Johannesburg: Senior HR & Administration Manager

About the Role

We are seeking an exceptional Senior HR & Administration Manager to join our client’s financial advisory business. This critical role requires a high-calibre individual with world-class organizational skills, strong financial numeracy, and a regulatory mindset. The successful candidate will act as the primary interface between the business, its employees, and key external service providers, managing a diverse portfolio of group risk and health benefit administration, advisor reserve fund management, regulatory compliance, HR operations, and formal legal hearing proceedings.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the sole custodian of the Group Risk benefit programme.
• Maintain the monthly Data Schedule Register and submit accurate employee updates (additions, removals, salary changes) to Discovery by the 15th of each month.
• Verify monthly billing statements, resolve discrepancies (such as mismatched salaries or incorrect premiums), and load approved recoupments and figures into the expense sheet for payroll.
• Assist employees with claims documentation (ICB, SIB, Life, Disability, Funeral), secure required Director authorizations, track progress, and securely manage all beneficiary nomination forms.
• Maintain an accurate internal Group Health Register, reconciling monthly medical aid billing statements against payroll deductions and resolving any variances.
• Serve as the primary contact for benefit queries, facilitate continuation options for resigning staff, and proactively advise employees approaching age 65.
• Reconcile internal registers with Investec and Ninety-One statements monthly to ensure zero open variances. Open new accounts ensuring full FICA and compliance requirements are met.
• Track deposits, fees, and interest. Process pre-authorized withdrawal requests from the Ninety-One platform and coordinate with the Finance department for payment releases.
• Issue monthly reserve fund statements and annual tax statements to advisors, responding promptly to queries.
• Preside over internal hearings in a fair, unbiased, and procedurally compliant manner.
• Partner closely with the company’s external legal advisors to review evidence, seek guidance on complex cases, and deliberate on outcomes. Sign off on written outcomes within legislated timeframes.
• Manage the full recruitment life cycle from job briefs to onboarding and filing contracts.
• Coordinate review cycles (KPI setting, mid-year, and annual appraisals) and partner with line managers to address concerns.
• Manage day-to-day employee relations, grievances, conflict resolution, and update HR policies in line with South African labour legislation.

Requirements

• Attention to Detail & Accuracy: Proven capability to catch errors in registers, billing statements, and financial schedules before they cause a compliance breach or financial loss.
• Financial Numeracy: Highly comfortable working with financial statements, fund balances, interest calculations, payroll deductions, and spotting variances immediately.
• Confidentiality & Integrity: Demonstrated ability to manage highly sensitive salary data, advisor balances, beneficiary information, and disciplinary records with absolute discretion.
• Regulatory & Compliance Mindset: Sound understanding of South African labour law, FAIS, FICA, POPIA, FSCA, and general employee benefit compliance.
• Organisational Excellence: Exceptionally organized, capable of managing multiple live registers, strict billing deadlines, and complex portfolios simultaneously.
• Emotional Intelligence & Resilience: Composed, empathetic, and professional when handling sensitive employee situations (vulnerable claims, hearings, terminations) and resilient under deadline pressure.
• Communication: Proactive communicator who solves queries independently and provides updates to stakeholders ahead of deadlines.

Qualifications

None specified

Salary & Benefits

Not mentioned