People Partner: International at Absa in South Africa

People Partner: International
Location: Sandton
Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together…one story at a time.
With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.
Job Summary
Serve as a strategic, proactive and transformational partner to business leaders and Human Capital (“HC”) People Leads, enabling sustainable business performance through people. The HC Business Partner anticipates stakeholder needs, interprets business and workforce data, and applies consulting capability to shape forward-looking, business-specific people solutions. As the primary interface between the business unit and the HC function, the role connects enterprise HC strategy, Centres of Excellence (CoEs), HC Shared Services and digital platforms across the full HC value chain. The role identifies and escalates emerging people risks early, mobilises the right HC capabilities, and delivers integrated solutions with speed, quality, accountability and professionalism. This role will support the following jurisdictions: United Kingdom, United States of America, United Arab Emirates and China as well as any future markets based outside South Africa and Africa Regions, in line with ABSA’s strategic objectives.
The role will report to the People Lead: CIB Africa Regions & International.

Key focus areas:
• Shape and proactively enable the people plan by translating business priorities, commercial context and workforce insights into targeted people interventions
• Act as the trusted face of HC to business leaders, HC Leads and people managers, using consulting capability to anticipate needs and provide context-specific advice on people strategy, policies and programmes
• Provide forward-looking coaching and guidance on organisational effectiveness, performance, talent, change, employee relations and workforce risks, including early identification and escalation of material concerns
• Orchestrate cyclical HC processes as an integrated value chain for the defined client group, ensuring that performance, pay, talent and workforce decisions collectively strengthen business outcomes
• Interpret people, talent and business data to identify trends, risks, capability gaps and opportunities, and translate these into clear insights and action with the relevant CoEs
• Lead complex, non-standard ER case management with sound judgement, pace, professionalism and appropriate risk escalation
• Anticipate the priorities and pressures on HC Leads and position practical support upfront, including stakeholder plans, leader toolkits, communication design and implementation readiness
• Lead and continuously localise CoE-initiated HC solutions and transformational interventions, ensuring business relevance, adoption, measurable value and a high-quality stakeholder experience.

Keq requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Industrial Psychology or a related discipline (Master's or relevant postgraduate qualification preferred).
• 5-10 years of progressive HC experience, including strategic partnering, consulting, transformation, data interpretation and complex stakeholder advisory responsibilities.
• Experience working across multiple geographic locations is a key requirement of the role
• Deep expertise and experience managing global mobility and immigration related knowledge is a critical success factor

Core Competencies
Technical
• Strategic workforce planning, organisational design and capability shaping
• People analytics, data interpretation, insight generation and technology enablement
• Talent, performance, succession and reward value-chain integration
• Employee relations, people risk assessment and early risk escalation
• Consulting, change leadership, transformation and end-to-end solution design
Behavioural
• Commercial acumen and deliberate focus on business performance
• Trusted stakeholder engagement, strategic influence and needs anticipation
• Accountability, professionalism and sound judgement
• Proactive, analytical and insight-led problem-solving
• Speed, quality, agility and disciplined delivery
• Detail orientation and strong attention to detail
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholders and navigate cultural nuances
Job Description
1. Strategic HC Partnership
Act as a trusted strategic advisor and consultant to business leaders and HC Leads, building credible stakeholder relationships and anticipating needs before they become delivery risks.
Apply commercial acumen to connect business strategy, operating performance and workforce implications, ensuring that HC priorities and investment choices contribute to sustainable business performance.
Integrate employee advocacy, inclusion, culture and well-being into business solutions, while maintaining clear accountability, professional judgement and enterprise alignment.
2. Talent, Capability, and Workforce Planning
Shape future-fit workforce, talent and capability plans that respond to business strategy, scenario requirements, organisational design and emerging skills needs.
Interpret talent, skills and workforce data to surface material trends, gaps and opportunities, and convert insight into proactive, prioritised action with the Talent CoE and business leaders.
Position performance, talent, succession and pay processes as connected decision points within the HC value chain, enabling fair, transparent and commercially relevant outcomes.
3. Change and Transformation Leadership
Lead the people dimension of business transformation by diagnosing stakeholder needs, shaping the change approach and enabling leaders to embed new capabilities, behaviours and ways of working.
Translate enterprise and CoE solutions into business-relevant interventions, proactively designing communication, leader enablement, stakeholder engagement and adoption support before implementation.
Challenge transactional or fragmented approaches, simplify the end-to-end HC experience and drive continuous improvement with urgency, disciplined execution and measurable impact.
4. Data-Driven Insight and Technology Enablement
Use workforce analytics, business data, dashboards and digital tools to identify patterns, test assumptions, anticipate needs and provide actionable insights that improve business and people outcomes.
Connect CoEs, HC Shared Services and technology teams across the HC value chain to resolve root causes, streamline delivery, improve employee experience and scale effective solutions.
Translate complex data into clear people narratives, options and recommendations for senior stakeholders, enabling timely, evidence-based decisions and proactive intervention.
5. Employee Relations, Risk, and Compliance
Identify, assess and escalate emerging people, conduct, labour and organisational risks early, ensuring that material issues receive timely attention and coordinated action.
Lead complex, non-standard employee relations and performance matters, coaching leaders to act fairly, decisively and consistently while balancing legal, ethical, employee and commercial considerations.
Apply labour law, organisational policy and governance requirements with sound judgement, maintaining accurate delivery, accountability, confidentiality, professionalism and high standards of quality.
Education
Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Human and Social Studies (Required)
Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.
Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised