About This Role
This People Partner role involves collaborating with managers and employees across various business areas to offer practical, consistent, and commercially sound guidance on people-related matters. The position focuses on strengthening manager capabilities, supporting effective employee relations and performance practices, and ultimately improving engagement, retention, and overall organizational effectiveness. The People Partner reports directly to the Head of People and is an integral part of the People Operations team.
Responsibilities
- Build credible and trusted relationships with managers and employees in assigned business areas
- Conduct regular manager alignment meetings covering team priorities, people risks, performance, development, engagement, and employee experience
- Provide practical guidance on policies, procedures, and employee lifecycle matters
- Support fair, consistent, and well-informed people decisions
- Escalate high-risk, legally complex, or precedent-setting matters while retaining responsibility for coordination and follow-through
- Support and progressively lead disciplinary, grievance, incapacity, investigation, and performance processes, gathering and reviewing relevant facts before recommending action
- Prepare and review warnings, notices, minutes, outcome letters, and performance documentation, while maintaining accurate, confidential case records and action trackers
- Identify legal, employee relations, reputational, and cultural risks, escalate appropriately, and help managers distinguish between performance, misconduct, capability, conduct, and wellbeing concerns
- Coach managers on clear expectations, timely feedback, and evidence-based performance conversations, including probation reviews, quarterly reviews, performance improvement plans, and documented follow-up
- Support IDP follow-up with managers and Learning and Development, identify recurring manager capability gaps, and recommend practical interventions
- Conduct stay interviews and support agreed retention actions for priority talent and critical roles
- Identify retention risks and employee-experience themes
- Support onboarding, probation check-ins, and respectful offboarding
- Translate engagement feedback into practical team actions and track completion
- Contribute to wellness, recognition, culture, and employee-experience initiatives
- Reinforce SolarAfrica’s values through consistent advice and decision-making
- Support managers in building accountable and high-performing teams
- Identify unclear roles, ineffective practices, capability gaps, and relationship concerns
- Support organizational and team changes by preparing, communicating, and implementing them
- Provide practical People input into workforce and team-structure discussions
- Maintain accurate employee, case, performance, and engagement records
- Use People data and portfolio insights to identify trends and support decisions
- Prepare concise portfolio updates on themes, risks, and required actions
- Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, or automate People processes
- Use AI and digital tools responsibly, with appropriate confidentiality, access controls, and verification
Requirements
- At least five years’ experience in a broad HR, People Operations, HR generalist, or People Partnering role
- Practical experience advising and coaching managers on employee relations and performance matters
- Working knowledge of South African employment legislation and fair employment procedures
- Experience supporting disciplinary, grievance, incapacity, investigation, and performance processes
- Strong written and verbal communication, judgment, confidentiality, organization, and follow-through
- Experience using HR information and performance-management systems and interpreting people information
- Strong digital capability, including Microsoft 365
- Valid South African working rights and willingness to travel when required
- Relevant diploma or bachelor's degree in human resources, Industrial Psychology, Labour Relations, Business Management, or a related field
Nice to have:
- ERP or Microsoft Dynamics exposure
- Renewable energy, infrastructure, engineering, technical services, or another high-growth environment experience
- Multi-site or multi-function partnering experience
- Organizational change, workforce planning, or team-effectiveness exposure
- BambooHR, Lattice, PaySpace, or comparable HR platforms experience
- Learning and development, succession, career development, or IDP exposure
- Approachable and able to build trust across organizational levels
- Confident to challenge constructively and communicate candidly
- Fair, consistent, and aware of precedent
- Calm and objective in sensitive matters
- Commercially aware and able to balance employee and business needs
- Discreet, proactive, accountable, and adaptable
- Strong attention to detail, with a focus on accuracy and high-quality documentation
- Able to work independently and recognize when escalation is required
Important Details
- Success by month 3: Understands the business structure, policies, values, systems, and People rhythms; Builds constructive relationships and establishes manager alignment meetings; Provides day-to-day guidance with appropriate oversight; Supports ER and performance cases with accurate documentation; Identifies initial themes, risks, and priority actions
- Success by month 6: Independently manages routine ER and performance matters; Conducts effective manager alignment meetings and provides consistent advice; Supports probation, quarterly reviews, PIPs, and development processes; Conducts stay interviews and coordinates agreed actions; Provides clear portfolio insights and demonstrates sound escalation judgment
- Success by month 12: Independently owns an assigned People Partner portfolio; Is recognized as a trusted, fair, and practical adviser; Consistently delivers well-managed ER and performance processes; Demonstrates measurable follow-through on engagement and retention actions; Contributes to manager capability, role clarity, team effectiveness, and continuous improvement
About the Company
SolarAfrica’s core values include being passionate and proud, communicating candidly, taking initiative, sharing mistakes, growing together, being dependable and accountable, and believing no one person is bigger than the solution. The company is currently considering candidates based in South Africa with valid working rights.