Purpose of Role

The Welfare Officer role exists to support the implementation of welfare policies that are aimed at ensuring safe and dignified spaces for all employees and dependants at UTTL, guidelines, programs and the Safety for Women Boys and Girls program in close cooperation with the operational units and the departments.

Accountabilities

Social infrastructure

• Provide specific support in defining welfare standards for welfare facilities and activities i.e. houses, schools, social halls etc.
• Conduct regular inspections and audits of welfare facilities and develop corrective action plans in consultation with Unit managers in your zone and the Welfare Manager
• Regularly and systematically monitor the implementation of the corrective action plans and develop a monthly report on status for your zone
• Work with Unit managers to identify, plan and implement corrective steps needed to address the gaps noted in the status report
• Maintain close communication with the Unit Management team in your zone on the progress of maintenance of welfare facilities
• Jointly with the Welfare Manager report on the social infrastructure improvement progress in the Dignity Enhancement steering committee
• Coordinate research and data collection on Social Capital expenditure project needs amongst employees and advise Welfare manager on employee needs and satisfaction levels.
• Track timelines and deliverables for social CAPEX projects in your zone ; measuring performance against targets, determining reasons for deviation and addressing then in consultation with the Engineering Department.
• Support the inspection, commissioning and handover of social CAPEX projects in your respective zones
• Jointly with the Unit Management team and other departments as may be necessary, promote water treatment and conservation of water, electricity and other utilities in the villages.
• Support the implementation of the Housing Policy in your respective zone.

Dignity Enhancement

• Implement the DEC Charter in your respective zone
• Participate in Dignity Enhancement committee meetings with the leadership team and rollout actions in the units as deemed fit.
• Coordinate monthly Dignity Enhancement Committee (DEC) meetings in your respective units and departments in line with the DEC Charter
• Jointly with the Units potential areas of concern in your unit and take steps to mitigate or prevent the escalation of the concern.
• Analyse the trend of welfare and SGBV related complaints and cases in your zone, identify hotspots and root causes and design interventions to address them in consultation with the Welfare Manager and the Unit Manager.
• In consultation with the Business Integrity Officer, track the progress of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) cases in your zone and support the faster resolution of the same.

Welfare Policies and Trainings

• Implement Welfare policies at zonal level
• Cascade all Welfare policies and the Code of Business Principles to all employees in your zones
• Support the induction of new employees on all Welfare policies and the Code of Business Principles
• Jointly with the Welfare Manager work with external stakeholders to deliver trainings relating to human rights, counselling amongst other welfare needs.
• Propose new ideas within company scope to improve overall welfare for staff.
• Cascade all Company information relating to welfare to the employees in the zone
• Co-ordinate training of employees on policies relating to Human Rights, CoBP, Counselling & work standards.
• Coach and mentor employees in their teams with regards to welfare & human rights issues.
• Conduct training needs assessment amongst employees and make recommendations to the Welfare Manager for action
• Conduct pre-training and post training evaluation to determine levels of knowledge retention and understanding amongst the trainees.
• Assist in the designing, compiling and disseminating of SGBV and the CoBP learnings/ lessons.

Safety programme

• Aid in the development of concept notes, project plans and documents, policy frameworks and gender issues for best practises as requested by the Welfare Manager
• Lead in the designing of specific programmatic interventions with respect to the Safety programme in the zone
• Implement the Adopt a school Initiate at Zonal level and implement school mentorship programmes in line with the Safety programme
• Support in designing and implementing the holiday mentorship programmes in the zone
• Undertake regular hot spot mapping and root cause analysis to inform interventions for the safety programme in the zone and provide advice on the same to the Welfare Manager
• Facilitate peer education on SGBV topics and CoBP in your units, compile report on performance and take corrective steps to ensure effectiveness of the program
• Build a pool of school mentors and youth mentors in your respective zones and build their capacity on mentorship
• Build a pool of human rights ambassadors to champion the safety programme for women, boys and girls and build their capacity to influence
• Monitor gender diversity in your respective zones and advise the Welfare manager on the progress and corrective steps needed
• Train all contractors and their employees on Company welfare policies and the CoBP and monitor compliance
• Conduct regular trainings of Village elders, DEC members and worker’s committee to build their capacity to deliver on their responsibilities and educate their peers
• Through sports, cultural and other recreational activities, create awareness on gender issues, human rights and gender-based violence amongst employees and their dependants
• Support in the conceptualization and implementation of welfare social campaigns on SGBV, human rights and CoBP

Grievance Handling

• Implement the Welfare Grievance Handling guidelines
• Facilitate dispute resolution on matters relating to welfare
• Train and equip the grievance handling committee and provide specific technical support to them on need basis
• Communicate Welfare and other company policies to all employees and to dependants where necessary.

Counselling

• Provide psychosocial support to survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV), their family and other persons in need.
• Confidentially gather and document client data for provision of support only
• Facilitate the referral of a survivor for other support services such as Medical and Police reporting.
• Training and education to all employees on psychosocial support
• Training peer counsellors and coordinating peer counselling
• Coordinating with teachers on UTT schools to provide school-based services for children who have been affected by or are survivors of gender-based violence.
• Do regular and appropriate follow ups until the survivor can cope and has attained a normalized life
• Coordinate debriefing sessions for psychosocial support service providers including managers and team leaders regularly in order to help them cope with possible secondary trauma.
• Jointly with the Welfare Manager, coordinate external supervision of counselling support staff with a view to prevent ‘burn out’ and to maintain high quality communications between the provider and the survivors.
• Undertake a social impact assessment as guided by the Code Review Committee. This involves analyzing, monitoring and proposing mitigation measures for managing the intended and unintended social, environmental and economic consequences, both positive and negative, of disciplinary action against the parties affected by cases of Sexual and gender-based violence.

Budget

• Participate in the preparation of Unit welfare budgets
• Monitor the utilization of unit welfare budget and participate in budget review on welfare programs

External stakeholders

• In consultation with the Security Manager report SGBV cases to the police and provide any necessary support as agreed in the consolidation of evidence
• Conduct regular review sessions with Chiefs in the zones to update on progress on child protection and domestic conflicts resolution
• Jointly with the Chiefs, conduct regular village barazas to educate employees and their dependants on the law and other company policies.
• In consultation with the Welfare Manager, support the implementation of welfare programs launched in partnership with other organizations and facilitate the smooth running of the program at the zonal level.

Qualifications & Experience Required

• A degree in any Social Sciences, Psychology, Sociology or Human Resources
• At least 2 years relevant experience in a reputable organization.
• Experience and understanding of gender development and human rights is an added advantage
• Experience in provision of psychosocial support.
• Experience with Local Authority and Government Officials

Travel

As per job/site requirements, local travel likely.

Leadership Capability

Should meet expectations on the Unilever Standards of Leadership behaviors relevant to the work level.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.