The Convergence Foundation - Team Lead/Program Manager - Human Resources

Human Resource

Position : The Convergence Foundation, Human Resources, Team Lead (TL)/Program Manager (PM)

About The Convergence Foundation :

Ashish Dhawan is one of India's leading philanthropists. He founded and ran one of India's first private equity funds, ChrysCapital, and in the last decade has helped build successful institutions (for e.g., Ashoka University) and strategic foundations (for e.g., Central Square Foundation, which works on school education reform). More recently, these include organisations that are working on building a better understanding between India and East Asia, improving the performance of the public sector, solving the air pollution crisis, and improving the pipeline of leadership and talent in the social sector.

We are now setting up The Convergence Foundation to do this in an institutionalized manner - identify critical voids in the social sector and build strong, long-lasting organisations to solve complex problems.

In order to ensure that our organisations reach their maximum potential, The Convergence Foundation will work closely with each of the organisations and provide strategic support in a variety of ways : developing deep connections with the broader ecosystem (including the government, donors, and others influencers), recruiting best-in-class talent, building a strong brand and network of champions, initiating cross-learning between organisations, and building fundraising capacity.

While each organisation works in a different area, their common playbook includes :

What Convergence means to us :

- Convergence as economic catch-up : India's share of world GDP has fallen drastically from ~25% in the 1700s to just over 4% today. Rapid convergence of India's share of world GDP with that of advanced economies will ensure we lift millions of people out of poverty and create a prosperous Indian society by mid-century.

- Convergence as a platform for like-minded philanthropists : We also envision Convergence Foundation to be a focal point for philanthropists across the ecosystem to work together towards common goals - particularly those who believe that economic growth is the engine for societal progress, and who strongly believe that building systems-change institutions is the best way to create lasting social impact. In addition, we aim to create a thriving Global South ecosystem that enables knowledge sharing and collaboration between countries, organisations, and people.

Our Ambition :

- Ashoka University (est. 2010)

- Central Square Foundation (est. 2012)

- Air Pollution Action Group (est. 2019)

- Asian Century Foundation (est. 2019)

- India Leaders for Social Sector (est. 2017)

- Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (est. 2019)

- Accelerate Indian Philanthropy (est. 2021)

- Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (est. 2021)

Some of these organisations are a collective effort and have been co-founded along with other philanthropists/sector leaders

Position Summary :

The portfolio organisations are run by senior leaders who have previously held key leadership positions at established institutions across sectors, such as Airtel, Whirlpool, Bharti Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ashoka University, and Dasra. We are looking for a committed, motivated, and intellectually curious individual who will work alongside the Head of Human Resources to identify the skills, experiences, and competencies required for the success of each organisation and make our organisations the best place to work in the social sector. At The Convergence Foundation, we strongly believe that people are critical to the success of an organisation. When it comes to people, we believe in Jim Collins's theory of "getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats".

Role Mission :

- The TL/PM will be responsible for talent acquisition, employee experience, and people-related processes. This will involve c0-creating and implementing the talent acquisition strategy for The Convergence Foundation and for each portfolio organisation, and creating and implementing people-oriented processes to ensure each employee is satisfied and working to their full potential.

The role requires supporting the portfolio organisations in a variety of ways, including talent acquisition, organisation development, talent management, performance reviews, goal-setting, learning and development, and other areas. This is a great opportunity for those who enjoy working in a start-up environment, enjoy building and scaling organisations, and care deeply about the impact sector. Whether it involves aiding in the hiring for key roles, strategy planning that will enable organisations to unlock scale, or supporting performance management for all employees, the Human Resources team will work on some of the most exciting and challenging projects at The Convergence Foundation.

Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to :

- Talent Mapping and Acquisition :

- Map job profiles to relevant talent pools in nonprofits, for-profit organisations and academic institutions

- Identify high quality active and passive candidates interested in the impact sector and proactively engage via founders' and senior leaders' networks, talent partner relationships, alumni programs, consulting organisations, campus placement drives and other innovative sources

- Understand resource requirements for thematic areas and verticals, design appropriate job profiles, and identify the appropriate talent acquisition strategy

- Conduct extensive outbound candidate outreach via internal team and search partners (gradually reduce dependence on external partners by building internal search capacity)

- Create, maintain and update an accurate and searchable database with appropriate metrics to track and monitor resource requirements in a timely manner

- Engage with inactive candidates and convert them into potential active candidates

- Create and implement strong candidate selection processes including interview protocols, psychometrics and reference checks.

- Employer Branding :

- Augment the employer branding strategy and ensure implementation of the short-term and long-term deliverables carved out for the portfolio organisations

- Develop a strong multi-pronged employer branding plan including blogs, videos, podcasts, webinars/events and other relevant talent engagement tools

- Organisational Development :

- Design and implement learning and development programs for management and employees working in constantly changing environments

- Align talent strategies and actions to the organisations' strategies

- Assist organisations' leaders to pioneer innovative approaches, streamline processes, and empower employees to perform to their maximum potential

- Operational processes :

- Drive a high performance work culture across all the portfolio organisations

- Handle the performance management cycle process from start to end and monitor timely and accurate completion of the appraisals

- Contribute towards the automation of performance management systems

- Design and implement core processes that can be used quickly and effectively to build and scale new organisations while also allowing room to make changes as per organisation-to-organisation requirements

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities :

The ideal candidate should have the following qualifications and skills that are required for this role :

- A Master's degree from a top tier institution in a relevant field including business, industrial/organisational psychology, human resources, communications, or a related field

- 3-6 years of work experience in a sales/marketing/talent acquisition role demonstrating strong research and leadership skills

- Excellent networking and relationship-building skills and the ability to recognize, inspire and connect with the best-in-class talent

- Excellent presentation skills, with the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with external audiences

- Strong planning and organisational skills, and an ability to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines

Personal Characteristics and Desired Qualities designation of TL/PM will be based on years of relevant work experience

- Thrives on building strong networks, nurturing relationships with high-quality talent in the corporate and social sector, and wants to work with top leaders in system-change organisations to help build them from the ground up

- Desire to work in a fast-paced environment and with a strong sales mindset and go-getter attitude towards talent acquisition

- Willingness and ability to commit the next few years to developing a strong social sector network

- Highly motivated and able to work independently to agreed goals and targets and take ownership of the overall recruitment strategy and process of the portfolio organisations

- High ability to collaborate and actively listen to others, understanding and valuing others' views

- Ability to learn about new sectors quickly and to run a thorough and high-quality search process, including leadership candidate search, outreach, engagement, and evaluation

- Operating style suited to working in a small-organisation setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued

- Excellent leadership skills, including the ability to manage multiple high-volume roles simultaneously

- Adaptable and flexible to changing circumstances and needs of the role, including flexibility in working hours to ensure coordination with key candidates in different locations and time zones

- Demonstrate sensitivity, confidentiality and discretion in their interactions and engagement with prospective and active candidates, beyond the recruitment process

Compensation : Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate's experience.

Location : New Delhi, India