Employee Relations Officer at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Job Title: Employee Relations Officer

Role Overview

• Under the supervision of the Principal Officer, Staff Welfare & Employee Services, the incumbent will be responsible for developing and managing the employee relations program and advocacy initiatives.
• He/She will provide strategic advice to management on preventing and resolving grievances to foster a positive and engaged work environment.
• Additionally, the incumbent will oversee various aspects of employee and labor relations, ensuring compliance, fairness, and equity in accordance with the ECOWAS Staff Regulation.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Manage relationships with Staff Representatives & ensuring that the organization’s treatment of employees aligns with its core values and objectives.
• Manage complaints, oversee grievance procedures, and coordinate counseling services in conjunction with relevant stakeholders.
• Conduct thorough investigations and promptly resolve complex or critical industrial relations matters with efficiency and effectiveness.
• Regularly gather and analyze employee feedback at all levels to refine people’s programs and policies driving more positive outcomes.
• Provide staff members with comprehensive education on employee relations issues and create awareness and adherence to the staff regulation and the Code of Ethics.
• Assist the supervisor in developing the employee relations policies and procedures on Grievances, Complaints, and Disciplinary matters.
• Develop and periodically review guidelines addressing staff administrative concerns.
• Administer and interpret labor agreements, oversee grievance procedures, and provide labor relations support during negotiations.
• Serve as a liaison between department managers and staff members to foster effective communication and collaboration.
• Advise and counsel staff members, managers, and supervisors on personnel practices, staff regulations, policies, and employment laws.
• Ensure staff compliance with regulations and ethical standards.
• Oversee the implementation of equal employment opportunity policies.
• Maintain a comprehensive database to monitor and track all employee relations cases.
• Collect and analyze employee relations data, including investigation reports, and disciplinary records and generate reports as needed.
• Conduct Investigations and prepare documentation for all employee relations cases for the Committee.
• Facilitate grievance, disciplinary, or other employee relations meeting as required.
• Perform any other tasks that may be assigned by the supervisor.

Requirements
Academic Qualification & Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Employee and Industrial Relations, Law, Human Resources, Social Sciences, or in a similar field from a recognized University.
• Five (5) years of relevant experience in Industrial Relations in a private/public sector or international organizations.
• Experience in the practice of Labor Law Management.
• Knowledge of HR Management best practices.
• Experience in employee relations or industrial relations.
• Experience in dealing with staff representatives.
• Strong knowledge of HR policies & procedures.
• In-depth knowledge of employment legislation.
• Knowledge of human resources management operations including training, recruitment, performance management, change management, manpower planning, salary policy, pension administration, employee terms and conditions of employment, monitoring, analytics, and reporting.
• Strong understanding of Staff Regulation, directives, and relevant policies essential for effectively executing the responsibilities of the position.
• Cognitive knowledge of database creation and management, and use of specialized computer systems and programs for operationalizing a variety of HR business processes and reports.

Age Limit:

• Be below 50 years old. This provision does not apply to internal candidates.

ECOWAS Key Competencies:

• Ability to persuade/influence others to consider a certain point of view, adopt a new idea or implement new methods and practices.
• Ability to lead a team of trainees/junior staff and instill a spirit of teamwork to engage employees and achieve a well-defined set of activities.
• Ability to respect chain of command in an appropriate manner.
• Ability to resolve challenges that occur with minimal direction and/or to recommend and explain solutions or alternatives for approval.
• Ability to utilize the Code of Ethics to manage self, others, information, and resources.
• Ability to mentor others and create feedback loops with supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates to build strong working relationships and improve performance.
• Contribute to maintaining organizational unit’s performance goals and standards.
• Interpersonal skills with ability to keep a client informed of progress or setbacks in projects of relevance to timeline, quality, and quantity.
• Ability to proactively interact with clients and build strong trusting relationships based on mutual respect and regular discussions.
• Ability to establish and sustain professional credibility with clients/stakeholders in a manner that anticipates their need, mitigates issues and that carefully balances professional obligations with the need to be sensitive and responsive to their needs.
• Ability to counsel, advise, consult, and guide others on matters pertaining to assigned client service responsibilities and established client service standards.
• Demonstrate respect for cultural differences, fairness, and ability to relate well with people from varied backgrounds, nationality, gender, ethnicity, race and religion.
• Understanding of diverse cultural views especially within West Africa, with sensitivity to group differences; ability to challenge bias and to practice tolerance and empathy.
• Ability to listen actively, consider people’s concerns and apply judgement, tact, and diplomacy.
• Ability to work in a diverse and inclusive interactive environment that benefits from diverse strengths.
• Ability and responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work.
• Ability to encourage, empower, and advocate for people in an unbiased and transparent manner.
• Knowledge of ECOWAS institutions, sectors, programmes and policies.
• Knowledge of ECOWAS internal operational requirements of programs, projects, services, and systems required to achieve work assignments and meet performance goals.
• Knowledge of rules and procedures of ECOWAS associated assigned responsibilities and ability to explain these clearly to others.
• Knowledge of the ECOWAS culture, structures and performance issues and priorities impacting assigned responsibilities.
• Knowledge of member states development trends, indicators, challenges, and opportunities as it relates to project/program assigned to own position.
• Ability to study data/information from a variety of sources, identify anomalies, trends and issues, present findings, and make recommendations.
• Ability to break down problems or processes into key parts to identify and solve gaps in service, quality assurance, compliance, and performance targets.
• Knowledge of and ability to apply techniques to generate creative ideas and new approaches to meeting goals.
• Ability to use evidence and research to inform policies and programs and identify relevant and appropriate sources of information, including stakeholders, regional institutions and/or internal committees.
• Demonstrate operational computer proficiency using appropriate tools.
• Ability to make sound use of graphics and tables to effectively present numerical data to write semi-complex technical reports/proposals and edit/check templates, letters, etc.
• Ability to convey information clearly and concisely in a succinct and organized manner through both writing and verbal means.
• Exhibit interpersonal skills, make presentations, express opinions, and debate ideas with others in a constructive manner.
• Proficiency in information communication technologies (ICT).
• Fluency in oral and written expressions in one of the ECOWAS official languages of the Community (English, French & Portuguese). Knowledge of an additional one will be an added advantage.
• Ability to develop, implement an individual action plan for achieving specific work goals.
• Identify, organize, and monitor tasks throughout to facilitate execution.
• Ability to contribute and/or lead on projects as per accepted project management standards and techniques, to co-ordinate contributions by others to set and meet deadlines.
• Ability to organize work, set priorities, and work within timelines, giving attention to details, stakeholders, indicators, and risks.
• Ability to identify, collect and assess indicators to monitor performance and to take proactive remedial action as required.

Annual Salary
UA 50,336.36 – UA 57,817.17 (USD 79,420.72   – USD 91,223.93 ).

Application Instructions:

The application deadline is 31st July, 2025. Therefore, Qualified and interested candidates should send their updated Resume to: [email protected] using the Job Title as the subject of the email.

Note: Only qualified candidates will be contacted. It is important to visit the official website (link found below) for detailed information on how to apply successfully for this vacancy.

Website:
Official Job Website: https://au.int/en/recs/ecowas

Click here to download the application form (Docx.)

Note

• Shortlisted candidates may be required to undergo a written test and subsequently an interview session.
• Successful candidates shall be subjected to further screening / background checks.
• Employment offers are contingent upon satisfactory background check.