HR Services Team Lead

HR Services Team Lead

Global HR Operations & Payroll Services, the HR Hub

Melrose, Johannesburg, South Africa

We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated HR Services Team Lead to lead within the Global HR Services team in Johannesburg, South Africa, through the HR Hub which supports HR administration for multiple Glencore offices worldwide. This role combines end-to-end HR operational delivery with regional ownership, process design, and cross-functional leadership. The HR Services Partner – Team Lead drives consistency, governance, and continuous improvement across the employee lifecycle for assigned regions, while acting as the subject-matter expert and knowledge anchor for the HR Hub team. The ideal candidate has demonstrated the ability to move beyond transactional execution into designing processes, resolving complex escalations, and mentoring colleagues, all while maintaining high integrity, accuracy, and confidentiality.

Primary Task & Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible to prepare employment contracts, amendments, termination agreements, and related documentation in line with global and local compliance requirements across multiple locations; ensure accuracy and consistency of terms and collaborate with HR Leads to update templates as necessary.
• Hold full ownership of HR operations for assigned regions, with coverage of additional regions and global topics as required, operating independently and taking accountability for outcomes.
• Lead end-to-end onboarding for new countries as the business expands into new markets and coordinate day-to-day onboarding and offboarding as point of contact for new hires and departing/transferring employees.
• Establish benefits, payroll inputs, policies, and Workday configuration for new markets, including relevant market research.
• Develop and maintain HR Services SOPs, lifecycle documentation, and country handbooks and Core pages across assigned markets.
• Manage employee digital personnel e-files and ensure Workday records remain accurate through regular reporting and controlling.
• Validate, retest, and ensure correct configuration of Workday and other core HR systems; own set-up, testing, and training (hub and local teams) of relevant HR case-management/service tools, including implementation.
• Design and maintain the payroll summary process bridging HR and Payroll execution, in addition to ensuring data completeness ahead of cut-off.
• Own resolution of major escalations, audits, and legacy liabilities as they arise across the region.
• Manage transfers globally across different entities, including complex cross-entity and cross-border cases.
• Liaise with Regional and Global Leads to ensure compliance with local labour laws and global standards, and support implementation of global processes, policies, and initiatives.
• Act as the knowledge anchor for assigned regions, coaching and upskilling hub colleagues, and contributing to training materials and knowledge-sharing for the HR Hub team.
• Serve as the HR point of contact for employees, managers, Recruiters, and HR Business Partners on employee lifecycle, benefits, absences, Workday, and related topics; escalate complex issues as needed.
• Propose and implement improvements to HR processes and the HR information system (Workday), driving efficiency and effectiveness.
• Maintain data integrity through queries, audits, and analysis.

Key Relationships:

• HR Business Partners
• Talent Acquisition Specialists
• Managers and Employees

Qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or related study is beneficial.
• Proficiency in Workday or similar HRIS platforms
• Highly proficient in the use of Microsoft Office suite, for example MS Word, Excel, etc

Work Experience & Skill Requirements:

• 7+ years of experience in HR operations or transactional shared services, particularly in environments supporting multiple countries.
• Experience in managing the employee lifecycle, onboarding, offboarding, HR administration or other relevant role.
• Highly skilled in analytical, problem-solving, and organisational skills.
• Advanced proficiency in both written and spoken English.
• Ability to interact with stakeholders at all levels.
• Comfortable working independently, cross function, in a dynamic environment.
• Has ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines, while committed to delivering high-quality service.
• Takes initiative, is attentive to detail and maintains a high level of accountability and ownership.
• Works well within a professional corporate environment, across teams and geographies.
• Ability to communicate in other languages such as Chinese or Spanish may be beneficial.

Who we are

Glencore is one of the world’s largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 60 commodities. Through a network of assets, customers and suppliers that spans the globe, we produce, process, recycle, source, market and distribute the commodities that advance everyday life.

 

With over 140,000 employees and contractors and a strong footprint in over 30 countries in both established and emerging regions for natural resources, our marketing and industrial activities are supported by a global network of offices.

 

Glencore’s customers are principally industrial consumers, such as those in the automotive, steel, power generation, battery manufacturing and oil sectors. We also provide financing, logistics and other services to producers and consumers of commodities.

Important informationThis material does not purport to contain all of the information you may wish to consider. For further important information, including in connection with forward-looking statements and other cautionary information, refer to the Important notice section of Glencore’s 2025 Annual Report, which is available at glencore.com/publications. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future events, results, performance, achievements or other outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. This document does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for any securities. Other informationThe companies in which Glencore plc directly and indirectly has an interest are separate and distinct legal entities. In this document, “Glencore”, “Glencore group” and “Group” are used for convenience only where references are made to Glencore plc and its subsidiaries in general. These collective expressions are used for ease of reference only and do not imply any other relationship between the companies. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer collectively to members of the Group or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies.​Note*: All applications will be subject to potential background checks. You will be informed if this will be the case. Further information about the processing of your personal data will be made available during the application process. We'll seek your explicit consent prior to processing the data.