includes leading analysis to monitor and support work force planning. The position will also ensure uniformity of excellence in the HR function whilst accounting for diverse operating environments.

Sharing CARE’s passion for attracting women to senior leadership positions and talent development, you will identify strategies to fulfill our gender targets and create a comprehensive talent management program in Ethiopia. This later will be a wide-ranging scheme, which includes talent management, succession planning, building talent pipelines, creating career progression learning and development programs, retention strategies and all other aspects required to promote individual satisfaction, team harmony and exceptional overall performance.

Foundational to delivery of this role will be a focus on high end customer service. 

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Leadership and Direction

• As a part of the Country leadership team proactively participate in strategic discussions and planning relating to the direction and progress of the Ethiopia Program. Provide advice and counsel on all HR business processes and systems.
• Through matrix management, support the HR teams in field locations to build their capacity in all HR subjects and competencies. 
• Pro-actively ensuring consistent and correct interpretation of the HR policies and procedures in line with CARE’s policies and procedures and the Country’s civil code and labor law by:
• Regularly monitoring changes in the operational environment and regulatory framework.
• Advise management and ensure compliance through all organizational processes.
• Regularly review and update Country specific policies and procedures in line with the changes in the operational environment and regulatory framework.
• Develop and administer reward management and remuneration systems.
• Benchmark best practice with other organizations and use the information to advise management to improve CARE’s approaches to people issues and meeting its specific gender and diversity targets.
• Actively engage with peers within and beyond the operations team through formal and informal mechanisms and structures.

Recruitment and Induction

• Responsible for timely execution of the recruitment process for all positions, including capacity support to Field Offices for the same. Provide an overview of ongoing recruitments and updates as required to the  management team on progress.
• Participate in interviews as required and ensure that managers are trained in following CARE recruitment procedures.
• Analyze recruitment trends and explore and propose creative solutions to recruitment challenges.
• In coordination with line managers, ensure that all new staff have proper induction and are aware of essential organizational policies.
• Regularly update the organizational organigram in line with HR changes and monitor progress against gender and diversity targets.

 Performance Management

• Provide advise pertaining to employee grievances, disciplinary issues and other administrative problems according to CARE’s policies and procedures and consult with the legal advisor on staff court cases.
• Provide counsel to managers at key stages of the employee performance management cycle (probation, interim review and annual review). Where concerns are identified, pro- actively engage with managers to address these by collaboratively implementing quality performance improvement plans.

Talent Management and Succession Planning

• Work closely with the leadership team to ensure effective talent management mechanisms are in place.
• Ensure the program’s recruitment approaches and capacity development initiatives support CARE’s gender and diversity agenda.
• Support career development pathways within the wider CARE organization.

Employee Relations and Staff Well-being

• Lead efforts to ensure staff wellness in the workplace.
• Work closely with management to provide a conducive working environment (including enabling the staff social committee).
• Work with peers and field offices on liaison, dialogue, communication and understanding of policies.
• Lead negotiations and consultations with staff as required.
• Support leadership in managing investigation on Fraud and HR disciplinary process.

Prevention of Sexual Harassment Exploitation and Abuse (PSHEA) / Safeguarding.

• Ensure awareness of CARE’s PSHEA policy and procedures across the Country program.
• In collaboration with the Country PSHEA focal point and leadership team, work to shape the countries safeguarding strategy.

 Gender and Diversity

• Ensure that gender and diversity is mainstreamed through all HR and administration work.
• Provide strategic oversight and guidance to CARE’s female internship program.
• Acts as one of the custodians of the gender and diversity action plan, taking forward actions to change CARE’s organizational culture, initiating practical steps to improve the recruitment, retention and transform the organizational attitude furthering women within CARE Ethiopia.

Job Requirements

Possess a post graduate qualification in social science (minimum required is a Bachelor’s Degree but a Master’s Degree is preferred).

Experience and Competencies Required

• A minimum of eight (8) years professional experience; three (3) of these must have been in senior management roles
• Prior experience of working across diverse entities or subsidiaries is a distinct advantage but as a minimum, each candidate must be able to demonstrate strong HR leadership in sizeable companies or divisions
• An excellent bilingual communicator, written and spoken, in Amharic and English
• Deep understanding of Ethiopian labor laws, standards and legal requirements
• Strong and charismatic individual with solid experience of working for and leading the HR function in significant organizations
• Superb management skills: able to manage and motivate a wide variety of employees from diverse backgrounds in a professional and compelling manner
• Respect and understanding for local culture and values whilst embracing and working within international work ethics and standards
• Problem solving and creative thinking skills
• Self-assured, internally motivated and passionate individual with outstanding communication skills driven to succeed and make a difference
• Must possess high levels of integrity, resilience, accountability, commitment and determination
• Data-driven in decision-making.

CARE Ethiopia is committed to preventing all unwanted behavior at work. This includes sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, and child abuse. We expect everyone who works for us to share this commitment by understanding and working within the CARE Safeguarding Policy and related framework. CARE Ethiopia has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or child by any of our staff, representatives or partners.

CARE Ethiopia reserves the right to seek information from job applicants’ current and/or previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer.

By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that s/he has no objection to CARE Ethiopia requesting the information specified above. All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.

How to Apply

If you are interested to be part of our dynamic team, exciting work environment and contribute to CARE Ethiopia’s mission and vision, please send your CV (not more than 3 pages) and cover letter (not more than one page) through CLICK HERE

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Passionate and dedicated candidates who meet the requirement are strongly encouraged to apply, especially women. CARE seeks to improve the lives of the most marginalized, particularly women and girls. Our diversity is our strength. We encourage people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply.