HR Lead

SmartHire by SEEK; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mingle Group in Kuala Lumpur seeks an experienced HR leader to own end-to-end people processes across multiple hospitality and F&B sites. You will digitise manual workflows, implement payroll controls, and build clear, compliant HR policies and SOPs that scale with our growing footprint.

You will lead high-volume recruitment, onboarding, and employee relations, coaching managers, ensuring timely payroll, statutory compliance (EPF/SOCSO/EIS), and a transparent career ladder.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of HR experience in SME or multi-site hospitality/F&B/retail.
• Track record of transforming and digitising HR processes.
• Hands-on payroll knowledge and ability to explain important payroll calculations.
• Solid knowledge of Malaysian employment law and statutory compliance.
• Experience with high-volume recruitment for operational roles.
• Clear, respectful communication across diverse nationalities and backgrounds.
• Practical, hands-on approach with limited budget or team.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end HR processes across all sites and functions.
• Move payroll and HR workflows from manual to digital systems with controls.
• Develop baseline HR policies and SOPs with clear response times and accountability.
• Define KPIs and monthly reports for HR processes; review with leadership.
• Lead change management across a mixed-nationality, shift-based team.

Skills

HR Management

Payroll Knowledge

Digital Transformation

Stakeholder Communication

Education

Degree or Diploma in HR

Job description

About Us

Mingle Group runs hostels, cafés, bars and a central kitchen, mostly in beautifully restored old Malaysian shophouses. We are a team of 100+ people close which includes nationalities from Myanmar, Nepal, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and Malaysians working shifts across many sites. We turn 10 this year.

We are not a big corporate. We are a hands‑on, growing business that is now transforming how we look after our people and this role will lead that.

The Role

You will make people processes work for a busy, shift-based hostel and F&B business: people are hired quickly, paid correctly and on time, treated fairly, trained, and can see a future with us. You will fix what is manual and messy today, then build it into simple digital systems that our team actually uses.

What You Will Own

End-to-end HR processes across the whole HR function. You are accountable for all of them with some of the key areas that you will own as listed:

• Workforce Planning - headcount, structure and manpower for peak seasons and new sites
• Recruitment & Selection
• Onboarding & Induction - contracts, documents, induction, access, uniform and probation plan for new employees
• Learning, Development & Career Paths
• Performance Management - goal setting, check-ins and appraisals

Constant, high-volume hiring for kitchen, café, hostel and front-desk roles, local and foreign. Build one clear, repeatable pipeline from requisition to offer to Day 1, and cut the chaos.

Mandatory food‑safety and safety training, plus real career ladders (for example commis to head chef, front desk to site manager). Own the monthly payroll cycle end to end. Today it is very manual; you will move it to one trusted system, supervise the Payroll Executive, review and sign off before payment, and keep statutory payments on time.

Food handler certifications and medical screening, foreign worker permits, incident reporting and audit readiness.

Resignations, clearance, final pay and records, done properly every time.

• Compensation, Benefits & Payroll
  Time, Attendance & Scheduling - rosters, clock-in/out, OT and part‑time submissions, leave approvals and weekly follow‑up on exceptions.
• Health, Safety & Compliance
• Employee Relations & Discipline - fair, documented handling of grievances, warnings and conduct issues.
• Offboarding
• HR Admin & Data - One source of truth for employee records; letters checked by a second person before they are issued; numbered, version‑controlled policies and SOPs.

What We Need You To Build

• Digitise and simplify. Move manual, spreadsheet-based work onto our payroll system and simple digital workflows, with clear controls (maker-checker, tiered access, audit trail).
• Set the standards. Baseline and version‑control HR policies and SOPs, and set response‑time and cut‑off standards that managers follow.
• Measure it. Define simple KPIs and monthly reports for each process area, and review them regularly with leadership.
• Bring people along. Lead change across a mixed-nationality, shift-based team, in plain language, as part of our Mingle Forward programme.

What Success Looks Like In your first 6 months

• Payroll runs accurately and on time, with a second-person check before payment and the separate Excel workaround retired.
• Recruitment has one simple pipeline and tracker; offer letters are checked and error-free.
• Employee records for all current staff are complete, verified and signed.
• Core HR policies are written, numbered and approved, and a first career path is live for kitchen and hostel teams.

What We Are Looking For

• 7+ years of HR experience, including leading HR (or being the senior HR person) in an SME or multi‑site, shift‑based business hospitality, F&B, retail or similar.
• A track record of transforming and digitising HR: you have taken a messy, manual setup and moved it to a system and standard processes, and can show us the before and after.
• Hands‑on payroll knowledge: you can review a payroll run, spot errors, and explain EPF, SOCSO, EIS and tax calculations, OT, shift allowances and part‑time pay.
• Solid working knowledge of Malaysian employment law and statutory compliance, including hiring and managing foreign workers.
• Experience with constant, high-volume recruitment for operational and blue‑collar roles.
• Clear, respectful communication with people of many nationalities and backgrounds fair, firm and calm.
• Practical and resourceful: no large HR team or heavy budget here, so you are comfortable rolling up your sleeves and solving problems in person at our outlets.
• Degree or diploma in HR, business or a related field, or equivalent experience.