HR Business Partner – Sales

About the position

The HR Business Partner Sales is responsible for providing hands-on HR support to the Sales department, focusing on employee relations, performance management, staff retention, employee engagement, and consistent implementation of HR policies. The role works closely with Sales leadership, managers, and employees to improve workforce performance and support business objectives.
Key responsibilities

• HR Business Partnering Build strong relationships with Sales managers, team leaders, and employees; provide practical HR advice, support workforce planning, and identify people-related risks and opportunities.
• Employee and Industrial Relations Manage disciplinary matters, investigations, grievances, complaints, misconduct, absenteeism, and poor-performance cases while ensuring fair and consistent procedures.
• Performance Management Support managers in setting performance expectations, conducting performance conversations, implementing improvement plans, and addressing recurring performance issues.
• Employee Retention and Turnover Analyse staff turnover, conduct exit interviews, identify reasons for employee departures, and implement initiatives to improve retention, particularly during employees’ first few months.
• Employee Engagement and Sales Culture Maintain a visible HR presence on the Sales floor, engage with employees, identify morale concerns, support recognition initiatives, and promote a culture of respect, accountability, and professionalism.
• Manager and Team Leader Coaching Coach managers on handling difficult conversations, managing attendance and performance, applying HR policies, resolving employee issues, and strengthening their people management skills.
• HR Policies and Procedures Communicate and implement HR policies, monitor compliance, address inconsistent practices, maintain proper documentation, and escalate serious breaches when necessary.
• Attendance and Absenteeism Management Monitor attendance patterns, address unauthorised absences, support managers with attendance related disciplinary matters, and identify underlying workforce issues.
• Recruitment and Selection Participate in final interviews, assess candidates’ behavioural competencies, work ethic, resilience, accountability, and suitability for the Sales environment. Recruitment sourcing remains the responsibility of the Recruitment team.
• Onboarding and Early-Tenure Support Improve the Sales onboarding process, conduct 30-, 60-, and 90-day employee check-ins, identify integration or training challenges, and address factors contributing to early resignations.
• HR Reporting and Analytics Prepare and analyse reports on headcount, turnover, absenteeism, disciplinary cases, grievances, performance management, vacancies, employee engagement, and training needs.
• HR Risk Management Identify people-related and compliance risks, maintain accurate employee relations records, ensure adherence to labour legislation, and escalate high-risk matters appropriately.
• HR Projects and Initiatives Lead or support retention programmes, performance improvement initiatives, manager development, employee engagement, recognition programmes, attendance improvement, and HR process improvements.

Essential Requirements

• Minimum 5–8 years' HR experience, preferably with at least 3 years' experience in an HRBP or HR generalist role.
• Proven experience supporting a high-volume, fast-paced operational environment.
• Strong practical Employee/Industrial Relations experience.
• Proven experience managing disciplinary and performance-related matters.
• Experience dealing with high employee turnover.
• Experience coaching line managers and team leaders.
• Experience implementing HR policies and procedures.
• Experience with employee engagement and retention initiatives.
• Experience participating in recruitment selection and interviewing.
• Strong knowledge of South African labour legislation.
• Experience working with young or predominantly operational workforces would be highly advantageous.

Desired Skills:

• HR policies
• recruitment
• HRBP