Debrah Kiwara Email & Phone Number

Nairobi County, Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya

As Head of People, I lead the People Operations function including recruiting, people & culture, benefits, and development of the awesome people on our team!

Nairobi, Kenya

I lead the people operations (HR) function of the firm including performance management, talent development, overseeing recruiting for various roles, and HR compliance across all country offices.

Nairobi, Kenya

This role focuses on two of my greatest strength areas: setting up new systems and working on improving the operations of an organization, including the people operations.I work in the People operations function starting as a Senior Associate and currently the Manager overseeing the People Operations function. When I joined, this was a role that did not previously exist and therefore required setting up of systems and introducing effective and efficient ways of doing things. My main… Show more This role focuses on two of my greatest strength areas: setting up new systems and working on improving the operations of an organization, including the people operations.I work in the People operations function starting as a Senior Associate and currently the Manager overseeing the People Operations function. When I joined, this was a role that did not previously exist and therefore required setting up of systems and introducing effective and efficient ways of doing things. My main roles are the development and maintenance of HR policies, procedures and programs, improving existing systems, performance review for the full team, introduction of employee benefits such as health insurance and pension.In addition to this, I oversee the recruitment across all hires and across all four country offices. This includes but is not limited to developing Job Descriptions outlining what is expected, advertising new roles and shortlisting applicants, formulating the recruitment process and identifying key people for each stage, and moving candidates through the process in a timely manner. In the later stages of recruitment, I also conduct reference checks and finally make offers to successful candidates. Once the recruitment process is completed, I work with the L&D team to schedule onboarding sessions for new team members and ensured they got started off right. Some of my achievements include:- Introducing a new health insurance cover that had better benefits for our team- Setting up a pension scheme accessible to those who were interested- Revamping the bi-annual review process and coordinating all the different moving parts, including collection of adequate feedback, delivery and implications on promotion- Introduced a new online leave management system which is still in use today- Moved the various recruitment processes to an online system and managed the same effectively Show less

This role brought me closer to one of my greatest strengths: training and assisting organizations with their recruitment needs.I was charged with developing training material for the student's Professional Development Program which included soft skills needed for the world of work. Once the content was ready and approved, I organized various sessions with third and final year students who were preparing to go for internships or start their first job. The training focused on getting them… Show more This role brought me closer to one of my greatest strengths: training and assisting organizations with their recruitment needs.I was charged with developing training material for the student's Professional Development Program which included soft skills needed for the world of work. Once the content was ready and approved, I organized various sessions with third and final year students who were preparing to go for internships or start their first job. The training focused on getting them ready with the soft skills needed to ace their interviews, prepping their CVs and cover letters, as well as conducting mock interviews to test whether they were prepare for future interviews.Another major role I played was in the creating and maintaining of the office Social Media pages including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This was a creative way of reaching out to the students and regularly engaging them with tips, videos, and resources to help them develop their soft skills. I also updated the office website with new content and articles regularly.I was also involved in the planning of the annual career fair as well as client engagement through guest lectures and job shadowing. These avenues gave potential employers the opportunity to meet and network with students to see whether they would be a fit for their organization. In most cases, positive interactions ended up with recruitment of students right after they graduated. I also assisted organizations looking for talent to find the right fit for various positions when they were hiring, including assisting them with an initial candidate screen and shortlisting and first round interview.Planning for Career Fairs and Guest Lectures involving industry players Show less

Worked as a training facilitator where my main responsibility was ensuring that the teachers needed at the academies were well equipped to take on their roles effectively.I trained groups of between 50-60 teachers at a time, giving individualized attention as needed to ensure the skills were grasped. After training, I gave recommendations for each of my students on which class they would be suitable to teach and what their strengths and areas of improvement were.I was also involved in… Show more Worked as a training facilitator where my main responsibility was ensuring that the teachers needed at the academies were well equipped to take on their roles effectively.I trained groups of between 50-60 teachers at a time, giving individualized attention as needed to ensure the skills were grasped. After training, I gave recommendations for each of my students on which class they would be suitable to teach and what their strengths and areas of improvement were.I was also involved in contributing to the teacher curriculum by giving feedback on current content and ways of improving it for future training cycle.During the set up of new academies, I worked with academy teachers on the marketing of the new academies, highlighting the advantages and difference in curriculum. Also went ahead to various sites to set up for launch days for new academies. Show less

I worked at KCB as an Intern to in order to apply the knowledge I'd acquired in class in a real life setting, and also to get experience in a work setting. This experience opened me up to the expectations of the workplace and the required soft skills to grow in my career. I worked on a rotational basis, gaining exposure in different banking functions as well as having the opportunity to learn and ask questions.

International Diploma In Human Resource Management, Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General

International Diploma in Human Resource Management

Integrated Approach To Upgrading Poor Urban Areas, Development

Integrated Approach to Upgrading Poor Urban Areas, with a focus on the ABCD model- Asset Based Community Development Model

Bachelor Of Business And Information Technology, Business/Information Technology, Second Class Honors, Upper Division

Activities and Societies: Student Mentor, Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) Member, now ENACTUS, Work Study at the Computer Information.

Master Of Arts - Ma, Counseling Psychology