People & HR Manager

About Global Schools Forum  

 
Global Schools Forum (GSF) is a collaborative community of non-state organisations working to improve education at scale for underserved children in low and middle-income countries. 

Our vision is that all children can realise their potential through safe access to quality education.  

Since our establishment in 2017, we’ve grown our community to over 165 organisations spanning over 65 countries, collectively running or supporting over 1.4 m schools and centres and providing education to well over 126 million children.  

Our community comprises standalone schools, such as MAIA Impact working with Mayan girls in Guatemala; school networks working within or across countries, including organisations like Hippocampus working in India or United World Schools working in Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal and Madagascar; and organisations providing core support services to non-state schools, such as EdPartners Africa that provides financial services to schools in Kenya or Instill Education that provides a variety of teacher development offers across Africa. 

GSF’s strategy currently covers three core areas: 

Strengthening and growing a global, interconnected learning community. We are continuously expanding our community of mission-aligned, non-state organisations across Asia, Africa, and South America. We provide opportunities for our community of leaders to collaborate and learn from each other as they confront shared operational and pedagogical challenges. Based on the needs and challenges of the community, we curate an annual programme of events and communities of practice. 
Testing promising solutions and diffusing evidence. We fund and support education entrepreneurs to develop, test and scale promising education approaches. We generate and share evidence on ‘what works’ in education and what makes organisations more effective. 

Partnering strategically to shape policy and scale solutions. We enable our community to engage in the strengthening of education systems by engaging in global policy processes, and with support in forging partnerships with other organisations, funders, and policymakers. 

We are a small, fully-remote global team with colleagues based in the UK and across Africa and Asia, reflecting the communities in which we work. 

Our Values are central to everything we do as a team, as a global community and in our engagements with partners, funders and the global education community: 

• Collaboration: We leverage each other's strengths and knowledge to drive and amplify purpose driven collective action. 

• Intentional Inclusivity: We cultivate and celebrate diversity of backgrounds, culture, perspectives, and approaches promoting inclusivity and mutual respect. 

• Continuous Improvement: We commit to continuously learning, improving, and innovating, while sharing best practices and failures. 

• Honesty and Transparency: We conduct ourselves with integrity, openness, accountability and kindness. 

Role Purpose 

GSF is an ambitious global education organisation with a fully remote global team. We have evolved fast since we were founded in 2017 and spun out as a fully independent organisation in 2021. Now entering a new strategic period this is an exciting time to join and support the growth and development of our ambitious team.  

As the team grows, we are looking for someone who is as passionate about fostering an inclusive collaborative working culture as they are about developing an efficient and compliant HR function. Reporting to the Operations Director, you will lead on developing and implementing policies and practices in line with GSF values and ensuring the smooth running of HR processes across the employee life cycle. 

As an integral member of a growing entrepreneurial team, no task will be too big or small. You will be the primary owner of GSF HR activities, working independently and in collaboration with colleagues across the whole team, to develop, embed and maintain systems, processes and activities that support the development of a happy, motivated and skilled team and a positive and collaborative working culture.  

You will lead on implementing recruitment, selection, onboarding and offboarding processes, supporting employee and team development and performance management, running culture building activities and initiatives and ensuring compliance across all stages of the employee journey for both UK and global team members.  

Key activities in the coming year will include rolling out our new Employer of Record partnership for the global team and refreshing our policies and practices to ensure we retain an equitable experience for all GSF team members wherever they are in the world.

Responsibilities 

HR Planning   

• Creating and delivering annual HR work plans aligned with GSF’s strategy, values and the changing needs of the GSF team. 

• Workforce planning in close collaboration with Senior Management Team (SMT) members, to ensure that we have the right people in the right roles to deliver our strategy. 

People, team and culture  

• Working with the Operations Director and wider SMT to build a high-performing, psychologically safe, values-led GSF team and culture.  

• Building strong cross-organisational relationships as a foundation for effective change management and continuous improvement. 

• Planning and delivering employee engagement and culture building activities including leading the delivery of two annual team retreats and designing and managing the year-round cycle of whole team meetings, leveraging good practice approaches for remote teams. 

• Managing our professional development offer including required training via iHasco, individual budgets and team-wide development activities to encourage team cohesion and professional growth. 

• Communicating openly and regularly with team members about people and culture related developments and activities. 

HR Operations 

• Developing and implementing HR policies for our global team that are values aligned, legally compliant, and regularly reviewed. 

• Developing and maintaining fair and inclusive processes and practices across the employee life cycle for a globally distributed, fully remote team, including providing support and guidance for managers on their implementation.  

• Managing and continually improving inclusive, values aligned recruitment, selection, contracting and onboarding processes for a fully remote team and managing the platforms used for the same (Workable, CharlieHR, Skuad). 

• Overseeing and continually improving performance management practices that are developmental, supportive, and reflective of individual and team contributions. 

• Developing and tracking HR data and KPI reporting to evaluate progress in people and culture initiatives and adjust where relevant in response to findings.  

• Implementing the annual team survey and developing future plans that respond to results 

• Documenting standardised HR processes to support consistent application across GSF. 

• Acting as the first point of call for HR queries from the team. 

• Providing guidance and support on HR matters to managers across GSF. 

Pay, Progression and Benefits 

• Promoting equitable pay, terms, and recognition practices in line with our values. 

• Rolling out our new Employer of Record partnership, transitioning existing global team members smoothly across and onboarding new global hires. 

• Overseeing payroll and pension administration, working with the Finance Manager and our external payroll and pension provider TPT, (UK team) and Employer of Record Skuad (Global team). 

• Conducting an annual review of GSF salary scales to ensure we continue to present an attractive offer for current and future team members. 

• Managing GSF role banding documentation and the creation of aligned job descriptions and recruitment materials. 

• Identifying and implementing appropriate benefits for our global team.  

Compliance 

• Ensuring adherence to legal and regulatory requirements for a UK registered, globally operating organisation. 

• Maintaining robust, GDPR-compliant employee records and HR reporting. 

 Other 

• Support the development and expansion of GSF more broadly, engaging with cross-organisational priority projects.  

Person Specification  

• HR Generalist – You have experience in a similarly broad role within a comparable sector or organisation. 

• People centred – you prioritise developing a happy, motivated and skilled team as the most important aspect of your role.  

• Compliance conscious – You have knowledge of GDPR, UK employment laws, regulations & best practices and experience developing compliant, people centred policies and processes. 

• Pragmatic and practical  - You are able to successfully balance the needs of the individual with the operational and strategic needs of the organisation.  

• Proactivity and solution orientation – You’ll be a self-starter, able to work independently and show initiative in identifying areas for improvement and implementing solutions.  

• Planning and organising - You’ll have strong planning and time management skills with the ability to effectively manage multiple priorities and stakeholders.   

• Collaborative team player – You value others’ ideas, skills, perspectives and contributions and work actively with colleagues across the organisation . 

• Engaging facilitator – You have experience facilitating meetings, workshops and trainings in an engaging way both online and in person.  

• Honesty and transparency – you share information and updates in a clear and transparent way, when things are going to plan and when they aren’t.  

• Commitment to continuous improvement – you are committed to actively developing and sharing your knowledge and skills, to seeking and applying feedback and to continually improving the team and culture at GSF.  

• Intentionally inclusive – You are committed to understanding, respecting and collaborating with colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels. You have strong knowledge of EDI issues for a global organisation and experience developing policies and processes that prioritise an equitable experience for all colleagues.  

• Attention-to-detail - You’ll be someone who prides yourself on getting the details right, with experience of managing high-volume workloads, without compromising on quality and accuracy.  

• Flexibility - You’ll be comfortable working in a young, fully remote organisation. You’ll be quick to adapt to changes in priorities and tasks.  

• Communication - You’ll have excellent written and oral communication skills, and experience communicating effectively with a range of audiences in a range of formats.  

• Tech literacy – You’ll be proficient in working with the Microsoft 365 suite and other platforms and tools that make remote work possible .  

• Passion and motivation - You’ll be passionate about education and making a difference, with a strong work ethic and willingness to get stuck in.  

Terms and Conditions 

Salary: £30,000-£48,000 with scope for progression over time. Salaries are set within this band with reference to candidates' experience and global location and paid in local currency.  

Contract: Two-year fixed term with expectation of extension.  
Hours: Full Time, typically 9-5 in your time zone, but with significant flexibility. Given that we work across different time zones, some non-traditional hours for early or late calls may occasionally be required. 

Location: We are a fully remote organisation. We welcome applications from the UK where we are headquartered and the global south where we operate, with a preference for a time zone between GMT-2 to GMT+5:30. Local work authorisation in your place of residence is required. Occasional international travel may be required. 
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible, subject to any notice periods. 

Responsible to: Philippa Frankl, Operations Director 

• 35 fully flexible holiday days (including flexible bank holidays)  

• Employee pension scheme 

• Flexible working - work from home or at a location that suits you and at the times that work best for you 

• Co-working space allowance  

• Personal learning and development budget  

• Access to GSF events  

• Access to Learning Platform iHasco  

• Annual team retreat 

How to Apply 

Application deadline:  9am BST Monday 30th June 

You will need to upload your CV and a cover letter detailing: 

• What excites you about GSF and this role in particular 

• Your achievements and experience as they relate to this job description  

• What you would do in this role to really make an impact 

Please note, we will not consider any applications unless they include a CV, cover letter and response to the points above, and/or if they have not been submitted through our Workable application portal.  

Recruitment Process:  

• Shortlisted candidates will be contacted shortly after the deadline with details about the next stages which will include interviews and written tasks 
• First-round interviews: w/c 7th July 

• Second-round interviews w/c 4th August 

If you apply, we will process your personal data for recruitment purposes only and in accordance with our Data Privacy Policy.  

GSF is committed to cultivating a fair and inclusive workplace, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, age, disability, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or faith.  

If this role isn't quite right for you but you like the idea of working at GSF, please submit your CV to  our talent pool and be the first to hear about new opportunities in future here: Global Schools Forum - Current Openings (workable.com)