Introduction
ChildFund is an international child-centred development organization. We are a member of the ChildFund Alliance; a global network of 12 organizations that assists more than 21 million children in 58 countries around the world. Our three-fold mission is to help deprived, excluded and vulnerable children improve their lives and become adults who bring positive changes to their communities: to promote societies that value, protect, and advance the worth and rights of children: and to enrich supporters’ lives through their support of our cause.
ChildFund Kenya works through 11 local implementing partners (LIPs) and directly in two program areas covering 28 counties in Kenya reaching over 3.1m children and families experiencing various forms of deprivation, exclusion, and vulnerabilities. The thematic areas that we focus on are Child Protection, Household Economic Strengthening, Food Security, Early Childhood Development & Education, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change Adaptation & Emergency Response, Health and Nutrition, Youth Engagement, Employability and Participation.
ChildFund has a long history of working with local implementing partners (LIP) to implement its program activities ChildFund provides technical and financial support to her LIPs to facilitate the implementation of program and sponsorship activities serving over 34,000 sponsored children and 42,000 enrolled children.
The IPs that ChildFund is supporting do not have existing job grading, salary structures, or salary increment guidelines. Currently, there are no standard practices concerning salary increments e.g. how and when staff salaries will be reviewed. In the majority of the LIPs, the salary reviews are mostly subject to the availability of funds, as opposed to being based on an organization’s guidelines and procedures. Therefore, with a significant decrease in projected sponsorship funding and existing disparities in annual increment processes across partners, there is a need to standardize or come up with a salary grading system through a benchmarking survey that will establish the existing against the industry practices. The survey results will be used to formulate a salary structure and salary increment guidelines that IPs will follow in subsequent financial years.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to undertake a benchmarking of ChildFund’s local implementing partners’ salaries and benefits among themselves and vis a vis other peer organization. The result of the benchmarking exercise will then be used to propose a standardized salary & benefits structure, and salary increment guidelines across the 11 LIPs.
Scope
The consultant will conduct benchmarking across 11 local implementing partners operating in 20 counties across Kenya. The consultant is expected to gather both current and historical data from all 11 LIPs and analyze the similarities and variances in salary and benefits. The survey is also expected to gather similar information from other peer organizations and carry out a comparative analysis. Ultimately the consultant is to recommend a salary structure/scale that is fair and equitable and with clear guidelines on how LIPs will review and make salary increments. The consultant should also look into and advise on emerging trends in employee remuneration and benefits with the aim of attracting, retaining, and motivating employees.
Methodology
The Consultant will propose a suitable methodology that will include making use of existing sources of salary data including reviewing current job descriptions to facilitate an accurate determination of prospective salary scales for various positions and job groups. The successful consultant (s) will focus on the following areas:
• Review existing and relevant documentation such as salary grading structure, job descriptions, Human Resource Policies, and payroll documents.
• Compile and suggest a list of peer organizations that may be considered as comparators, to establish staff remuneration and provide an explanation of why those market comparisons were chosen. The list shall be subjected to final approval by ChildFund.
• A review of all benefits, both monetary and non-monetary currently offered by the various IPs to arrive at a total remuneration package.
• A framework within which rational decisions can be made in response to changing organization structure and roles and inflation dynamics.
• The basis for developing an equitable pay structure across ChildFund IPs is based on a logical method of measuring relative job scope and size.
• Conduct a survey to compare 11 LIPs’ remuneration levels/salary scales against suitable local, comparators.
• Advise on best practices/approaches to implement salary reviews and cost-of-living adjustments on an annual basis.
• Presentation and submission of final survey findings with comparison and analysis of the survey results.
Expected Deliverables
• A list of peer organizations to ChildFund LIPs that may be considered as comparators, to establish staff remuneration and provide an explanation of why those market comparators were chosen.
• A report on the comprehensive analysis of the job positions and salary ranges and provide a reference to benchmark the position and its remuneration package against the local market.
• A proposed equitable pay structure across ChildFund IPs based on a logical method of measuring relative job scope and size and with clear entry-level, mid-point, and maximum remunerations for each job grade.
• A report on final survey findings with comparison and analysis of the survey results, and recommendations related to remuneration packages.
• Make an oral presentation of the draft report for input from the stakeholders. Comments from the oral presentation will be incorporated to the final report.
• Advise on emerging trends in employee remuneration and benefits with the aim of attracting, retaining and motivating employees.
• Submit a Final Report which among other things will detail recommendations and proposals on salary and benefits structure (including allowances and non-monetary remunerations) for each of the roles advising on market positioning (25th percentile, median, or 75th percentile), salary review guidelines and procedures and all other issues covered in the scope of the assignment.
Management and Coordination
The consultant will work closely with ChildFund’s Partnership Portfolio Management Unit with Technical support from the Program & Sponsorship Director, Human Resource Director, and Finance Director. At the implementation level, he/she will work with the respective Implementing partner’s Chief Executive Officers/Program Coordinators and Finance & Administration officers/managers.
Timelines
The consultancy is expected to take up to a maximum of 8 weeks starting from the date of signature of the contract by both parties, subject to adjustments as required and mutually agreed upon. The Target date for finalizing this assignment is 15th January 2025.
Qualifications of the Consultant
• At least 10 years of experience in the field of Human Resource Management, with a proven track record in compensation and benefit analysis
• At least 10 years’ experience in undertaking salary surveys for National NGO organizations
• Strong facilitation and engagement skills for government and non-government stakeholder workshops.
• Superior written and oral communication skills in English and Kiswahili and report writing.
• Must be result-oriented, a team player, exhibiting high levels of enthusiasm, tact, diplomacy, and integrity.
• Ability to work within strict deadlines/timelines.
• Familiarity with Kenyan legal framework and labor market issues.
Ownership
All documents and other information shall remain the property of Implementing Partners and ChildFund and shall be always treated as confidential by the consultant(s). They shall not be made available to any third party whatsoever, in any form, without the prior written approval of a properly authorized employee of IP. The utilization of all proposals plans and reports and other information provided by the facilitators remains the property of IP and ChildFund and the use thereof is solely at their discretion. All documents and other papers, whether in soft or hard copy and whether containing data or other information provided by IP and ChildFund shall be returned complete upon completion of the assignment.
Child Safeguarding Policy
All consultant(s) shall read and sign the Child Safeguarding Policy as fully understood and in agreement to in all respects and shall follow this in all and every respect during the term of the facilitation.
Payment details
Payment upon submission and acceptance of the Inception Report (including list of peer organizations) by ChildFund. 30%
Payment upon submission and acceptance of Draft Report (detailing comprehensive analysis of the job positions and salary ranges against the local market, a framework for an equitable pay structure based on job scope and size) by ChildFund 30%
Payment upon submission and acceptance of the Final Report by ChildFund and oral presentation done by the consultant to the Senior management team. 40%
The Consultant’s compensation shall be paid NET, within 30 days from receipt of a proper invoice unless otherwise specified. The payment will be made through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) via the bank details to be provided by the Consultant and will be subjected to a 5% withholding tax and 16% VAT as required by the Laws.
How to apply
Interested candidates should submit the following.
• The statutory documents (certificate of incorporation, tax compliance, professional certification, etc); a company profile including bios of key staff and proposed working team; areas of competencies; client list and references.
• A technical and financial proposal. The budget proposal should include consultant costs ) and applicable statutory taxes.
• A brief description outlining the approach, data sources, relevant experience, a strong rationale, and an outline of the proposed methodology and work plan and provide contacts of references with whom the consultant has done similar work in the recent past.
All applications should be emailed to KenyaProcurement@childfund.org by 31st October 2024 with the email subject “Consultancy – Salary Benchmarking Survey”.
Evaluation of the proposals will be made by ChildFund Kenya who may engage in an interactive process with the would-be consultant to further specify the scope and methodology to be used as well as budget, deliverables, and deadlines.