The posting
Job Summary
The People & Culture Officer, Ghana is the in-market HR generalist responsible for supporting day-to-day people operations across the Ghana market. The role provides practical support across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, employee records, HR administration, payroll inputs, benefits coordination, employee relations support, performance cycle coordination, engagement activities and people reporting. The role works closely with employees and the regional People & Culture team to ensure HR processes are delivered consistently, accurately and in line with applicable Ghana employment requirements.
Key Responsibilities and Performance Areas
Market HR Support & People Operations
- Serve as the first point of contact for routine HR queries from employees and managers in the Ghana market.
- Provide timely HR generalist support across people operations, employee documentation, HR processes and employee lifecycle activities.
- Escalate complex, sensitive or high-risk matters to regional People & Culture leadership while ensuring local follow-through.
End-to-End Employee Lifecycle Delivery
- Coordinate local onboarding, probation tracking, confirmations, employee letters, contract changes, transfers, exits and offboarding documentation.
- Maintain accurate employee files, HR records and employee communications in line with company standards and Ghana labor requirements.
- Track lifecycle actions and ensure required approvals, documentation and follow-ups are completed within agreed timelines.
Employee Relations, Policy & Ghana Compliance
- Support managers and employees with routine employee relations matters, including documentation, meeting coordination, follow-ups and case tracking.
- Help ensure HR processes are administered in line with Ghana’s Labor Act, 2003 (Act 651), employment contract requirements, working time, leave, disciplinary processes, termination procedures and employee records standards.
- Escalate complex grievances, disciplinary matters, restructuring, redundancy or termination risks to regional People & Culture leadership for guidance.
Payroll, Benefits, Pensions & Statutory Inputs
- Prepare and submit accurate monthly payroll inputs, including new hires, exits, salary changes, leave, benefits, deductions, allowances and statutory changes.
- Support Finance, payroll and regional People & Culture with Ghana PAYE, SSNIT and benefits administration documentation.
- Respond to routine employee benefits and payroll queries and maintain supporting records for audit readiness.
HRIS, Records, Reporting & Data Protection
- Maintain accurate HRIS data, employee files, contracts, statutory records, leave records, payroll inputs and market people trackers.
- Prepare market reports on headcount, attrition, vacancies, employee movements, performance activity, leave trends, employee relations and compliance actions.
- Handle employee personal data responsibly in line with Ghana’s Data Protection Act, 2012, including accuracy, confidentiality, access control, retention and secure processing of employee records.
Talent, Performance, Learning & Engagement
- Support recruitment coordination, induction, talent reviews, succession discussions and manager follow-up for the Ghana market.
- Drive timely completion of goal setting, performance reviews, development planning and learning initiatives.
- Coordinate employee engagement actions, listening sessions, culture initiatives and market-level people communications.
Key Performance Indicators / Measurable Outputs
Performance Area
Measurable Evidence
Market HR Delivery
Managers and employees receive timely HR guidance, local people actions are implemented and issues are escalated appropriately.
Lifecycle & Employee Relations
Onboarding, probation, confirmations, changes, employee relations cases and exits are documented, compliant and completed within agreed timelines.
Ghana Compliance
Employment contracts, leave, working time, termination, disciplinary, pension, payroll and data records reflect applicable Ghana requirements.
Payroll, Pensions & Benefits
Payroll inputs are accurate, timely and supported by approved documentation; statutory and benefit inputs are tracked and audit-ready.
Reporting & Data Quality
Clean HRIS data, complete employee files, accurate people reports and clear market dashboards are available for leadership decision-making.
Role Requirements
Essential Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree or higher diploma in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Psychology, Social Sciences, Industrial Relations or a related field.
- 3–5 years’ HR generalist or people operations experience, ideally supporting onboarding, employee records, payroll inputs, HR administration, employee relations documentation and performance cycle coordination.
- Working knowledge of Ghana employment requirements, including employment contracts, leave, working hours, disciplinary documentation, termination processes and employee records.
- Basic understanding of Ghana payroll, PAYE, SSNIT, pension administration and statutory HR documentation requirements.
- Strong HRIS, Excel, reporting, documentation, confidentiality, follow-through and employee service skills.
Desirable Qualifications and Experience
- Professional membership, certification or active progression with the Chartered Institute of Human Resource Management, Ghana (CIHRM) or another recognized HR professional body.
- Experience supporting a country office, small market or business unit as an HR generalist or people operations officer.
- Exposure to employee relations case documentation, payroll provider coordination, statutory audits, labor inspections or pension administration in Ghana.
- Training in employment law, payroll administration, data protection, HR analytics or employee engagement.
Success Profile
A successful People & Culture Officer, Ghana is a dependable HR generalist who delivers accurate day-to-day people operations, supports managers and employees professionally, maintains strong documentation and knows when to escalate sensitive or complex matters.
- Balances employee advocacy, business partnering and compliance judgment.
- Handles sensitive employee relations matters with fairness, confidentiality and sound documentation.
- Keeps Ghana HR operations, statutory inputs, payroll support and employee records accurate and audit-ready.
- Builds manager confidence through timely advice, clear follow-through and practical people solutions.
Career Pathway
HR Officer / People Operations Specialist → People & Culture Officer, Ghana → Senior HR Business Partner / Regional People & Culture Manager
Progression is based on demonstrated HR generalist capability, quality of people operations delivery, employment relations judgment, Ghana compliance awareness, data accuracy, stakeholder confidence and readiness to take on broader market HR responsibility.
Company Profile
Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi - Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB InBev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Total, UNICEF, Unilever, and WWF amongst others. Ogilvy has a distinctive positioning and proposition that is key for current times, when clients desire a partner to help them realize their growth ambitions or to get back to growth. Simply put our ambition is to be, “The Best Platform and Partner for Growth on the Planet.”
This proposition is anchored on true shared value, what our world needs now, creating human(societal) value; employee value and commercial value. This proposition cuts across our key mega-businesses ABC (Advertising, Branding and Content), Experience (including CRM and e-commerce), PR & Influence and Media (focussed on performance marketing). In addition, we’ve created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, performance marketing, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. Our unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data, and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.
In our 20+ years in Africa, we have won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa), WARC Effectiveness; to name a few. Ogilvy is a leading global network of WPP. Launched by David Ogilvy over 70 years ago, it is referred-to as the Agency of Giants, by several industry experts. 2021 WARC rankings named Ogilvy, the #1 creative network in the world.
Ogilvy Beliefs
- People need regular OS upgrades: Even the best OS will be obsolete tomorrow unless its constantly upgrades. Same is true for people.
- We need more cows than milk men: We are a culture of practitioners, not managers. We contribute before we comment.
- Creative about creativity: Creativity is, and will always be, our differentiator. Creativity now includes holy trinity of Data -Content -Tech.
- Diversity is a competitive advantage: New profiles, new skills, new styles of leadership make us a stronger company.
- Collaborative advantage > Competitive advantage: Find partners who are on top of their game at the skillset we need. It’s the only way to scale at the speed without pretending to have all the answers.
- Team > Individual: You get a lot more done when everyone stops worrying about who gets credit at the end. Teams Succeed, individuals fail.
- Fail often, fail fast: We see entrepreneurs in all our people and encourage a culture of pilots. Test, succeed and scale; or fail-fast learn, learn from the failure, and start something new.
