As the Snr HR Manager, your job purpose is to own and drive the HR agenda across our entire footprint in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand reporting into and partnering closely with the HR Director, who holds overall people leadership for the group.
We're a lean organisation of around 55 people, so this is a genuinely hands-on, generalist role: you will be involved in the full spectrum of HR from talent acquisition, total rewards and performance management, learning and development, employee relations, and employee experience strategy and in every country we operate in, not just Southeast Asia. This role is responsible for shaping and recommending the HR strategy, and for executing it once agreed, across all markets.
You will be a key advisor to the Managing Director and the Leadership Team on people matters day to day, while formally reporting to the HR Director. You will also provide functional guidance to the Employee Experience Manager, who owns onboarding, engagement execution, office management and executive support.
From time to time, you may also be called upon to support the wider GPTW ASEAN & ANZ team as part of whole-of-team and whole-of-business activities, in line with our mission to help every place become a great place to work for all.
Critical Accountabilities
Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning
- Own end-to-end recruitment across the group including role scoping, sourcing strategy, interviewing and offer negotiation
- Partner with hiring managers and the SLT on workforce planning and headcount forecasting
- Build and maintain talent pipelines, referral and employer-brand initiatives
- Track recruitment metrics and continuously improve time-to-fill and quality of hire
- Quality of hire / retention at 6 & 12 months
- Offer-acceptance rate
- Diversity of candidate pipeline
Total Rewards & Performance Management
- Run the annual performance cycle: goal-setting, mid-year check-ins, year-end review and calibration, within the framework approved by the SLT
- Lead the remuneration review process, including market benchmarking, and put forward bonus and pay recommendations for the Senior Leader's sign-off
- Maintain a performance management framework that is applied consistently and fairly across every market we operate in
- On-time completion of review and remuneration cycles
- Pay positioning versus market benchmark
- Manager and employee satisfaction with the process
Employee Relations & People Leader Coaching
- Coach and equip people leaders in every market to run performance improvement plans and difficult performance conversations themselves, providing templates, process guidance, and calibration support
- Advise people leaders on handling employee relations issues as they arise, across Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand alike; step into direct, hands-on involvement for complex or higher-risk cases (e.g. grievances, misconduct investigations, terminations with legal exposure)
- Ensure ER process and documentation is compliant with local employment law in each market, engaging external legal/payroll partners where required
- Consult the HR Director on Australian/New Zealand landscape or precedent questions where local nuance is needed.
- Act as advisor to the SLT on people risk trends across the whole region
- Leader capability/confidence in running performance conversations and PIPs unassisted, in every market
- Quality and compliance of ER documentation group-wide
- Timely, appropriate escalation of higher-risk cases
- Reduction in cases requiring HR to step in directly over time
Learning & Development Strategy
- Develop and recommend the annual L&D strategy, calendar and budget across the whole group, for the Senior Leader's approval
- Identify capability gaps and commission or deliver relevant programs within the agreed strategy
- Support people leaders to build development plans linked to performance and PIP outcomes
- Evaluate the effectiveness of learning programs and recommend adjustments
- L&D participation and completion rate
- Capability uplift against identified gaps
- L&D budget managed to plan
Employee Experience & Engagement Strategy
- Shape and recommend the engagement strategy, including the annual Trust Index / engagement survey and resulting action plan, for the Senior Leader's approval
- Set direction for recognition, reward and culture programs within the approved strategy (day-to-day delivery sits with the Employee Experience Manager)
- Analyse engagement and exit data and advise leadership on culture interventions
- Engagement / eNPS score
- Survey participation rate
- Voluntary turnover rate
HR Strategy, Governance & Reporting
- Act as day-to-day HR business partner to the SLT in every market
- Recommend the HR policy framework across the whole group, for the Senior Leader's approval, and own local governance and compliance in each country once policy is agreed
- Report regularly to the SLT on group-wide people metrics, risks and priorities, and escalate strategic decisions to them for final call
- Manage relationships with external payroll, legal, benefits and immigration providers across all markets (currently supported in part by our EOR/payroll partner)
- Provide functional guidance and quality control to the Employee Experience Manager on people-related processes
- Policy currency and compliance across all markets
- Audit outcomes
- Stakeholder (Senior Leader/MD/leadership) satisfaction with HR partnership
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Educational Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Psychology or a related field; relevant work experience will be considered in lieu of formal qualifications.
Relevant Experience
- Minimum 5-10 years of progressive HR generalist or business partner experience, with demonstrated ownership of employee relations, performance management and remuneration cycles.
- Strong, hands-on multi-country HR experience across Southeast Asia is essential, ideally including Singapore and at least two or more of Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
- You will also run day-to-day HR delivery for our Australia and New Zealand employees. Deep ANZ employment law expertise is not required, the HR Director is available to advise on local landscape and nuance, but you should be comfortable operating in an unfamiliar jurisdiction, asking for help when needed, and building that knowledge over time. Prior exposure to Australian and/or New Zealand HR practice is an advantage, not a prerequisite.
- Comfortable operating in a lean, matrixed team in a small business (~55 employees) where you will be hands-on in every market, not just setting policy from a distance.
- Experience working in a small business or startup will be beneficial
- Based in Singapore, with willingness to travel regionally as required.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS & BEHAVIOURS
Strategic & hands-on: Able to set people strategy and also execute it directly, given the lean team structure.
Sound judgement under pressure: Resilient and measured when handling sensitive ER matters, exits and difficult conversations.
Cross-cultural fluency: Comfortable navigating differing employment norms, languages and cultural expectations across SEA and ANZ.
Influencing & coaching: Confident advising and coaching senior leaders, including the Managing Director, on people matters.
Data-driven: Uses data to inform recruitment, reward and engagement decisions and to track effectiveness.
Collaborative: Works closely with the Employee Experience Manager and the Australia-based senior leader to deliver a joined-up people agenda.