Senior HCM Specialist

Job Description

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior HCM Specialist to join our team at Adapt It Group. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the effective implementation and maintenance of our Human Capital Management (HCM) system.

Your primary focus will be on identifying business requirements and designing solutions that meet those needs. You will also be responsible for facilitating the implementation of these solutions using recognized project management methodologies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide SAP HCM solution that fully addresses Oceana's current and immediate needs.
• Ensure SAP compliance with obligations (including legislation, regulatory, contractual, and agreed standards/policies).
• Create and maintain a pipeline of changes and projects that align to the SAP HCM module with a focus on TM / PY / OM / PA and Oceana's foreseeable plans.
• SAP HCM solution design (including change requests), ensuring that strategies, policies, standards, and best practices are applied correctly and consistently.
• Individual and team service delivery against agreed SLAs and KPIs.
• Adherence to defined targets, procedures, standards, and measures of quality and customer satisfaction.
• Excellent end user adoption, uptake, and understanding.
• Minimization of preventable incidents.
• Automation of feasible administrative and operational tasks.
• Active and positive engagement with end users, application support, and third parties.
• Effective ongoing knowledge transfer to other IT staff, third parties, and end users.
• Successful delivery of medium and high complexity changes and projects on time and on budget, including management of third-party resources where applicable.
• Coaching and training users with regards to the use of IT assets and policies.
• Maintenance of legislative requirements as and when published in the Government Gazette.
• SAP HCM Monthly Maintenance Life Cycle.
• Assist the Support Team to resolve calls related to Human Resources (Organizational Management, Personnel Administration, Payroll South Africa, Time and Attendance, Leave and absence management, Learning, Performance Management and data interfaces) requests across company Business Units.
• Coordinate the monthly system maintenance life cycle from receiving a helpdesk ticket, through the steps of problem analysis, root cause analysis, system config analysis, solution implementation, unit testing, user acceptance tests, change management, and system updates.
• Lead the team in the monthly action list work sessions by determining priorities based on urgency and importance along with the relevant business owners and specialist users.
• Analyze business requests to provide clear problem definitions and liaise with necessary technical experts/external consultants to resolve technical system issues related to the SAP HR Module.
• Guide the business and technical teams to provide sustainable solutions and system changes in line with the internal guiding principles and templates.
• Manage the SAP Landscapes to ensure continuous alignment between Development, Quality Assurance, and Sandbox systems.
• Monitor and ensure alignment of external services as specified in the contract agreement.
• Build and maintain healthy relationships with the relevant service providers.
• Ensure contract agreements are in place and up to date.
• Cost management and on-time invoice payments as per the agreement and approved purchase orders.
• Manage the project to update the SAP system patches and payroll legal change patches for August and February tax submissions.
• Liaise with the Business experts, technical consultants, and application consultants to ensure that the patches are applied correctly and in line with legal and business expectations.
• Coordinate and oversee the user acceptance tests and sign off.
• Create go-live plans and coordinate the teams' activities during the go-live.
• Provide ongoing advice and support on best practices to ensure continuous improvement within business systems and applications.
• Develop specialist knowledge of HR Systems, identify opportunities to deliver best value solutions to make recommendations to the Applications Manager.
• Support the Applications Manager and the Business in identifying IT application solutions to address key Business requirements within the following Human Resources functions: Organizational Management, Personnel Administration, Payroll South Africa, Time and Attendance, Leave and absence management, Learning, Performance Management, and data interfaces.
• Quantify savings and efficiencies related to these opportunities and draw up Business Case documentation for submission to the Applications Manager.
• Serve as a liaison between the Business and technical consultants to ensure the implementation of identified system enhancements for all HCM related processes.
• Review and analyze technical specification documents prior to sign off by the Applications Manager and handover to developer(s).
• Execute on IT systems implementation projects.
• Meet with relevant Business representatives to establish, understand, and document detailed business requirements to be met by the project and agree on a scope definition document as well as a functional specification document and ensure that full sign off is achieved prior to implementation.
• Assist with the calculation of the business case and return on investment with relevant Business users and stakeholders.
• Prepare the project plan by engaging all relevant parties.
• Plan for project-related hardware and software requirements by liaising on an ongoing basis with the infrastructure and technology teams.
• Ensure constant communication with developers and full testing of the solution and identify and resolve problems or constraints prior to user acceptance testing.
• Work in conjunction and communicate with the Business to implement the system.
• Report on the realization of the Business case and identified KPIs.
• Provide post-implementation support to all end-users.
• Prepared to take on the Team Lead role during project implementations.
• Communicate with GRC team to assist with creation and maintenance of user profiles in SAP in keeping with risk and audit standards.
• Authorize user access for new and existing users via the User Authorization Request (UAR) workflow.
• Conduct regular system compliance audits and health checks for HR systems.
• Report on system non-compliance by users to the Applications Manager.
• Identify and highlight business risk to the Applications Manager because of non-compliance.
• Recommend compensating controls to the Applications Manager.
• Follow the internal IT Governance Controls to ensure audit compliance.
• Do requirements analysis and functional specification for any new report development that is requested by business.
• Maintain and proactively enhance reports.
• Work closely with the Data insights team to ensure data flow from all ERP systems to data warehousing and BI platforms are correct and validated.
• Understand the dashboards and reporting, source data to guide business in using these effectively for decision making.
• Support the technical and BI teams with data modeling and architecture design.
• Work closely with the rest of the company teams to address integration areas where HR data is shared with other applications (HR and non-HR systems).
• Follow and adhere to the company policies, Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).
• Take ownership and accountability for tasks and activities and demonstrate effective self-management in terms of planning and prioritizing, and self-development.
• Follow through to ensure that quality and productivity standards of work are consistently and accurately maintained.
• Inform relevant parties in the event of tasks or deadlines not met, the potential risks thereof and provide appropriate resolution.
• Support and drive the business core values.
• Manage colleagues and clients' expectations and communicate appropriately.
• Demonstrate willingness to help others and go the extra mile to meet team targets and objectives.
• Champion training and development of self and others utilizing available training opportunities.
• Participate in, and drive regular performance appraisals and ensure that own targets and goals are clear and achievable.