Talent Associate

About EarthEnable

EarthEnable is transforming the way people live, by making homes healthier for families across rural Rwanda. 80% of Rwandans live in homes with dirt floors which are dusty, unsanitary, and fertile breeding grounds for parasites and germs. While replacing a dirt floor with concrete has significant health benefits (e.g. reducing diarrhea by 50% and parasitic infections by 80%), concrete is unaffordable for many Rwandans who need it.

EarthEnable addresses this pressing and ubiquitous problem by selling high-quality, earthen floors that are 80% cheaper than concrete with 90% less embedded energy. Earthen floors are already prevalent in modern homes in the United States. They are composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and murram) commonly found in Rwanda. EarthEnable trains and hires local masons to install the floors which are sealed using a proprietary drying oil that makes them waterproof, strong, and polished. In our first 20 months of operations, EarthEnable has installed over 200,000 square feet of flooring and employed over 90 Rwandese staff.

About The Role

EarthEnable is committed to taking an active management approach to our team. This job is for someone that is deeply passionate about people and their professional development. This role will focus on developing the best team we can as a company, from masons, to sales reps, to interns, to senior management. The Talent Manager will work closely with the company’s founder and senior leadership to build and develop the best team possible, while ensuring their satisfaction.

The specific tasks of this role include:

• Professional Development: Creating professional development opportunities for staff, including internal and external trainings, and ensuring there are adequate active coaching structures for junior staff from senior staff.
  • Spending time with all members of the management team to assess levels of professional development required
  • Developing and revising (as needed) a competency matrix for various levels
  • Developing and delivering trainings for sales representatives, masons (e.g. on customer service), and junior management team
  • Conducting performance reviews and working with department heads to help staff members improve their performance in order to get promoted
  • Designing and implementing staff workshops and retreats; seeking external opportunities
  • Matching junior staff with senior staff mentors and facilitating mentor-mentee relationships
  • Implementing a speaker series to bring people to the office to share ideas
• Recruiting and Hiring: Actively seeking out exceptional candidates for internships and jobs, including via networking, posting jobs on lists, and seeking referrals.
  • Working with teams when they need new staff members to identify the specific need
  • Drafting job descriptions and identifying the role within the org chart with the CEO
  • Screening resumes and CVs to identify the ones to be passed on for an assessment
  • Revising and drafting new assessments that reflect daily tasks of the job
  • Conducting phone screens and first-round interviews, contacting references and conducting thorough reference checks (including tertiary reference checks), and making hiring recommendations
  • Applying for work visas and permits for international staff
  • Writing contracts for every new staff member and setting initial bonus criteria
• Termination: Working with CEO to identify cases of poor performance and administering terminations
  • Identifying cases of poor performance early and raising them to the CEO and Director of Operations
  • Developing performance plans to support employee in improving their performance, including reducing the employee’s roles and responsibilities and finding training or coaching opportunities internally or externally
  • Administering warning letters three times and tracking these letters carefully
  • Ensuring that all documents are administered at the time of termination, and that there is a plan for all outstanding loans
• Payroll and Leave:
  • Approving loan requests after consultation with CEO and direct supervisor
  • Approving and tracking leave requests after consultation with CEO (in cases of over 1 week) and direct supervisor (always)
  • Calculating bonuses and deductions monthly
  • Working with our accounting firm and Finance/Accounting Manager to calculate RSSB and PAYE contributions and ensure they are paid on time
  • Working with Finance/Accounting to make the e-transfers
• Staff Support: Keeping all team members happy, comfortable and productive
  • Preparing an onboarding guide for various processes and systems
  • Ensuring that all staff know and understand the internal rules and regulations and any changes that may be approved
  • Keeping an open door and acting as the first point of contact when staff members have interpersonal or other issues at work
    • Mediating interpersonal situations that may arise
  • Working with department managers on their staffing responsibilities
  • Keeping apprised of employment and labor laws in Rwanda (and home countries for international staff) and ensuring EarthEnable’s compliance
  • Administering salaries, payroll and benefits
• Overall Team Development: Ensuring that the EarthEnable is prepared for rapid growth.
  • Creating a plan for the growth of the staff over the next few years, including new roles and teams, based on EarthEnable’s growth plan
  • Work with the senior leadership to develop organizational strategy for team structures, hiring and succession

Qualifications

• College graduate with strong academic record
• 2 years of experience, ideally related to HR
• Passion for people finding and succeeding in their dream jobs
• Commitment to impact and strong interest in international development
• Fluency in English
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Google Docs
• Strong written and verbal communications skills
• Positive attitude, self-starter, entrepreneurial spirit, sense of humor and willingness to learn new things
• Commitment to excellence, outstanding work ethic, and attention to detail
• Resourcefulness and creative problem solving