Senior People Partner

Job description / Role

Inspire | Exhilarate | Delight

For over six decades, Chalhoub Group has been a partner and creator of luxury experiences in the Middle East. The Group, in its endeavour to excel as a hybrid retailer, has reinforced its distribution and marketing services with a portfolio of eight owned brands and over 300 international brands in the luxury, beauty, fashion, and art de vivre categories. More recently, the Group expanded its expertise into new categories of luxury watches, jewellery, and eyewear.

Every step at Chalhoub Group is taken with the customer at heart. Be it constantly reinventing itself or focusing on innovation to provide luxury experiences at over 750 experiential retail stores, online and through mobile apps, each touchpoint leads to delighting the customer.

Today, Chalhoub Group stands for 14,000 skilled and talented professionals across seven countries, whose cohesive efforts have resulted in the Group being ranked third in the Middle East and first in Saudi Arabia as a Great Place to Work.

To keep the innovation journey going, the Group has set up "The Greenhouse," which is not just an innovation hub, but also an incubator space and accelerator for start-ups and small businesses in the region and internationally. This is just one of the several initiatives taken by the Group to reinvent itself, catalysed by forward thinking and future-proofing. The Group has also been embedding sustainability at the core of its business strategy with a clear commitment towards people, partners, and the planet, and by being a member of the United Nations Global Compact Community and signatory of the Women's Empowerment Principles.

What you'll be doing

We are looking for a Senior People Partner to drive the people strategy and culture agenda across multiple brands and markets across the MENA region. The ideal candidate would have an extensive background in building, creating, and developing high-performing teams across various functions and markets. Someone who thrives in fast-paced, dynamic, and agile environments, and who has a true passion for fostering the most engaging environment to work in. The right candidate would be able to curate strategies and optimal ways of working to cater to the long-term business vision of each of the brands within the portfolio.

• Define, develop, and implement the people vision to align with each of the business strategies.
• Act as the guardian of the people culture; developing and deploying initiatives to optimize people engagement across both frontline and back-office teams.
• Be present on a consistent basis across all business locations in the MENA region, providing continuous engagement, partnership, and support to all stakeholders.
• Ensure to have a continuous pulse of competitor and industry approaches, translating these key commercial insights to be considered in ways to have a competitive advantage from a people standpoint.
• In partnership with the director of people, ensure a continuous review of organizational structures, operating models, and ways of working to ensure both roles and incumbents are fit for future.
• Provide continuous coaching and mentoring for the leadership population to ensure their approach to driving their teams is aligned with best practice to create the best possible working environment, culture, and drive optimal productivity.
• Drive the annual manpower planning, budgeting, performance appraisal, and salary review cycles in partnership with each of the business functions.
• Encourage and instill a continuous growth mindset; driving the strategic development and career planning of key talents, key roles, and critical successors while ensuring diversity and inclusion is considered in all decisions.
• Ensure a strong talent management agenda is in place to drive retention of high performers across all businesses and functions, while simultaneously ensuring that inconsistent performers are managed with priority.
• Provide guidance and recommendations on complex people-related issues, working to improve relationships while building morale and minimizing impact on business and retention risks.
• Champion any group-wide or division-specific change initiatives; identifying and mitigating risks, while ensuring the smoothest possible transition with least impact on business continuity.
• Work closely with the group talent acquisition team to ensure internal and external recruiting strategies result in fit-for-future, best-in-class talent to suit each of our brand's DNA.

What you'll need to succeed

• 8+ years within HR generalist or specialist role(s).
• 2-3+ years retail specific experience ideally within multibrand and/or travel retail.
• Solid commercial acumen either on a global or regional scale.
• Arabic speaker preferred.
• Extensive background in talent management and engagement.
• Passion for building high-performing teams.
• High confidence in dealing with diverse cultures and personalities.
• Strength in collaborating and tailoring communication for highest impact.
• Futuristic approach to people partnering.
• Thrive in operating with ambiguity and driving change.

What we can offer you

With us, you will turn your aspirations into reality. We will help shape your journey through enriching experiences, learning and development opportunities, and exposure to different assignments within your role or through internal mobility. Our Group offers diverse career paths for those who are extraordinary, every day.

We recognise the value that you bring, and we strive to provide a competitive benefits package which includes health care, child education contribution, remote and flexible working policies as well as exclusive employee discounts.

We invite all applicants to apply

It takes diversity of thought, culture, background, differing abilities, and perspectives to truly inspire, exhilarate, and delight our customers. At Chalhoub Group, we are committed to inclusion and diversity.

We welcome all applicants to apply and be part of our exciting future. We ensure equal opportunity for all our applicants without regard to gender, age, race, religion, national origin, or disability status.

Department: People & Culture

About the Company

The Chalhoub Group is the leading partner for luxury across the Middle East since 1955. As an expert in retail, distribution and marketing services based in Dubai, the group has become a major player in the fashion, beauty and gift sectors regionally.

By blending its Middle East expertise and intimate knowledge of luxury, Chalhoub Group is building brands in the region, by offering service excellence to all its partners and a unique experience to its customers through its passionate teams.

With a growing workforce of more than 9,000 people, implemented in 14 countries, as well as the operating of over 470 retail outlets, the group's success is attributed to its most valued asset of highly skilled and dedicated teams. Professionalism and passion are what fuel the Chalhoub Group's competitive edge in today's market.

By being committed to implementing sustainable practices into their business, the Chalhoub Group has been awarded in 2013 the CSR Label from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.