Senior Specialist: People Change Manager

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

To provide advice and support in practice formulation and associated best practice improvement tactics; enabling the provision of specialist change management expertise.

Job Description

Project Delivery:

• Liaise with the Change Council to gain approval on projects/change initiatives requested by the various business units (BUs) and assign the project/change initiative to the relevant portfolio manager to effectively resource the project.
• Vet the resources assigned to the project by the portfolio manager and approve or decline the proposal.
• Oversee the development of the project plan, funding approvals through regular discussions with the portfolio manager or project manager.
• Provide corrective guidance where needed and approve the final recommendations that the project manager will present to the business units.
• Hold weekly meetings with either the portfolio or project manager to discuss and review progress made, risks and issues identified, and provide guidance and resolution on any relevant matters.
• Attend project governance meetings, for example, Steering Committees (SteerCo's), Change Councils, etc., to maintain oversight of and review the project with all the relevant stakeholders.
• Review the architectural design proposed for the project/change initiative to ensure compliance with principles of scalability, reuse, sustainability, and financial feasibility, ensuring that the business processes are pragmatic.
• Address any non-compliance to these principles with the necessary individuals.
• Work closely with project managers to identify the most relevant vendor based on the desired change, where vendor involvement is needed.
• Approve and manage the vendors' responsibilities and accountabilities on projects through regular reviews, meetings, steerco’s, and other general feedback sessions.
• Provide feedback on the various change initiatives currently in focus to the relevant Executive on an agreed period basis through one-on-one interaction.
• Provide monthly feedback for Executive Committee (EXCO) by updating the monthly EXCO report.
• Attend other meetings to provide feedback as and when requested to relevant stakeholders.
• Provide a holistic overview of all change projects by collating weekly and monthly progress and performance reports based on submissions from project managers.
• Develop executive summaries based on key risks, issues, and milestones for review by the Executive and all other key role players for each report pack.
• Timing of reports is dependent on project deadlines as determined by project managers and business process owners.
• Understand the business strategies and medium-term plans (MTP) and ensure that new proposals for projects or initiatives are aligned to these elements before approving proposals.
• Prioritise the change portfolio by reviewing all new business cases against strategic priorities and negotiating with the Head of the business area to finalise the priority lists.
• Mobilise executives within the business to support key programmes by communicating project intent and obtaining buy-in and resource allocation for delivery of key components.
• Conduct thorough risk assessments for all new project and system change requests to determine interdependencies and impacts on seemingly unrelated processes and systems.
• Review recommendations prepared by the team on how to address risks and determine whether the risk and mitigation are adequate or if the change should be altered or declined.

Solutions Development and Implementation:

• Drive new thinking within the business by proactively identifying, incubating, and packaging relevant concepts/solutions that improve efficiencies, productivity, and competitiveness while reducing costs.
• Engage with the BU Heads regularly to understand business drivers and areas that compromise service delivery efficiently and effectively and are expensive to operate or fulfil.
• Facilitate think tank sessions with staff to encourage the development of ideas that lead to resolution of identified business problems.
• Provide specialised advice and direction to ensure that the team moves ideas from concept to action, prototyping ideas and testing their effectiveness, feasibility, and adoptability.
• Approve the packaged offering and ensure it is presented by the relevant individual to the business as an implementable solution.
• Support Change initiatives in which new concepts are being investigated or proposed and provide input, guidance, and direction to these discussions.
• Contribute to the development of business unit strategy for the next 1-2 years by providing a view on potential improvements for products or services and an assessment of the existing situation and anticipated changes in the external environment.
• Review project closure documentation prior to giving the go-ahead to formally close a project, including reviewing deliverables against actual deliverables, benefits realisation reports, and plans to move processes or systems into business as usual.

Architecture:

• Ensure that the business environment is appropriately architected so that the business benefits from a holistic architecture rather than individual silos supporting each BU.
• Focus on Services Orientated Architecture (SOA) when designing the business architecture.
• Review, design, discuss, and depict a single architecture for the business area in conjunction with Group Technology.
• Provide input to design architecture into discrete layers of functionality that support loose coupling and scalability from channel to back-end applications.
• Conduct frequent research to remain updated with industry trends and evaluate the business position against these trends.

People Management:

• Work with managers in the team to achieve excellent business results through continuous people development and mentoring activities.
• Ensure the development of a high-performing team through formal Performance Development and informal coaching for the management team on conducting meaningful Performance Development discussions with their direct reports.
• Determine and analyze training and development needs for managers and ensure they do the same for their teams.
• Ensure that identified training is budgeted for and executed, and establish a succession plan for the management team using the formal Talent Management process for identified talent.
• Support managers in creating effective workforce plans and recruitment demand plans for their areas and review requests for headcount changes.
• Approve leave requests for direct reports and ensure effective leave planning for their teams.
• Act as a second-level escalation point for all grievances raised in the business unit.
• Address poor performance through the Absa Performance Accelerator (APA) Programme and ensure continued poor performance is adequately dealt with.
• Review APA reports to determine the effectiveness of interventions and motivate employees in the department, ensuring their efforts are recognised.

Education

Bachelor's Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Business, Commerce and Management Studies (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards the achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised.