Head of HR

Private Advertiser; Ipoh; On-site; MYR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Private Advertiser in Ipoh invites an experienced Head of Human Resource to partner with business leaders and shape workforce strategy. You will advise on talent acquisition, performance management, succession planning, compensation, and organisational development to drive business success.

You will influence senior stakeholders, champion inclusive culture, and ensure practical HR solutions across the organisation, aligning people strategy with goals and future needs.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of HR experience, with at least 5 years in a senior HR leadership role.
• Proven strategic HR leadership experience in organisation design, workforce planning, and talent management.
• Strong experience in succession planning, retention strategies, and leadership pipeline development.
• Solid understanding of HR analytics, manpower costing, budgeting, and workforce performance metrics.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to align people strategy to business goals.
• Manufacturing industry experience is preferred; exposure to structured operational environments is an advantage.
• Union / industrial relations experience is beneficial but not essential, as plant IR matters are managed by the Plant HR Manager.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with experience influencing senior leadership teams.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and change management capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Plan HR and workforce strategy and organisation development to align HR with business strategy.
• Advise management on workforce supply and demand and manpower shortfalls or surpluses.
• Establish hiring standards for leadership roles and prioritise recruitment across the organisation.
• Promote fair and unbiased employment selection practices and recommend onboarding strategies.
• Engage in compensation policies and programmes and advocate employee value proposition.
• Lead negotiations with trade unions and employee forums on labour-related issues.
• Guide on compliance with labour policies and legislation.
• Manage HR business partnering function objectives, budgets, and resources.
• Develop and implement performance management and succession planning for leadership roles.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

HR analytics

Workforce planning

Succession planning

Talent management

Change management

Job description

The Head of Human Resource serves as a strategic HR partner to business leaders, providing advisory support on workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management, succession planning, compensation, and organisational development. The role is responsible for aligning people strategies with business needs, fostering an inclusive workplace culture, and managing workforce transitions where required. This individual must be a strong communicator with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, balance diverse perspectives, and deliver practical HR solutions that support organisational success.

Responsibilities:

1. Plan HR and workforce strategy and organization development

Align HR strategies and plans to organisation's current and future business strategy in consultation

with management

Advise management on implications of current and future workforce supply and demand

Advise business managers on ways to address manpower shortfalls or surpluses

Secure buy-in from senior stakeholders to redesign organisation structure to deliver its vision,

mission, strategy and plans in an effective and efficient manner

Construct robust and comprehensive succession plans, taking into account current and future

business plans to build talent and leadership pipeline that is sufficient for business continuity.

Engage business leaders to establish business imperatives for organisational development or change

management initiatives

Liaise with CHRO and business leaders to develop hiring standards for sourcing candidates for

leadership roles

Prioritise recruitment needs across the organisation based on criticality to the business

Promote principles of fair and unbiased employment selection practices to hiring managers and

management

Recommend shortlisted senior candidates to management for offers of employment

Advocate employee value proposition to strengthen employer brand in the market to secure

candidates

Recommend onboarding strategies to management to enhance retention of new hires

Collaborate with Group and management to focus on organisation's learning and development strategies and meet business requirements

Coach management to align career goals, aspirations and rotations of the workforce with the business strategy of the organization

Liaise with management to define key performance indicators for senior roles in line with business strategy and objectives

Guide management to cascade key performance indicators and performance goals to their employees and communicate performance ratings

Partner with management to identify and develop high-performing talent based on organisation's ideal talent profile

Provide support to management to identify business critical positions for succession planning to meet current and future business needs

Liaise with management to assess the ongoing viability of the succession plans

Partner with line managers to execute the performance management process

4. Engage talent

Secure buy-in from management on compensation policies and programmes

Advise senior management on deviations from organisation's compensation management policies

Garner support for benefits policies and programmes from management

Partner with management to champion employee engagement programmes

Collaborate with management to foster a diverse and inclusive employment culture

Lead negotiations and relationship building with trade unions, work councils, employee forums and

similar bodies on a range of labour-related issues

Guide management to comply with legal obligations when dealing with vonluntary exits

Recommend alternate HR policies to management to minimise the impact of redundancies

Guide management in communicating involuntary exit decisions and options to affected employees

Promote re-employment of employees beyond their retirement age with management

6. Analytics and Insights

Perform trend analysis by understanding the competitive environment in which the business interacts.

Look across a series of data and anticipate implications of business activity on HR practices.

Perform market sensing by obtaining and maintaining knowledge of competitive practices within relevant labour markets such as industry, local, and professional competitors.

Understand the business strategy and determine its implications on the workforce.

Recommend HR strategies as a result of workforce implications of business strategy and ensure that workforce requirements are fulfilled and both business and employees interests are maintained.

Review and develop future-ready Human Resource policies and strategies, referencing local and global HR trends and best practices, taking into consideration context, economic outlook and available support to meet business needs.

Recommend HR policies, practices or strategies that competitively position organisation as an employer of choice.

Assess the extent of in-house HR analytics capability and engage with external providers of benchmarking analytics services to supplement identified gaps.

Review employee data handling practices and processes to ensure compliance with employee data protection policy and ethical guidelines to ensure privacy of confidential employee data.

7. Relationships and Communication

Create high impact, consistent and accurate messaging using appropriate tools to drive engagement, aligned with the organisation-wide communications strategy.

Communicate HR and business strategies using clear language that engages others in the view of the future.

Communicate an understanding of the business environment in order to view problems and requests in the context of the long term goals and objectives.

Manage resistance, objections and conflicts during conversations in a firm, respectful and empathetic manner.

Employ negotiation and conflict management skills to help different parties achieve their desired outcomes.

Understand organisational and individual challenges, help the senior leaders to define the problem and identify root cause of the people related issues.

Provide resources to advise senior leaders to determine the appropriate course of action in people related matters.

Establish relationships with senior leaders to build trust and understand their needs.

8. Labour Policies and Legislation

Advise on labour policies, employment legislation and their applications to senior management to facilitate their understanding of compliance requirements.

Review HR processes impacting workplace legislation to ensure controls are in place to prevent regulatory breaches.

9. Manage team operations and performance

Establish long-term objectives for the HR business partnering function that align with the strategy of the organization

Establish the operating and resourcing structure for the function to support the organisation's objectives

Manage budget for the function's activities and allocate to different teams and projects

Lead team to translate business strategy into annual performance goals and departmental objectives

Provide coaching and guidance to subordinates

Approve workflow improvement solutions and recommendations for the HR business partnering function

Approve recommendations on changes to the function's operations and the required resources

Align objectives and goals with internal stakeholders beyond the team and external stakeholders to yield mutual benefits

Requirements:

Minimum 10 years of HR experience, with at least 5 years in a senior HR leadership role.

Proven strategic HR leadership experience in organisation design, workforce planning, and talent management.

Strong experience in succession planning, retention strategies, and leadership pipeline development.

Solid understanding of HR analytics, manpower costing, budgeting, and workforce performance metrics.

Strong commercial acumen with the ability to align people strategy to business goals.

Manufacturing industry experience is preferred; exposure to structured operational environments is an advantage.

Union / industrial relations experience is beneficial but not essential, as plant IR matters are managed by the Plant HR Manager.

Strong stakeholder management skills with experience influencing senior leadership teams.

Excellent leadership, communication, and change management capabilities.

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are looking for a mature, forward-thinking HR leader who can operate beyond transactional HR and contribute meaningfully at a business level. The successful candidate must be confident engaging leadership teams, capable of making sound people decisions, and able to build an HR function that supports growth, productivity, and long-term success.