Imagine your next career opportunity

Officer, People Operations

Bridge International Academies

Bridge International Academies

People & HR, Operations
Nairobi, Kenya
Posted on Jul 2, 2024

Bridge Kenya

Bridge Kenya is a community school programme that partners with parents, communities and teachers to provide a life-changing education and gateway to success.

Bridge Kenya transforms lives and opens the door to a successful future for its pupils. Together with its teachers, school leaders, families and communities, it creates schools that deliver academic excellence, build the essential skills for success, and provide a caring, nurturing community that supports growth.

In 2009, Bridge Kenya opened its first school in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga. Since then we have iterated and innovated, building a transformative community school programme that is data-driven and evidence-based and accountable to families. We have re-engineered every part of the education system, from teacher training and support, to lesson delivery and design, construction, and administration; making community schools as effective and transparent as possible. Our success in Kenya has enabled us to create other community school programmes in Africa and beyond.

Since 2015, Bridge Kenya’s national (KCPE) exam results have continued to prove academic excellence, significantly outperforming national averages. Every year, tens of pupils from some of the most underserved communities in the country score 400+ in their KCPE with 1000s’ more scoring over 300 marks. Our Community school graduates have gone to top secondary schools and universities; both within Kenya and the US. These graduates continue to excel in various top national secondary schools in Kenya including Maranda High, Starehe Boys, Alliance Girls, Pangani Girls and MPESA Foundation. In addition, some of our first cohort of pupils are now in top universities including University of Nairobi, Kenya and Amherst College in the US.

Outside of the classroom, our pupils participate in extracurricular activities such as debates and sports to help them build confidence, teamwork skills and independence. They continue to prove their co-curricular prowess – with schools competing at the national level co-curricular competitions every year and participating in East Africa regional competitions.

We are not just a community school programme, every day we work to transform lives. We are nurturing children holistically, by empowering teachers and teaching pupils to be disciplined and confident using positive behavioural techniques and approaches. These traits empower pupils to lead and a successful future long after they graduate.

Our community school programme has a long legacy of success and has opened the door to opportunities that many of our pupils and their families could never have imagined.

A quality education has the power to transform the opportunities for Kenya’s children. In joining us, you will join a group of dynamic and passionate Kenyans taking concrete action to help ensure a better future for the children of Kenya.

People

Our people are at the core of what we do, and supporting a diverse workforce that spans many industries, and many cultures, while at the same time keeping everyone aligned to our mission and mandate takes focus and determination. We work at massive scale. We are responsible for ensuring we support each team member to succeed, aligned to business goals and constraints. We are responsible for our human capital, including but not limited to all aspects of people operations including payroll, compensation and benefits; administration of all offices and support functions; and employee engagement. We are data-driven, and leverage technology to make both informed and efficient decisions and work processes. We are the champions of our values. We value continuous learning and extensive collaboration, and have a strong focus on performance. We are evidence-based, outcomes driven and lead through service.

People Operations

People Operations manages each employee's life cycle with us, with a focus on contracting, benefits, compensation, payroll, and date-driven performance management. We are the first point of contact on most issues for our team members, ensuring our policies support and encourage a strong and effective team. Working across hundreds to thousands of employees, we work at scale, with large amounts of data, leveraging technology to improve employee systems and support.

About the Role

The People Operations Team is responsible for all the touchpoints of managing the employee lifecycle, including but not limited to offer letters, contracts, benefits, performance management tools, and employee off-boarding with both local laws and company policies. People Operations uses data from employee lifecycle management to improve employee management and effectiveness, ensuring all components of the People Group are using data to drive decision-making. Effective programming within People Operations ensures that employees are seamlessly supported through their employment touchpoints, and that core employment structures and compensation strategies are used effectively to attract and retain high performing employees within the constraints of business operations.

The Officer, People Operations is responsible for supporting specific administrative, operational and quantitative tasks that contribute to attaining the above objectives of the People Operations Team. This role will report to the Manager, People Operations.

What You Will Do

  • Separations Process: lead and "quarterback" separations processes, including department, asset, and financial handovers - involves IT, Admin, and Payroll Accountant
  • Onboarding Process: lead and "quarterback" teams from IT, Admin, etc. in ensuring that staff are successfully onboarded
  • Payroll Verification: work with the Payroll Accountant to ensure that all contractors and employees are properly represented with the right deductions/additions, if any. Generate monthly report for managers on headcount
  • Staff Benefits: supporting staff with questions about health coverage, managing additions to coverage, dealing with other health coverage issues
  • Asset Management: ensure that all staff have the assets they need; deal with asset recovery processes and exchanges/one-off needs. Heavy interfacing with IT and Admin
  • Leave Management: assist employees with leave, and generate monthly reports for managers on leave balances
  • Disciplinary Procedures: work with the Manager, People Operations and Director, People as needed on managing these procedures
  • Staff Documentation: ensuring that offer letters, contracts, probation confirmations, and change of status documents are appropriately handled

What You Should Have

  • Bachelor's degree from a reputable university.
  • Minimum 2 years of full-time work experience after graduation from your undergraduate degree.
  • Strong adherence to systems and processes.
  • Experience working with a culturally and socioeconomically diverse workforce.
  • Excellent email, Excel /spreadsheet, MS Word/word processing skills ; technologically competent/quick learner.
  • Work experience in fast-growth, rapid-scale contexts, particularly with large numbers of field staff.
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
  • High energy and enthusiasm level; willingness to do whatever necessary to get the job done.
  • Experience in a challenging, dynamic and complex business environment.

You’re also

  • A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
  • A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
  • A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
  • A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
  • A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
  • A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.

#LI-SM2

#LI-ONSITE