Associate, People & Culture (Hybrid)

Role Purpose

• Sahel's competitive advantage rests on the calibre of its people and the discipline of the systems that support them.
• The People & Culture Associate converts that ambition into daily execution, running recruitment, onboarding, capacity development and HR data processes so consistently that managers can focus on delivery, employees experience Sahel as a place worth staying, and leadership makes people decisions on evidence rather than instinct.
• This is a build role, not a maintenance role.
• The Associate will help establish the processes, data and content that the firm intends to offer to clients as a commercial HR advisory service.

Strategic Context
The role sits within a People & Culture function pursuing three objectives:

• Culture — a high-performing, inclusive and values-driven workplace across Africa.
• Talent — attracting, developing and retaining top talent across the continent.
• Commercial expansion — extending Sahel's people capability into an external HR consulting service line. Every responsibility set out below is written against one of these objectives.

Key Responsibilities
Objective 1- Culture, Capability, Systems and Compliance (approx. 50%) Work environment:

• Coordinate engagement activities, onboarding experiences, recognition cycles and internal communications that make Sahel's values observable in daily behaviour, not merely stated in documents.
• Administer engagement and pulse surveys; clean, code and summarize results into findings managers can act on within the same quarter.
• Serve as first-line contact for employee queries, resolving routine matters within 48 hours and escalating pattern issues early. Capacity development
• Maintain the annual learning calendar; coordinate logistics, facilitators, materials, attendance and post training evaluation.
• Track completion and assessment data against individual development plans, flagging capability gaps that threaten project delivery.
• Curate a searchable internal knowledge library of templates, playbooks and session recordings. HR technology and analytics Compliance and audit rating
• Own data integrity in the HRIS: employee records, leave, movements, documentation and organization charts.
• Produce the monthly people dashboard on headcount, attrition, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, training hours, gender and diversity ratios, with a short written interpretation, not numbers alone.
• Identify manual processes suitable for automation and support implementation and user testing.
• Maintain audit-ready personnel files, contracts, statutory registers and policy acknowledgments.
• Support statutory compliance across Nigerian labour law, pensions, PAYE, NSITF and ITF obligations, and applicable requirements in other operating countries.
• Prepare documentation for internal, donor and external audits, and track remediation actions through to closure.

Objective 2 — Talent Acquisition, Workforce Planning and Performance (approx. 30%):

• Run end-to-end recruitment coordination: role advertisement, sourcing, screening, assessment scheduling, interview logistics, reference checks and offer documentation.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of pre-qualified African talent across core disciplines, reducing dependence on reactive hiring.
• Deliver a structured onboarding journey that moves new hires to productive contribution within 90 days.
• Support workforce planning by maintaining accurate establishment data, contract end dates, project resourcing needs and succession risk flags.
• Administer the performance management cycle: goal-setting, mid-year and annual reviews, calibration logistics, documentation and follow-through on development actions.
• Coordinate offboarding and exit interviews; analyse reasons for leaving and report themes quarterly.

Objective 3 — HR Consulting Service Line (approx. 20%):

• Support client engagements through research, benchmarking, data collection, survey administration and analysis.
• Draft sections of client deliverables: policy handbooks, organization design documentation, competency frameworks and training content, to a standard that requires minimal rework.
• Maintain the consulting knowledge base: case studies, tools, credentials and reusable templates. • Coordinate engagement logistics, timelines and client communication under the direction of the Assistant Manager.

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Psychology, Business Administration, Social Sciences or a related field.
• 2–4 years of HR experience, including at least one year of hands-on recruitment or HR operations.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Nigerian labour law and statutory obligations.
• Strong Excel or Google Sheets capability; comfortable working with people data.
• Excellent written English; able to produce clean, structured documents without heavy editing.

Preferred:

• CIPM student membership, or progress toward CIPD or SHRM certification.
• Experience in consulting, advisory, development or multi-country environments.
• Exposure to HRIS platforms and workflow automation tools.
• Working knowledge of French or another African working language.

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary: competitive
• Performance bonus: annual, tied to individual and organisational performance.
• Statutory entitlements: pension, employee compensation scheme and all applicable statutory contributions.
• Health: comprehensive HMO cover for the employee, spouse and up to 4 biological children
• Leave: 21 days annual leave, plus parental, compassionate and examination leave.
• Development: funded professional certification and an annual learning allowance in line with the Capacity Development Policy.
• Work model: hybrid, Abuja-based, with flexible working arrangements.
• Exposure: pan-African project work and direct engagement with senior leadership.

Application Closing Date
17th September, 2026.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and a one-page cover letter addressing a single question: what people system have you built or improved, and what changed as a result? to: using the job title as the subject of ther email.

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