At SBF, people strategy is business strategy. As Singapore's apex business chamber, SBF supports the needs of the business community while building a future-ready organisation internally. The Director, Human Resources will shape how we attract, develop, engage and retain talent, while ensuring that HR policies, governance and operations remain robust, fair and responsive to organisational priorities.
We are looking for a strategic and hands-on HR leader who can partner senior management, guide a capable HR team and translate people priorities into practical, well-governed solutions. This role suits someone who enjoys both policy and execution, can influence across diverse stakeholder groups, and is comfortable operating in a mission-driven organisation where governance, employee experience and organisational impact matter equally.
Responsibilities
1. HR strategy, governance and policy
- Develop and deliver HR strategies, policies and programmes that support SBF's organisational goals, workforce plans and employee experience.
- Strengthen HR governance through clear policy frameworks, fair and consistent decision-making, and compliance with relevant employment legislation and Tripartite guidelines.
- Serve as Secretariat to the Appointments and Remuneration Committee, including preparing papers, recommendations and updates for senior management, Board and Council discussions.
- Monitor workforce, engagement and talent metrics, benchmark HR practices against market trends, and provide management with data-driven insights and recommendations to strengthen workforce capability, employee experience and organisational performance.
2. Workforce planning and talent acquisition
- Lead manpower planning, manpower budgeting and workforce movements to ensure SBF has the right capabilities and capacity for current and future priorities.
- Oversee end-to-end recruitment, selection and onboarding, ensuring a positive candidate and employee experience from first interaction through the first six months.
- Build targeted hiring strategies for critical roles, including job positioning, sourcing channels, assessment quality and hiring manager capability.
3. Rewards, benefits and performance
- Oversee compensation, benefits, salary review and manpower cost planning to balance market competitiveness, internal equity, affordability and governance.
- Review benefits and wellbeing provisions to ensure they remain relevant, sustainable and aligned with employee needs and organisational priorities.
- Drive the performance management approach to strengthen clarity of expectations, quality of conversations, accountability and recognition of contribution.
4. Talent development, leadership capability and culture
- Lead the learning, talent and career development agenda, including capability building, leadership development, succession considerations and development pathways.
- Translate SBF's values and culture aspirations into practical interventions, rituals and leadership behaviours that employees can experience day to day.
- Partner divisional leaders to understand talent needs, ground sentiments and opportunities to improve team effectiveness, collaboration and change readiness.
- Oversee learning administration, budget, vendor management and reporting on learning participation, effectiveness and return on investment.
5. Employee engagement, experience and retention
- Lead employee engagement, employee voice and retention strategies that strengthen trust, belonging, productivity and organisational commitment.
- Oversee the employee engagement survey cycle, including survey design, analysis, leadership sharing, action planning and follow-through on priority areas.
- Design initiatives that improve the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and development to mobility, recognition, wellbeing and offboarding.
6. HR operations, analytics and team leadership
- Lead the HR team in delivering responsive, accurate and professional HR services across the employee lifecycle.
- Improve HR processes, systems, documentation and service standards to enhance efficiency, data quality and user experience.
- Maintain accurate HR records, dashboards and metrics including headcount, attrition, recruitment, engagement, learning and manpower cost indicators.
- Coach and develop HR team members, building a collaborative team that is credible with the business and disciplined in execution.
What we are looking for
- Degree-qualified with at least 12 years of progressive HR experience, including 5 or more years of leadership responsibility across multiple HR disciplines. Professional certification such as IHRP-SP or equivalent will be an advantage.
- Strong working knowledge of Singapore employment legislation, fair employment practices, compensation and benefits, performance management and HR governance.
- Proven experience leading HR projects across policy review, workforce planning, talent acquisition, rewards, learning, engagement or organisational development.
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to advise senior leaders and the judgement to handle sensitive matters with discretion.
- Analytical, structured and comfortable using HR data to identify issues, shape recommendations and track outcomes.
- Hands-on, collaborative and resilient, with the ability to balance strategic thinking with operational delivery in a lean team environment.
- Experience in a public sector, trade association, professional services, membership-based, non-profit or mission-driven organisation will be useful but is not mandatory.
