HR People Partner

Ekco; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time Off 25 days

Birthday Leave

Company Pension Scheme

EAP for wellbeing

EkcOlympics

Pluralsight access

International progression

Job summary

Ekco seeks a Group People Partner (Performance & L&D) based in Cape Town to support all Ekco business units. The role blends day-to-day people partnering with group-wide performance, talent and learning & development delivery.

You will translate skills into PDPs, drive continuous performance management, champion AI adoption, and manage HiBob, Pluralsight and internal tools to deliver the Group Long Range Plan.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3–4 years' experience in a People Partner / HR Business Partner or HR generalist role, ideally within a multi-region technology company.
• Experience supporting learning & development initiatives, certifications or skills frameworks.
• Strong HRIS experience and understanding of certification pathways or learning platforms.

Responsibilities

• Deliver day-to-day people partnering support across Ekco business units and act as a trusted contact for managers and employees.
• Triage and respond to inquiries related to leave, payroll, benefits and onboarding/offboarding.
• Support culture, engagement and talent management initiatives as part of the Group People Plan, including leadership and high-performance training.

Skills

People partnering

HR Generalist

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Confidentiality

AI adoption mindset

Education

CIPD qualification

Tools

HiBob

Pluralsight

Microsoft Learn

Job description

About Ekco

Founded in 2016, Ekco has quickly become one of Europe’s fastest-growing cloud solution providers and your trusted security-first Managed Service Provider.

IT leaders choose Ekco to drive operational efficiency, scale smarter and stay ahead of risk – powered by local expertise, delivered at European scale.

We specialise in helping organisations advance their cloud maturity guiding transformation, strengthening security, and maximising the value of their technology investments.

In simple terms: we help organisations modernise with confidence securing their systems, optimising their cloud, and keeping them resilient in a rapidly changing world.

Today, we’re a thriving team of 1,000+ talented and supportive colleagues across the UK, Ireland, Benelux, South Africa, and Malaysia—and we’re continuing to grow.

At Ekco, How We Work Matters As Much As What We Deliver. Our People Live By Four Core Values That Shape Everything We Do

• On It: We take ownership, follow through, and get things done.
• All In : We collaborate, support each other, and commit fully to shared goals.
• Connected: We build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients, and partners.
• Hungry to Grow: We stay curious, keep learning, and push ourselves to the next level.

If these values resonate with you, you’ll feel right at home here.

The Role

Based in Cape Town as part of our global Shared Services team, the Group People Partner (Performance & L&D) is a newly created role supporting all Ekco business units. The role is a unique 50/50 blend of day-to-day people partnering and group-wide performance, talent and learning & development (L&D) delivery, sitting at the heart of our Group People Plan.

On the performance and L&D side, the role owns the build of a genuine learning culture across Ekco: mapping skills and capabilities from our future-focused career families into personal development plans and performance goals, driving a cadence of technical certifications, and championing AI adoption and continuous learning as part of everyday working life. This includes helping evolve our annual performance cycle into a proactive, continuous performance management process that embeds the skills and certifications needed to deliver our Group Long Range Plan.

On the people partnering side, the role provides day-to-day generalist support across culture, performance and talent management, and is a key contributor to our People Team inbox, working closely with Talent Acquisition, Reward, Payroll and business unit leaders across the group. Reporting to the Director, People Ops (MSP & Shared Services), this is a full-time role.

Day-to-day At Ekco

People Partnering (c. 50%)

• Deliver day-to-day people partnering support across all Ekco business units, acting as a trusted point of contact for managers and employees.
• Manage and triage the People Team inbox, resolving or routing queries across leave & absence, employment documents, payroll & benefits, onboarding/offboarding, systems changes, policies and general administration (see table below).
• Support culture, engagement and talent management initiatives as part of the Group People Plan, including Ekco Eats, Ekcolympics and related engagement activity.
• Advise managers on probation, absence and basic employee relations queries, escalating complex casework and legal acknowledgements appropriately.
• Process HiBob organisational changes submitted by managers, maintaining data hygiene, audit readiness and reporting accuracy.
• Collaborate closely with Talent Acquisition to keep job descriptions, skills requirements and certifications aligned and unified in direction across the group.
• Support onboarding/offboarding administration, including liaising with our internal support team.

Performance, Learning & Development (c. 50%)

• Own the translation of skills and capability frameworks from Ekco's future-focused career families into personal development plans (PDPs) and individual performance goals.
• Support the evolution of our annual performance cycle into a proactive, continuous performance management process, embedding the skills, capabilities and technical certifications required to deliver the Group Long Range Plan.
• Champion a culture of AI adoption and continuous learning across the business, identifying tools, content and behaviours that build this into day-to-day working life.
• Manage the systems and cadence that power the learning cycle — including HiBob, Pluralsight and internally built tools — ensuring certifications, courses and development activity are tracked, reported and actioned.
• Own the group-wide cadence of technical certifications, tracking progress against targets and flagging gaps to business unit leaders.
• Manage and utilise Learning & Development budgets effectively, ensuring spend is tracked and aligned to business priorities.
• Working alongside the function leads, design and support delivery of internal leadership and high-performance training programmes across the group.
• Stay close to evolving skills and certification needs across the business, feeding this into career family and role design work in partnership with Talent Acquisition.
• Report on L&D and performance metrics — certifications, completion rates, PDP progress — to People leadership.

People Team Inbox — Day-to-Day Support

Role

• Leave & absence, payroll and benefits queries, and onboarding/offboarding support.
• HiBob and systems changes, Pluralsight access, and Learning & Development requests.
• Policy and employment terms queries, and general People Team administration.

Requirements & Experience

• Minimum 3–4 years' experience in a People Partner / HR Business Partner or HR generalist role, ideally within a multi-region technology company.
• Some prior exposure to Learning & Development — e.g., supporting training programmes, certifications or skills frameworks — is key.
• Relevant HR qualification (e.g., CIPD or equivalent).
• Comfortable supporting multiple sites and business units, and working from a shared People Team inbox while balancing competing priorities.
• Strong HRIS experience and a genuine interest in HR systems and tools (HiBob ideal); understanding of Microsoft Learn and certification pathways is a benefit.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong stakeholder management across multiple business units.
• High understanding of confidentiality and data privacy, as standard for any HR role.
• Genuine enthusiasm for AI adoption and emerging learning technologies, with the ability to translate this into practical business initiatives.

What are we looking for?

• Evidence of continuous professional development in learning & development, talent management or performance management practice.

Key Attributes

• Passionate about building learning cultures and helping people grow.
• Commercially aware, able to connect skills development to business strategy and the Group Long Range Plan.
• Organised and able to balance hands‑on people partnering support with longer‑term L&D projects.
• Collaborative, with a group‑wide mindset and comfort working across diverse business units and cultures.

Benefits / Perks

• Time Off: 25 days annual leave + public holidays
• Birthday Leave: One extra day off to celebrate
• Company Pension Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for wellbeing support
• EkcOlympics: Global team activity challenges
• Unlimited access to Pluralsight for continuous development
• Real opportunities to grow, including international progression

Why Ekco

• Company of the year 2026 Tech Excellence Awards
• Microsoft’s 2023 Rising Star Security Partner of the Year
• First Irish Microsoft MSP to achieve all four Microsoft Security Specializations
• A culture rooted in diversity, equality, inclusion & belonging
• A commitment to internal mobility and career progression
• Flexible, family-friendly working at the heart of our culture
• Proud to be your trusted security-first Managed Service Provider chosen by IT leaders to drive operational efficiency, scale smarter and stay ahead of risk.