People and Culture Associate

The People and Culture Associate will serve as a trusted advisor to clients, providing expert guidance on people strategy, culture, and key components of human resources management. This role combines deep HR knowledge with consulting acumen to design, implement, and optimize frameworks across talent acquisition, performance management, employee relations, compensation & benefits, payroll management, and leadership development. A key component of the role is the accurate, timely, confidential, and compliant administration of payroll and employee benefits for Oakheed and assigned clients, including payroll input validation, reconciliations, statutory deductions, reporting, and resolution of employee payroll queries. The role will also support complex, site-based payroll environments covering national and expatriate employees, roster-based work patterns, site allowances, approved salary adjustments, statutory obligations, payroll controls, and monthly workforce-cost reporting. The consultant will assess client needs, benchmark best practices, and deliver tailored solutions that align people, culture, reward, and business goals. Success in this role requires strategic thinking, strong numerical and analytical skills, attention to detail, and the ability to translate insights into actionable outcomes that drive measurable impact for Oakheed’s clients. Key Responsibilities • Contribute to the execution of client projects covering people strategy development, culture diagnostic, talent Acquisition, talent Management, organizational development, employee engagement, compensation & benefits, HR technology and other key areas of HR management. • Conduct research and benchmarking as well as prepare exceptional analysis, reports and deliverables • Develop frameworks, tools, and policies tailored to client needs. • Maintain knowledge of HR requirements and government reporting regulations affecting human resources functions and ensure our client’s policies, procedures, and reporting comply. • Contribute top notch knowledge and expertise to address a broad range of client issues. • Contribute to the development and execution of Oakheed’s growth strategy, business development and operational execution. Specifically, developing new business relationships through networking, referrals and various forms of branding activities • Execute full life cycle of client engagement covering pitch development, project scoping, pricing and client management. • Manage end-to-end monthly payroll administration for assigned clients, ensuring payroll is processed accurately, confidentially, and within agreed timelines. • Maintain the payroll calendar and coordinate the timely collection, validation, and approval of payroll inputs, including new hires, exits, salary changes, allowances, bonuses, commissions, overtime, leave, timesheets, loans, and deductions. • Prepare payroll schedules, verify gross-to-net calculations, conduct pre-payroll and post-payroll checks, investigate variances, and complete payroll reconciliations before and after payment. • Coordinate payroll approvals, salary disbursement instructions, payslip generation, and secure distribution of payroll information in line with established authorization controls. • Ensure the correct calculation, deduction, reporting, and remittance of applicable payroll taxes, pension contributions, social insurance, and other statutory or voluntary deductions, while maintaining complete supporting records and audit trails. • Maintain accurate and confidential employee compensation and payroll records, promptly update employee master data, and ensure consistency between payroll, HR records, contracts, attendance, and approved compensation changes. • Respond to employee and client payroll enquiries professionally, investigate discrepancies, implement corrections, and track issues to resolution within agreed service levels. • Administer employee benefits, including enrolment, changes, renewals, claims support, eligibility validation, vendor coordination, and reconciliation of benefit invoices and deductions. • Support compensation projects such as salary benchmarking, job grading, pay structure development, salary reviews, incentive design, and analysis of internal equity and market competitiveness. • Prepare periodic payroll, compensation, benefits, headcount, and personnel-cost reports to support management decisions, budgeting, forecasting, audits, and client reporting. • Develop and maintain payroll and benefits procedures, checklists, controls, templates, and service standards, and identify opportunities to improve accuracy, efficiency, employee experience, and compliance. • Support the selection, implementation, testing, and continuous improvement of payroll, HRIS, and benefits administration systems and service providers. Complex Client Specific Payroll Management • Coordinate and validate monthly payroll for assigned clients for national and expatriate employees, ensuring all approved payroll inputs are received, checked, documented, and processed within the agreed payroll calendar. • Maintain a controlled payroll-input process covering new hires, exits, promotions, transfers, salary adjustments, grade changes, roster movements, unpaid leave, overtime, acting allowances, site allowances, bonuses, retention payments, and other approved employee changes. • Reconcile payroll data against approved manpower plans, employee contracts, attendance and timesheet records, HR master data, on-site employee changes, and approved monthly workforce and headcount lists to prevent omissions, duplicate payments, and unauthorized changes. • Support the administration of payroll for a mixed workforce, including local employees, expatriates, consultants, and project-based personnel, while ensuring the correct application of contractual terms, roster arrangements, allowances, and approved payment instructions. • Prepare and maintain monthly payroll variance reports showing movements in headcount, base pay, allowances, deductions, bonuses, statutory costs, and total personnel cost, with clear explanations for material month-on-month changes. • Coordinate the accurate application of applicable payroll taxes, pension or social security contributions, and other statutory or contractual deductions and remittances, maintaining evidence of payment, reconciliations, and complete audit-ready records. • Administer approved employee reward and benefit provisions, including 13th-month payments, expatriate retention bonuses, accommodation-related payments or opt-out arrangements, leave-related adjustments, and other company-approved benefits. • Support payroll clean-up and control initiatives by identifying historical discrepancies, correcting employee master data, resolving duplicate or inaccurate records, and strengthening maker-checker, approval, and documentation controls. • Partner with Finance, site HR, department heads, payroll providers, banks, and relevant government agencies to resolve payroll discrepancies, validate payment files, confirm remittances, and respond to employee payroll enquiries promptly and confidentially. • Support annual salary reviews, market benchmarking, grade and salary-structure implementation, collective bargaining-related pay changes, and the costing of operational-readiness and project manpower requirements. • Maintain payroll dashboards and workforce and personnel-cost trackers that distinguish current headcount, forecast positions, on-site changes, national and expatriate costs, and approved versus unapproved manpower movements. • Provide payroll data and supporting schedules for internal reviews, external audits, client management, governance, or executive reporting, workforce planning, budgeting, forecasting, and management decision-making. Your Minimum Qualifications • Human Resource professional with 4+ years of progressive HR experience with extensive knowledge in Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, HR Strategy, Compensation & Benefits, Organizational Design & Transformation, Learning & Development, Leadership & Succession Planning • Strong background in developing and executing HR programs and initiatives • Experience in consulting or project-based HR work is an advantage • Excellent communication, research, and document development skills • Ability to work independently and thrive in a remote, fast-paced environment • Exceptional use of Word and Excel for document development and data analysis. • Exceptional use of PowerPoint, Canva, Envato etc. in preparing presentations and cutting-edge proposal writing experience. • At least 3 years of hands-on experience in payroll administration and compensation & benefits, with demonstrated responsibility for payroll inputs, validation, reconciliation, reporting, and employee query resolution. • Working knowledge of applicable payroll legislation and statutory obligations, including PAYE, pension, social insurance, and other required deductions and remittances. • Strong numerical ability and advanced Excel skills, including the use of formulas, lookups, pivot tables, reconciliations, and data validation for payroll and compensation analysis. • Experience using payroll software, HRIS platforms, or outsourced payroll providers; experience supporting system implementation or process improvement is advantageous. • Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive compensation and employee information with discretion, confidentiality, and strong internal-control discipline. • Experience supporting payroll in a site-based or mining payroll environment with national, expatriate, roster-based, consultant, and project personnel is highly desirable. • Practical knowledge of payroll requirements across relevant client jurisdictions, including payroll taxes, pension or social security obligations, statutory remittances, documentation, and audit support, is an advantage. • Ability to manage high-volume payroll changes and workforce-cost reconciliations across multiple employee categories, locations, cost centres, and manpower plans. About you • Must be client-focused with a service delivery mindset and eye for detail to ensure high standards for work quality. • Ability to foster strong relationships with our client groups and at the same time build a sense of camaraderie within the team across different locations • Experience in a high-growth environment is advantageous. • Must be an extremely hard-working, dedicated, dependable, and reliable individual known for being proactive and taking initiative. • Exceptional networking skills and ability to bridge divides to meet Oakheed’s needs at any point. • Strong interpersonal skills, ability to communicate and manage relationships effectively. • Strong problem-solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions based on accurate and timely analyses • High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results- orientation About your expertise • Communication skills: Superior communication skills, both in written and verbal form; must have a good understanding of tact and diplomacy and a strong ability to positively influence outcomes and obtain high levels of cooperation. • Research & Analytical Skills: Strategic thinker with ability to analyze data and present it to diverse audience. Excellent knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and ability to leverage them for effectiveness. • Excellent organizational and time management skills: must be punctual and complete all assignments in a timely fashion and must be able to manage multiple and sometimes conflicting objectives in a professional and seamless manner. • Collaborative Business Partner: Excellent business acumen and ability to understand business strategy, work across business units, support managers and manage working relationships at all levels of the company. • Interpersonal Skills: Flexible, open, and welcoming to change, agile, have an ability to work in a constantly evolving environment, have an executive presence, have a positive can-do attitude, be result oriented, be self- motivated and proactive, and have an ability to work comfortably with collaborative personnel and senior business executives and stakeholders. • Payroll Accuracy & Control: Strong attention to detail and ability to validate payroll inputs, identify exceptions, reconcile results, maintain audit trails, and consistently deliver error-free payroll within deadlines. • Compensation & Benefits Administration: Practical understanding of salary structures, allowances, incentives, statutory and voluntary benefits, vendor administration, employee enrolment, and benefit-cost reconciliation. • Data Confidentiality & Integrity: Demonstrates sound judgment, discretion, and strict confidentiality when handling salary, bank, tax, personal, and other sensitive employee information. • Service Delivery: Ability to explain payroll and benefits matters clearly, respond to employee and client enquiries with empathy and professionalism, and resolve discrepancies promptly. • Complex Workforce Payroll Management: Ability to manage payroll across national, expatriate, consultant, roster-based, and project employee populations while applying different contractual terms and approved reward provisions accurately. • Payroll Governance & Audit Readiness: Strong control mindset with the ability to maintain approval evidence, reconciliations, statutory-payment records, variance explanations, and complete payroll audit trails. • Workforce Costing & Reporting: Ability to connect payroll data to manpower plans, grades, compensation structures, departmental budgets, operational-readiness forecasts, and management reporting. About you • Must be client-focused with a service delivery mindset and eye for detail to ensure high standards for work quality. • Ability to foster strong relationships with our client groups and at the same time build a sense of camaraderie within the team across different locations • Experience in a high-growth environment is advantageous. • Must be an extremely hard-working, dedicated, dependable, and reliable individual known for being proactive and taking initiative. • Exceptional networking skills and ability to bridge divides to meet Oakheed’s needs at any point. • Strong interpersonal skills, ability to communicate and manage relationships effectively. • Strong problem-solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions based on accurate and timely analyses • High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results- orientation About your expertise • Communication skills: Superior communication skills, both in written and verbal form; must have a good understanding of tact and diplomacy and a strong ability to positively influence outcomes and obtain high levels of cooperation. • Research & Analytical Skills: Strategic thinker with ability to analyze data and present it to diverse audience. Excellent knowledge of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and ability to leverage them for effectiveness. • Excellent organizational and time management skills: must be punctual and complete all assignments in a timely fashion and must be able to manage multiple and sometimes conflicting objectives in a professional and seamless manner. • Collaborative Business Partner: Excellent business acumen and ability to understand business strategy, work across business units, support managers and manage working relationships at all levels of the company. • Interpersonal Skills: Flexible, open, and welcoming to change, agile, have an ability to work in a constantly evolving environment, have an executive presence, have a positive can-do attitude, be result oriented, be self- motivated and proactive, and have an ability to work comfortably with collaborative personnel and senior business executives and stakeholders. • Payroll Accuracy & Control: Strong attention to detail and ability to validate payroll inputs, identify exceptions, reconcile results, maintain audit trails, and consistently deliver error-free payroll within deadlines. • Compensation & Benefits Administration: Practical understanding of salary structures, allowances, incentives, statutory and voluntary benefits, vendor administration, employee enrolment, and benefit-cost reconciliation. • Data Confidentiality & Integrity: Demonstrates sound judgment, discretion, and strict confidentiality when handling salary, bank, tax, personal, and other sensitive employee information. • Service Delivery: Ability to explain payroll and benefits matters clearly, respond to employee and client enquiries with empathy and professionalism, and resolve discrepancies promptly. • Complex Workforce Payroll Management: Ability to manage payroll across national, expatriate, consultant, roster-based, and project employee populations while applying different contractual terms and approved reward provisions accurately. • Payroll Governance & Audit Readiness: Strong control mindset with the ability to maintain approval evidence, reconciliations, statutory-payment records, variance explanations, and complete payroll audit trails. • Workforce Costing & Reporting: Ability to connect payroll data to manpower plans, grades, compensation structures, departmental budgets, operational-readiness forecasts, and management reporting.