People Partner

Job Summary

We are looking for a dynamic People Partner to support our South Africa organisation and partner closely with the P&O Partner for North & South Africa. This role acts as a trusted advisor to leaders and employees, driving a positive employee experience and ensuring smooth execution of HR processes across the full employee lifecycle.

The People Partner will support employee engagement, talent management, onboarding, learning and development, workforce planning, and data-driven decision-making. The role also manages employee relations, ensures compliance with South African labour legislation, and coordinates closely with central Talent Acquisition, Payroll, and HR Operations teams. This is a key role that helps strengthen organisational culture, improve people processes, and enhance overall organisational effectiveness.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Employee Relations & Compliance

• Serve as first point of contact for employee relations matters, ensuring fair and consistent policy application.
• Support grievance handling, disciplinary processes, conflict resolution, and escalate where appropriate.
• Ensure compliance with South African labour legislation (BCEA, LRA, EE Act, COIDA, OHSA).
• Complete statutory reporting for South Africa including:

• Employment Equity (EEA2 & EEA4 submissions)
• Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) & Annual Training Report (ATR)
• COIDA / Return of Earnings
• Any labour inspections or statutory audits

• Partner with key stakeholders to ensure accurate tracking, documentation, and verification of all BBBEE‑related HR initiatives
• Maintain complete, secure, and compliant employee records.

Employee Experience, Engagement & Business Partnering

• Provide day-to-day HR support to managers and employees across all HR-related matters.
• Drive employee engagement activities including organisational health surveys, focus groups, recognition initiatives, and follow-up action plans.
• Support in designing retention measures by identifying reasons for attrition and high-value employees at risk.
• Facilitate onboarding and induction to ensure a consistent and positive employee experience.
• Promote organisation culture and support business change initiatives.

Talent Management, Recruitment Support & Workforce Planning

• Support managers and the central TA team in determining appropriate resourcing options
• Review and provide input into job descriptions to ensure role clarity and alignment to organisational design.
• Serve as the South African liaison for Talent Acquisition, ensuring local business needs and candidate experience are supported.
• Monitor execution of onboarding and ensure new hires experience a smooth, structured induction.
• Coordinate with central teams and managers to ensure all system, compliance, and local onboarding activities are completed.
• Support annual workforce planning & budgeting
• Support talent reviews, development plans, and succession planning.
• Assist the P&O Partner in using people data to support decision-making.

Learning & Development

• Support the P&O Partner ins conduct a training needs analysis based on business requirements, performance trends, and capability gaps.
• Provide input to corporate L&D teams on required training, local development needs, and capability priorities.
• Support implementation of learning programmes and track training attendance and compliance requirements.

Data, Insights & HR Process Governance

• Ensure the accuracy and completeness of people data across SAP-HR and related tools through regular audits.
• Consolidate, validate, and analyse people metrics such as headcount, attrition, absenteeism, demographics, and talent indicators.
• Track and report HR Process Excellence metrics and support digitalisation and continuous improvement initiatives.

Payroll & HR Operations Coordination

• Coordinate with the central Payroll team on payroll inputs, validations, corrections, and employee queries.
• Verify accuracy of monthly payroll outputs and resolve discrepancies in collaboration with central teams.
• Maintain strong relationships with central HR Operations to ensure timely processing of employee life-cycle actions (hires, transfers, terminations, changes).

Offboarding & Exit Management

• Coordinate with the HR Operations team on all resignation and termination processes, ensuring full compliance (notice periods, documentation, system updates).
• Conduct exit interviews, track themes, and provide insights to support retention efforts.
• Ensure accurate preparation of final pay instructions and statutory documents.

Qualifications

Educational qualification: Diploma/ Degree in Human Resources, Industrial Psychology, or related field

Minimum work Experience: 3–5 years HR generalist experience.

Additional Information

Skills & attributes:

Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of South African labour legislation.
• Experience working in a matrix organisation (preferred).
• Strong HR systems capability (SAP-HR advantageous).
• Experience conducting BEI interviews (advantageous).

Behavioural Skills

• Excellent relationship-building and stakeholder management.
• Strong analytical and data interpretation capabilities.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Problem-solving and decision-making ability.
• Strong communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and operate with agility.
• Confidentiality, professionalism, and integrity.

About the Company

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. is a global pharmaceutical company with over 24,000 employees, dedicated to providing affordable and innovative medicines. Founded in 1984, the company operates in 66 countries, focusing on access, affordability, and sustainability. By 2030, they aim to reach over 1.5 billion patients worldwide, emphasizing sustainability and diversity in their operations and workforce.