HR Specialist job at TechnoServe

About TechnoServe:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing...when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they are able to access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Job Summary:

The HR Specialist will be responsible for providing human resource support for the Growth program. She / He will carry out HR activities including recruitment, onboarding, performance management, contract drafting and renewals and exit processes. He / She will be the primary HR focal point within the program and will work with the HR Business Partner to ensure that HR policies and practices are simultaneously in line with local labor laws as well as TechnoServe policies and philosophies.

He/she will work with project management and leadership to create and maintain a productive work environment where all staff perform effectively and efficiently and will advise project management and staff on HR-related issues and conflicts.

Program Overview:

Building on the successes of TechnoServe’s Horticulture Market Acceleration Program (HortiMAP), Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Wealth Through Horticulture (GROWTH) will deepen farmer ownership and drive lasting transformation in Uganda’s horticulture sector.

Over five years, GROWTH will support 200,000 smallholder farmers to engage in profitable and resilient horticulture markets. The program will increase and stabilize farmer incomes, reduce post-harvest losses, enhance food security, and create thousands of new jobs across value chains. At a systems level, it will expand access to affordable finance, strengthen compliance with food safety standards, and improve market linkages across domestic and regional trade. GROWTH is rooted in a farmer-led approach that leverages participatory planning, so that farmers and their organizations will define their priorities, shaping interventions that reflect local needs.

GROWTH aligns with the Dutch Embassy’s Multi-Annual Country Strategy 2023–2026, contributing to food and nutrition security, sustainable land use, private sector growth, and climate adaptation. It also supports the Netherlands’ broader ambition to connect aid and trade, facilitating partnerships between Dutch and Ugandan enterprises in areas such as irrigation, seed systems, and cold chain solutions. GROWTH will be a EUR 13 million investment over five years.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Recruitment and Onboarding

• Manage the recruitment and selection process based on the project’s HR needs. This will include advertising positions, scheduling interviews, sourcing candidates, adapting interview questions, conducting reference checks and negotiating salary offers.
• Work with hiring managers to create job descriptions.
• Participate in job interviews and make hiring recommendations, communicate recruitment policies with the hiring manager to ensure the effectiveness of selection techniques and recruitment programs, ensure a transparent and bias-free recruitment process.
• Manage all aspects of hiring new staff including contract templates and required paperwork

Compliance and Ethics

• Maintain and update the local Employee Handbook, in collaboration with the HRBP
• Help roll out salary scales in collaboration with the HRBP
• Handle all aspects of HQ HRIS protocols including timely and accurate entries; secure storage of other personnel information / files required by local laws
• Support work authorization issues related to international staff assigned to the country office
• Maintain a tracker of project-wide staff contracts, extensions and terminations.
• Maintain accurate records related to employment, such as personnel files and HR databases.
• Handle all steps and paperwork involved in the exit process for departing staff
• Support development and implement disciplinary actions, in collaboration with the HRBP
• Assist with local ethics investigations.

Performance Management

• Coordinate the performance management cycle.
• Notify line managers when probations are due and ensure the forms are sent on time and completed.
• Train staff on how to do their performance evaluations and monitor compliance with the process.
• Notify the Senior HRM on any staff who haven’t passed probation and work to ensure poor performance is well managed.

Employee engagement and culture

• Collaborate with program leadership to address employee feedback and continuously improve the work environment.
• Organize employee engagement activities eg coordinate all staff monthly calls, wellness activities etc
• Establish and maintain effective work relationships with all staff at all levels.

Other duties

• Work with Finance, Admin and Operations staff in the development of the program field manual, and that relevant policies are communicated effectively and regularly to the full Growth team.
• Manage all aspects of existing local benefit plans, vendor coordination and invoicing
• Serve as a point of contact for employee inquiries and concerns related to HR policies, procedures, and benefits.
• Any other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree with 3 years’ experience or Master's degree with 1 year’ experience in human resource management preferably in an international development context.
• Solid experience in the employee’s life cycle (hire, onboard, performance management, employee relations and exits).
• An articulate individual who possesses excellent communications and people skills, strong operational focus, ability to work in a fast-paced environment and who can relate to people at all levels of an organization.
• Required Languages: Excellent oral and written English.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information with discretion
• Ability to identify time-sensitive demands & inquiries and respond effectively
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with quickly shifting issues and priorities
• Excellent problem-solving and conflict resolution abilities
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a cross cultural setting and to negotiate diplomatically
• Strong communication, training and facilitation skills
• Commitment to knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration
• Critical thinking and problem analysis essentials.

• Manage the recruitment and selection process based on the project’s HR needs. This will include advertising positions, scheduling interviews, sourcing candidates, adapting interview questions, conducting reference checks and negotiating salary offers.
• Work with hiring managers to create job descriptions.
• Participate in job interviews and make hiring recommendations, communicate recruitment policies with the hiring manager to ensure the effectiveness of selection techniques and recruitment programs, ensure a transparent and bias-free recruitment process.
• Manage all aspects of hiring new staff including contract templates and required paperwork
• Maintain and update the local Employee Handbook, in collaboration with the HRBP
• Help roll out salary scales in collaboration with the HRBP
• Handle all aspects of HQ HRIS protocols including timely and accurate entries; secure storage of other personnel information / files required by local laws
• Support work authorization issues related to international staff assigned to the country office
• Maintain a tracker of project-wide staff contracts, extensions and terminations.
• Maintain accurate records related to employment, such as personnel files and HR databases.
• Handle all steps and paperwork involved in the exit process for departing staff
• Support development and implement disciplinary actions, in collaboration with the HRBP
• Assist with local ethics investigations.
• Coordinate the performance management cycle.
• Notify line managers when probations are due and ensure the forms are sent on time and completed.
• Train staff on how to do their performance evaluations and monitor compliance with the process.
• Notify the Senior HRM on any staff who haven’t passed probation and work to ensure poor performance is well managed.
• Collaborate with program leadership to address employee feedback and continuously improve the work environment.
• Organize employee engagement activities eg coordinate all staff monthly calls, wellness activities etc
• Establish and maintain effective work relationships with all staff at all levels.
• Work with Finance, Admin and Operations staff in the development of the program field manual, and that relevant policies are communicated effectively and regularly to the full Growth team.
• Manage all aspects of existing local benefit plans, vendor coordination and invoicing
• Serve as a point of contact for employee inquiries and concerns related to HR policies, procedures, and benefits.
• Any other duties as assigned.

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle sensitive information with discretion
• Ability to identify time-sensitive demands & inquiries and respond effectively
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with quickly shifting issues and priorities
• Excellent problem-solving and conflict resolution abilities
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a cross cultural setting and to negotiate diplomatically
• Strong communication, training and facilitation skills
• Commitment to knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration
• Critical thinking and problem analysis essentials.

• A Bachelor’s degree with 3 years’ experience or Master's degree with 1 year’ experience in human resource management preferably in an international development context.
• Solid experience in the employee’s life cycle (hire, onboard, performance management, employee relations and exits).
• An articulate individual who possesses excellent communications and people skills, strong operational focus, ability to work in a fast-paced environment and who can relate to people at all levels of an organization.
• Required Languages: Excellent oral and written English.