2. ROLE PURPOSE
The Group Human Resources Manager owns and runs the human resources function for the entire Group â
a diversified investment holding structure operating across real estate, construction, engineering, FMCG and
consumer electronics distribution, manufacturing and retail, in the GCC, the United Kingdom and Europe.
The role exists to build one coherent people architecture across businesses that differ enormously in
workforce profile: a white-collar professional cadre in real estate and engineering; a large blue-collar and
site-based workforce in construction and factories; a high-turnover, commission-driven population in retail
and distribution; and a regulated, works-council-facing employee base in the UK and Europe.
The holder is expected to move fluently between setting Group HR policy and standing on a site in 45-degree
heat verifying that accommodation, wages and welfare are in order. This is a hands-on leadership role, not a
purely strategic one.
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager Page 2 of 1
3. SCOPE AND OPERATING CONTEXT
⢠Full functional ownership of HR across all operating entities, free zone and mainland licenses, joint
ventures and overseas subsidiaries.
⢠Accountability for the Group's total headcount across executive, professional, technical, skilled trade,
semi-skilled and unskilled categories.
⢠Custodian of the Group manpower budget, payroll cost, and all people-related statutory and contractual
liabilities including end-of-service benefits and pension obligations.
⢠Single point of accountability to the Board for people risk â labor law breaches, nationalization quota
shortfalls, wage protection failures, workforce welfare incidents and reputational exposure in the supply
chain.
⢠Principal interface with MOHRE, GDRFA, free zone authorities, MOHRE-equivalent bodies across the
GCC, and with UK and EU regulators, external counsel and works councils.
4. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
4.1 HR Strategy, Structure and Governance
⢠Translate the Group's business strategy and diversification plans into a multi-year people strategy
covering workforce shape, capability, cost and succession.
⢠Design and maintain the Group organization structure â entity by entity â including grading
architecture, job families, spans of control and delegation of authority for people decisions.
⢠Draft, obtain approval for and maintain the Group HR Policy Manual and employee handbooks, localized
for each jurisdiction while preserving a common Group standard.
⢠Establish HR governance: a Group HR calendar, delegation matrices, approval thresholds for hiring and
salary decisions, and a consistent set of controls applied equally to family, expatriate and national
employees.
⢠Advise the Board and business unit heads on the people implications of acquisitions, disposals, new
market entries, factory commissioning and store openings, including due diligence and post-merger
integration of HR.
⢠Lead the selection, implementation and ongoing administration of a Group-wide HRIS capable of multi-
country, multi-currency, multi-language operation.
4.2 Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning
⢠Build a consolidated Group manpower plan reconciled to the annual budget, project pipeline, seasonal
retail peaks and factory production schedules.
⢠Own end-to-end recruitment for senior and critical roles across all sectors and geographies; hold
recruitment agencies, overseas manpower suppliers and executive search firms to Group service and
ethical-recruitment standards.
⢠Manage large-scale blue-collar mobilization and demobilization for construction projects and factory
ramp-ups â source country selection, licensed supplier vetting, contract transparency, medical
screening, visa processing and arrival induction.
⢠Enforce a strict no-recruitment-fee policy for migrant workers and audit the supply chain for
compliance, protecting the Group against forced-labor and modern-slavery exposure in its UK and
European trading relationships.
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager
⢠Develop employer branding and a national-talent attraction proposition capable of competing for
Emirati and other GCC national candidates against government and banking employers.
4.3 GCC Nationalisation and Labour Compliance
⢠Own the Group's Emiratization position under the MOHRE framework: maintain the required
percentage of UAE nationals in skilled roles for entities with fifty or more skilled employees, meet the
separate obligation applying to smaller entities in designated sectors, and ensure every counted hire is
genuinely employed, registered with the pension authority and paid through the Wages Protection
System.
⢠Track the mid-year and year-end MOHRE compliance checkpoints and ensure the Group is never
exposed to per-hire monthly contributions, work permit suspensions or establishment classification
downgrades.
⢠Register and manage Group entities and candidates on NAFIS, and use available subsidy, training and
salary-support programmes to make national hiring commercially sustainable.
⢠Manage equivalent nationalisation obligations in other GCC markets â Saudisation and Nitaqat banding
via Qiwa and GOSI registration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Omanisation, Qatarisation,
Kuwaitisation and Bahrainisation requirements where the Group operates.
⢠Guarantee full compliance with UAE Federal Decree-Law on the Regulation of Labour Relations and its
executive regulations, including contract types and renewals, working hours, overtime, leave
entitlements, probation and notice rules, and end-of-service gratuity calculation.
⢠Administer the Wages Protection System across all UAE entities with zero late or short filings; maintain
equivalent wage protection compliance in other GCC jurisdictions.
⢠Oversee the Group's transition to and ongoing administration of mandatory alternative end-of-service
and savings schemes, unemployment insurance enrolment, and any successor arrangements as they are
introduced.
⢠Manage all visa, work permit, labour card, Emirates ID, medical and immigration processes through the
Group PRO function, including establishment card renewals, quota applications and free zone
requirements.
⢠Represent the Group in labour disputes before MOHRE and the labour courts, and in equivalent forums
across the GCC, working with external counsel to settle matters efficiently and without precedent-
setting exposure.
4.4 United Kingdom and European Employment Compliance
⢠Hold Group accountability for UK employment law compliance: written statements of particulars,
statutory sick and family leave, working time limits, minimum and living wage rates, redundancy
consultation, and unfair and constructive dismissal risk management.
⢠Manage right-to-work verification and sponsor licence obligations, including record keeping, reporting
duties and compliance-visit readiness where the Group holds a sponsor licence.
⢠Assess and manage off-payroll working and contractor status determinations, ensuring the Group's use
of consultants and interim staff is correctly characterised and taxed.
⢠Advise on and execute TUPE processes arising from acquisitions, outsourcing, site transfers and contract
changes, including measures letters, information and consultation obligations and employee
representative elections.
⢠Manage relationships with works councils, European employee representative bodies and recognised
trade unions where these exist, including collective consultation and collective bargaining.
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager
⢠Ensure employee data handling across the Group meets UK GDPR and EU GDPR standards, and that
transfers of personal data from the UK and EU to the Middle East are supported by a lawful transfer
mechanism.
⢠Track and implement changes flowing from evolving UK and EU employment legislation, including pay
transparency and gender pay gap reporting obligations, and corporate sustainability and supply chain
due diligence requirements as they bite on the Group's European operations.
4.5 Blue-Collar Workforce, Welfare and Accommodation
⢠Own the welfare standard for the Group's site-based and factory workforce and hold operating
companies to it without exception.
⢠Oversee labour accommodation across all locations â occupancy density, sanitation, kitchen and dining
facilities, potable water, air conditioning, fire safety, first aid, recreation and internet access â against
both statutory minimums and the Group's own higher internal standard.
⢠Establish a documented inspection regime for camps, messing and transport, with recorded findings,
corrective action tracking and escalation to the Board where standards are not met.
⢠Enforce midday break rules during the summer months, heat stress prevention protocols, and safe
worker transport standards including seat belts, capacity limits and driver hours.
⢠Guarantee that no worker's passport is retained, that wages are paid in full and on time, and that
grievance channels are available to workers in their own languages with translation support and camp-
based welfare officers.
⢠Coordinate closely with HSE leadership on incident investigation, workers' compensation, medical
repatriation and next-of-kin matters, and manage these events with dignity and speed.
⢠Manage large-scale demobilisation at project completion â final settlements, gratuity, ticketing, visa
cancellation and redeployment across the Group where possible.
4.6 Performance, Reward and Talent Development
⢠Design and run a Group performance management cycle with objectives cascaded from business unit
plans, mid-year reviews, calibration sessions and a clear link to reward and advancement.
⢠Own the Group compensation and benefits framework: salary structures benchmarked by sector and
market, sales incentive and commission plans for distribution and retail, project bonus schemes for
construction, and long-term incentives for senior leadership.
⢠Conduct annual salary review and bonus processes within approved budgets, with defensible internal
equity and market positioning across very different labour markets.
⢠Build succession plans and talent pipelines for the top two to three organisational layers in every
business unit, with particular attention to reducing key-person dependency.
⢠Establish a Group learning agenda covering technical and trade skills, retail and sales capability,
supervisory development for site foremen and store managers, leadership development, and mandatory
compliance training.
⢠Develop national talent through structured graduate, internship and accelerated development
programmes designed to make nationalisation a genuine capability investment rather than a compliance
exercise.
4.7 Employee Relations, Culture and Ethics
⢠Act as the final internal authority on disciplinary, grievance, harassment and whistleblowing matters,
ensuring investigations are prompt, impartial and properly documented.
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager Page 5 of 1
⢠Foster a consistent Group culture and set of values across a workforce spanning many nationalities,
languages, faiths and educational backgrounds.
⢠Own the Group's code of conduct, anti-bribery and conflict-of-interest declarations as they apply to
employees, and run the associated training and attestation cycles.
⢠Manage sensitive matters involving family shareholders, senior executives and long-service employees
with discretion and sound judgement.
⢠Design and act on employee engagement measurement, exit interview analysis and retention
interventions, particularly in high-turnover retail and distribution populations.
4.8 HR Operations, Payroll and Reporting
⢠Ensure accurate, on-time payroll for all employees in all jurisdictions and currencies, with correct
treatment of overtime, allowances, deductions, statutory contributions and tax where applicable.
⢠Maintain complete and audit-ready employee records, contracts, visas and licences, and ensure no
employee ever works on an expired document.
⢠Produce a monthly Group people dashboard for the Board covering headcount, cost, attrition,
nationalisation position, vacancy pipeline, welfare inspection status and open litigation.
⢠Control the Group HR budget, including manpower cost, recruitment spend, training investment, visa
and government fees, and accommodation and transport cost per worker.
⢠Support internal and external audit, client and principal audits, and social compliance audits required by
international FMCG and consumer electronics brand partners.
5. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Area Measure
Regulatory compliance
Zero nationalization quota shortfalls, zero wage protection
breaches, zero expired work permits, no material adverse labour
judgments.
Workforce welfare
100% of accommodation and transport inspections completed on
schedule; all findings closed within agreed timeframes; zero
substantiated welfare complaints escalated externally.
Talent delivery Time to fill and cost per hire by category; mobilisation delivered to
project schedule; critical vacancies held below agreed threshold.
Retention and engagement
Voluntary attrition by business unit and grade against sector
benchmark; first-year attrition; engagement survey participation
and score movement.
Cost and productivity Manpower cost as a percentage of revenue by business unit; HR
operating budget variance; revenue and output per employee.
Capability building
Succession cover for critical roles; internal fill rate for senior
vacancies; training hours delivered and competency uplift;
national talent retained beyond twelve and twenty-four months.
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager
Service and infrastructure Payroll accuracy and on-time payment rate; HRIS adoption across
entities; internal client satisfaction with HR service.
6. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Essential
⢠Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Law, Psychology or a related discipline.
⢠Twelve or more years of progressive HR experience, of which at least five have been at head of function
or group manager level with genuine multi-entity accountability.
⢠Demonstrable experience within a diversified group, conglomerate or family holding company â not
solely a single-sector environment.
⢠Substantial GCC experience with hands-on ownership of Emiratisation or another nationalisation
programme, MOHRE processes, the Wages Protection System, visa and immigration operations and
labour dispute resolution.
⢠Proven experience managing a large blue-collar workforce, including labour accommodation, mass
mobilisation and worker welfare standards.
⢠Working command of UK employment law and at least one Continental European jurisdiction, including
TUPE, consultation obligations and GDPR as it applies to employee data.
⢠Track record of implementing an HRIS and of building HR policy and process from a low base to an
auditable standard.
⢠Fluent written and spoken English.
Preferred
⢠Master's degree in Human Resource Management or an MBA.
⢠Professional certification â CIPD Level 7 or Chartered Fellow, SHRM-SCP, or SPHRi.
⢠Arabic language capability, written and spoken.
⢠Exposure to construction and contracting, manufacturing, and FMCG or consumer electronics
distribution and retail within the same career.
⢠Experience of HR due diligence and post-acquisition integration.
⢠Familiarity with social compliance and ethical audit frameworks used by international brand principals.
7. COMPETENCIES
Technical
⢠Multi-jurisdiction employment law and regulatory compliance.
⢠Organisation design, job evaluation and grading methodology.
⢠Compensation benchmarking, incentive design and payroll governance.
⢠Workforce planning, manpower budgeting and HR analytics.
⢠HRIS implementation and process automation.
Behavioural
Job Description â Group Human Resources Manager
⢠Commercial judgement â understands that HR exists to make the businesses perform, not to
administer procedure.
⢠Credibility with a Board and with a foreman on site in equal measure.
⢠Integrity under pressure, including the willingness to raise uncomfortable findings about welfare, pay or
conduct.
⢠Cultural fluency across Arab, South Asian, Filipino, African, British and European workforces.
⢠Resilience and personal bandwidth to run a function across multiple time zones and legal systems.
⢠Decisiveness with incomplete information, balanced by sound risk instinct.
Your email job alert is now active!