Manager Human Capital

Job description / Role

Objective:

This position is responsible for high volume recruitment in a fast-paced environment. The position also must find and source candidates by conducting college visits, attending career fairs, attending network events, and by leveraging social media.
Ensure smooth onboarding process of the new employees and assist with the day-to-day operations of the Human Resources functions.

Key responsibility:

HR business partnering & workforce support

• Partner with brand managers and function heads to address people-related requirements including manpower planning, organizational changes, and internal mobility.
• Support workforce planning initiatives by analyzing staffing trends, attrition data, and upcoming business needs.
• Participate in discussions around talent development, performance concerns, and capability gaps, and escalate strategic needs to senior HR leadership.
• Promote and reinforce a high-performance and values-driven culture through timely interventions, coaching, and follow-up.
• Serve as the first point of contact for HR advisory on day-to-day employee lifecycle and talent concerns for assigned functions.

Organizational development & talent enablement

• Collaborate with Centers of Excellence (COEs) to coordinate talent processes such as mid-year and annual performance reviews, probation evaluations, and development plans.
• Facilitate identification of top performers and potential successors for key roles, working with HR leadership to support talent retention.
• Roll out training nominations, learning sessions, and coaching initiatives as per business capability development needs.

Employee engagement & experience

• Implement employee engagement activities including brand town halls, birthday recognitions, employee feedback collection, and rewards programs.
• Communicate organizational changes, HR programs, and cultural initiatives to employees, ensuring transparency and alignment with company values.
• Handle escalated employee relations issues including conflict resolution, performance conversations, and warnings in consultation with the assistant manager/senior manager.

Policy adherence & HR process excellence

• Ensure compliance with established HR policies and procedures across brands, stores, and functions.
• Identify improvement areas in onboarding, confirmation, and offboarding processes, and recommend process enhancements.
• Collaborate with the HC Operations team to ensure data accuracy, HRMS updates, and documentation compliance.
• Maintain familiarity with labor laws and internal controls applicable to HR operations, escalating complex matters for resolution.

HR reporting & data insights

• Support the preparation of HR dashboards and workforce reports in MS Excel by collecting and validating data on headcount, turnover, absenteeism, and engagement metrics.
• Highlight trends or issues requiring attention and suggest potential solutions to HR leadership.
• Maintain trackers related to confirmations, performance reviews, transfers, and resignations for assigned business units.

Team collaboration & budget monitoring

• Assist in monitoring workforce and recruitment budgets by aligning approved headcount with hiring plans and managing overtime/workforce costs.
• Participate in manpower reviews and budget preparation exercises as needed.
• Coordinate with recruitment, payroll, L&D, and operations teams to ensure smooth execution of integrated HR services.

Desired experience:

The ideal manager - human capital in a retail company should have 7+ years of progressive experience in human resource, HRMS, or administration. Proven success in driving high level cross functional collaboration, enhancing customer engagement, and achieving and exceeding sales KPI targets for stores.

About the Company

The Apparel Group is a global fashion and lifestyle brand conglomerate residing on the crossroads of a modern economy - Dubai, UAE. The mercurial growth in the last 17 years has been by acquiring a host of world class fashion labels from around the world - Nine West, Tommy Hilfiger, Kenneth Cole, Aldo & Tim Hortons just to name a few.

Today the group caters to thousands of eager shoppers through its over 1530 stores, 75 International brands and employing 12,000 multi cultural staff in over 4 continents. Apparel believes in turning dreams in to reality and we give everyone - our customers, our stakeholders, our employees - an equal opportunity to do so.

Apparel group has carved its strong presence not only in the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia but opened thriving gateways to market in India, South Africa, Poland, Singapore, Jordan, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Additionally, clear strategies are in place to enter emerging markets such as Hungary, Pakistan, Egypt and Philippines.