The Role Responsibilities

The role holder is responsible for leading the HR function by providing strategic HR guidance and expertise to the Country Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Country Management Team (CMT)/ EXCO members in order to achieve business performance. The role holder will ensure the effective utilisation and development of the Bank’s human capital, maintaining effective employer-employee relations and relations with country regulatory authorities, in line with Group strategy and values. The role holder will seek to maintain high standards of professionalism and service quality with appropriate rewards / incentives on business performance. This role has supervisory responsibilities and therefore the Bank’s supervisory principles must be followed.

Strategy

• Communicate the Group’s global people strategy, priorities and objectives in a local context, providing thought leadership to the CMT in the development of a consolidated country strategy and human capital management, ensuring alignment with Group.
• Develop, review and implement an effective country plan and the country Strategic People Agenda that is aligned to long term strategic business aspirations.
• Provide recommendations to the business regarding HR policies and procedures, change management and organisational transformation initiatives in order to enable delivery of the business strategy in alignment with Group policies.

Business

• Contribute to the delivery of the business and financial agenda / objectives in the country, via alignment with the business as agreed in the country business plan.
• Contribute to the country financial performance by supporting One Bank Initiatives, resource allocation decisions, leading cost management within HR and providing advice to enable appropriate acquisitions or disposals of businesses and / or subsidiaries.

Processes

• Provide guidance and review HR processes in accordance with Group HR standards to improve service and delivery, ensuring that adequate crisis recovery contingent planning is undertaken and reviewed on a regular basis.
• Manage HR productivity, headcount and cost according to HR organisation structure and capacity model.

People & Talent

• Lead, develop and implement an effective One Bank Approach to people and talent management across the country, facilitating cross-functional development and embedding a high-performance culture that aligns to the Group’s Talent Management approach and country strategy.
• Ensure that there is sufficient current and forward-looking resourcing and high-quality succession pipelines at all levels of the country organisation, both within the HR function and across other business functions; continually seek to broaden talent pipelines by building talent pools to meet with the Group’s business aspirations.
• Support the country CEO in identifying and addressing development / performance requirements of the CMT and their team members providing advice regarding appointments and movements of CMT and their team members.
• To hire, transfer, promote, terminate, dismiss and/or discharge any employee in SCB Sri Lanka as required from time to time.
• Lead the Year-End Reviews of all direct reports, reviewing and challenging the YER distribution of the country as appropriate.
• Develop and implement a country engagement plan in order to improve and drive employee engagement in alignment to Group.
• Lead and develop ER strategy in country in order to improve capability to provide advice on labour policy issues, collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiation and union management.
• Provide leadership, management and coaching to the country HR team, ensuring professionalism, engagement, high performance, adherence to health and safety principles and the development of skills to support business growth and strategy.
• Ensure that fair accountability principles are understood and appropriately implemented in country.
• Effectively maintain networks of external contacts that enable the benchmarking of compensation practices against relevant comparator organisations and migrate best practice where appropriate.
• Develop and implement initiatives in conjunction with Group in order to strengthen our employer brand and become the ‘Employer of Choice’.
• Review and drive a quality succession plan and forward-looking resourcing plan.
• Broaden and deepen the local talent pipeline though building various talent pools to meet with business aspirations, in line with Group direction.
• Monitor on boarding induction programmes and related initiatives to reduce staff attrition.
• Continue to develop a professional HR team to support the delivery of business strategy and performance.
• Continuously reinforce health and safety working environment to all employees.
• Maintain networks of external contacts that enable the benchmarking of compensation practices against relevant comparator organisations and migrate best practice where appropriate.

Risk Management

• To undertake responsibilities under the Control Assessment Standards of the ORTF as the Risk Framework Owner for the risk sub-type(s) owned by the Group Head, HR where appropriate.
• To accept Medium residual risks as the Risk Framework Owner for risk sub-types owned by the Group Head, HR.
• To approve Root Cause Reviews as the Risk Framework Owner for risk sub-types owned by the Group Head, HR. This delegation is limited to loss events USD10m or lower, near misses/potential loss USD100m or lower, and non-financial impact rating of 3 on GRAM.
• Act as the country risk control owner, ensuring that the Group Operational Risk framework is embedded into all HR operations and practice, ensuring the maintenance of a healthy business environment through strict compliance with standards as defined by the Group as well as Local Regulatory Authorities and regularly reviewing and monitoring key risk indicators in order ensure that HR risks are controlled, mitigated, managed, and reported as necessary.
• Lead the decision-making process regarding addressing identified risks and implement effective collaboration with business stakeholders in managing these risks, challenging country risk control owners where appropriate.
• Ensure that all employee related policies, procedures and practices comply with both internal and external regulatory requirements as well as reflecting Group directions.
• As the first line Process Owner, the job holder will;
• Ensure all processes within area of responsibilities are analysed and understood, and that all material risks and potential failure points are identified, assessed, mitigated, monitored and reported as required by the Operational Risk Framework and supporting procedures, documents etc.
• Ensure applicable external laws and regulations and internal policies, procedures, limits and other risk control requirements are implemented and complied.
• Propose control enhancements to ensure that known risks are controlled within acceptable boundaries and to consistent standards. Obtain approval of the proposed controls from the required Risk Control Owner or Operational Risk Officer (2nd Line Manager)
• Ensure that appropriate key Control Indicators and Key Risk Indicators are established, approved by 2nd Line Manager, are monitored and any deviations are action upon and escalated as required.
• Ensure that all risks related to HR are properly monitored, managed and where necessary escalated to appropriate individuals and relevant committees, as well as the Regional Head, HR in accordance with the Group’s risk management framework, including driving the decision-making process for adequately addressing these risks, and ensuring adequate collaboration with the business stakeholders in managing these risks.
• Provide input into risk appetite, risk limits and risk acceptance for the country and challenge country and regional risk control owners where appropriate
• Act as the country control risk owner under the Group’s risk management for People Risk.
• Ensure all employee related policies, procedures and practices comply with both internal and external regulatory requirements as well as reflecting Group directions.

Governance

• Ensure adherence to the highest standards of regulatory conduct and compliance practices across HR in the country, as defined by internal and external requirements and in line with the Group’s values and code of conduct, implementing and maintaining robust structures to support effective corporate governance within HR.
• Understand and balance the Group’s objectives and the expectations of both home and host regulators when overseeing HR in the country and when engaging with regulators, ensuring that regulatory limits are managed effectively to support the execution of country strategy and business plans.
• Ensure that clients are treated fairly through effective policies and controls, robust staff training, appropriate sales activity and transparent communication.
• Ensure that all material investments and capital / project expenditure in HR is managed within the agreed budget.
• Ensure that HR prepares tests and regularly updates its Business Continuity Plan.
• Act as the Risk Control Owner (RCO) under the Group’s risk management framework for People Risk in the country. The job holder must:
• Challenge and verify First Line risk identification and assessments, in line with changes in the internal and external environment
• Maintain a good understanding of applicable laws and regulations and mitigants for material exposures
• Ensure implementation of policies, procedures, and standards in Sri Lanka through processes including effective communication, training, advice, and support
• Monitor the effectiveness of the policies and procedures which the RCOs own, even if they are executed by staff outside the RCO’s own function
• Review and approve the gross, residual risk ratings, the associated risk rationale and the control implementation for each processes and potential failures
• Monitor “live” risk issues and material events as appropriate and monitor compliance with and effectiveness of the risk control environment
• Advise governance bodies on key risks, the effectiveness of mitigation controls, and alignment of the residual risks with appetite.

Regulatory & Business Conduct

• Provide leadership in Country HR management team to comply with the highest standards of regulatory and business conduct and practices as defined by internal and external requirements. Understand and ensure compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations and guidelines including those governing securities activities, company law, anti-money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions; the Group’s policies and procedures; and the Group Code of Conduct. Take personal responsibility for understanding the risk and compliance requirements of the role. Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk and compliance matters.
• Embed the Group’s Values and Group Code of Conduct to ensure adherence with the highest standards of ethics. Comply with relevant policies, processes and regulations, as part of the culture. Lead by example by displaying exemplary conduct behaviours and take personal responsibility for:
• The conduct of individuals in Country HR management team, ensuring behaviours set out in the Group Code of Conduct are followed.
• Country HR management team, achieving the outcomes set out in the Conduct Principals and Pillars.
• both direct and indirect/dotted line managers are individually accountable to proactively communicate, collaborate and agree on the conduct ratings of employees
• Display exemplary conduct and live by the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct.
• Take personal responsibility for embedding the highest standards of ethics, including regulatory and business conduct, across Standard Chartered Bank. This includes understanding and ensuring compliance with, in letter and spirit, all applicable laws, regulations, guidelines and the Group Code of Conduct.
• Effectively and collaboratively identify, escalate, mitigate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
• Lead the Human Resources Function in Sri Lanka to achieve the outcomes set out in the Bank’s Conduct Principles

Key stakeholders

Internal

• Group/Regional/ Country Management Team
• Management Group colleagues
• Global Business Management Group members
• Selected partners, including CEOs
• Regional and Country HR Heads
• Global HR Business Partners
• Regional HR Business Partner
• HR Product owners and specialists
• Function Heads

External

• Central Bank of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka Investment Development Authority
• External HR community
• FICCI
• Labour Department
• Labour Tribunal

Our Ideal Candidate

• Education: Professional Qualification in Business Management / Human Resources
• Licenses: Desirable - Professional certifications in HR
• Languages: English

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Labour Laws
• Central Bank Guidelines
• Stakeholder Management
• Facilitation Skill
• Communication Skill
• Understanding Financials
• Organizational Development
• Change Management
• Performance Management
• Employee relations

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 160 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents. And we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion. Together we:

• Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
• Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
• Be better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations
• Time-off including annual, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 weeks maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.

Recruitment assessments - some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.

Visit our careers website www.sc.com/careers