HR and Administration Assistant

USAID’s four-year (2021-2025) Resilience through Agriculture in South Sudan (RASS) Activity will improve food security and community household recovery and resilience in 13 target counties, reducing long term reliance on humanitarian assistance. To achieve this ambitious aim, RASS will employ a resilience pathways approach to improve the effectiveness of local systems and strengthen the capacities of community groups to achieve gender responsive and diversified market-sensitive production; facilitate increased production of diverse nutritious foods by strengthening productivity, reducing food loss, and improving nutrition behaviours; and strengthen and expand household and community opportunities for sustainable, locally driven livelihoods. RASS targets graduating communities from high integrated food security phase classifications to low IPC acute food insecurity and support a change from a focus on humanitarian assistance to inclusive development assistance and economic growth.

CONTEXT AND GENERAL TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

RASS will work with a sub-partner consortium and through local partnerships to ensure the sustainability of RASS interventions in various field sites for achieving its objectives. RASS will work through field offices either directly or through co-location within existing consortium partners, prioritizing collaboration, learning and coordination with other USAID and/or donor partners. It is on this backdrop that a strong operational platform/model is envisioned to deliver timely, agile, and adaptive activity implementation in South Sudan.

POSITION DESCRIPTION AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Human Resources and Administrative Assistant (HR/Admin) is a part of the South Sudan operations team and provides day-to-day support in ensuring HR administration and operational support is met in a timely manner for the effective implementation of the RASS Activity. The HR/Admin Assistant is responsible for project administrative filing systems, petty cash management, assisting the Finance & Operations Manager, writing correspondences, scheduling and confirming appointments, and maintaining general office administration information in DAI’s TAMIS system, such as project directories, personnel files, etc. The HR/Admin Assistant will be responsible for travel bookings, for both local and international staff, including visiting RASS consultants, and will perform receptionist duties as part of his/her responsibilities. S/he will continually uphold RASS core principles for meeting its objectives, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in RASS values. S/he will contribute to a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

The following comprise main responsibilities of the HR/Admin Assistant:

Human Resources Administration:

• Responsible for confidential management of HR staff records.
• Support Director of Finance and Operations in managing staff welfare.
• Support staff recruitment and hiring procedures.
• Support staff induction and orientation management.
• Support coordination of staff training and development.
• Responsible for tracking staff leave (annual, sick leave etc.) management as per DAI policy.
• Support the Director of Finance and Operations with management and coordination of staff performance evaluation.
• Support the development and management of staff compensation and benefits packages as per DAI policies and local law requirements.
• Support management in handling and operationalization of RASS code of conduct and performance management policy, including staff separation procedures.
• Responsible for managing project HR administration based on DAI systems.
• Work closely with the Accountant on monthly payroll processing.

Office Administration & Management:

• Manage office inventory and office supplies, including records management, supply replenishment, disposal, and support of periodic file reviews.

• Ensure adequate stocking of office supplies.

• Support functions related to facilities management, including safety and security of RASS assets and overall staff wellness policy.

• Provide receptionist coverage during business hours, including being responsible for incoming project mail, telephone inquiries and visitor entrance/exit procedures.

• Support scheduling of meetings with staff and stakeholders, facilitating local and regional travel logistics for staff and international/regional guests/consultants.

• Ensure that the UNHAS flight account is fully replenished and notify the Finance & Operations Manager in time to avoid inconveniences.

• Reconcile the UNHAS flight account by maintaining a spreadsheet of booked flights against the statement on a monthly basis.

• Coordinate with external service providers providing office cleaning, maintenance, or repair services, ensuring office cleanliness is up to the required standard.

• Develop and maintain trackers and other similar tools to monitor Administration actions, leveraging Office 365 applications such as Teams, SharePoint, and Excel.

• Primarily responsible for management of the administrative petty cash account, ensuring compliance with DAI policy and procedures for petty cash management.

Executive and Project Implementation support:

• Provide administrative support to activity managers with project trainings and events.
• Provide administrative support to the Chief of Party in management of meetings and calendar.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

The HR & Administration Assistant will not have supervisory responsibilities but will collaborate closely with all staff on HR and Administration matters.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Education and Work Experience: College diploma in Business Administration or Management, Human Resources, or appropriate field and at least three years of relevant work experience or a university degree in any of the previously mentioned fields at least one year of relevant work experience. **
• Demonstrated Professional Knowledge: proven experience with, or exposure to, the application of South Sudan labor laws, administering HR systems and templates, understanding of office administration functions, and generally accepted accounting principles for petty cash management.**
• Demonstrated Professional Ability: strong command of standard Microsoft Office programs such as Word, Excel, and Outlook as well as finance/accounting software used to track transactions.**
• Demonstrated Communications Skills: proven ability to effectively communicate/collaborate across teams, cultures, gender, and generations, including with team members based in other countries. Professional fluency in English and Juba Arabic a must. Local languages a plus.**

REQUIRED ATTRIBUTES OF ALL RASS TEAM MEMBERS

• Be Flexible and Adaptive – given the pace and frequency at which conditions may change in South Sudan, team members are expected to be agile and flexible with position requirements, adapting to changing circumstances for successfully meeting the objectives of the contract.
• Be Collaborative and Inclusive –individual team members are expected to model openness to new and competing ideas, seek feedback from colleagues, demonstrate and internalize respect for diverse opinions, and proactively create safe spaces for participation in decision-making processes to ensure the views of different groups, gender, and levels of understanding and experience within systems where RASS operates are considered and incorporated into activity programming, security, and development of RASS policies and procedures.