Head of Employee Engagement and Activation - Stellenbosch

SUMMARY:

Role Purpose

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement employee activation strategies following client go-live.
• Drive awareness, adoption and habitual usage of Paymenow and its value-added services.
• Develop targeted engagement initiatives to increase employee participation and ongoing utilisation.
• Identify barriers to adoption and implement strategies to address them.
• Monitor employee engagement and usage trends and use insights to improve activation strategies.
• Develop approaches that encourage employees to move from initial awareness to sustained product usage.

• Lead the employee-facing activation component of new client implementations.
• Work closely with internal teams and client stakeholders to ensure employees are effectively introduced to Paymenow.
• Develop onboarding and activation plans aligned to each client's workforce and operating environment.
• Coordinate communication and engagement activities throughout the implementation and post-launch lifecycle.
• Ensure activation plans are practical and effective for large and geographically dispersed employee populations.

• Develop and implement change management approaches that support product adoption.
• Translate product benefits into simple, relevant employee messaging.
• Design engagement initiatives suited to different workforce demographics and environments.
• Work with employer stakeholders to facilitate employee participation and adoption.
• Identify opportunities to improve the employee experience and strengthen product engagement.

• Develop activation strategies for large deskless workforces across sectors such as retail, logistics and manufacturing.
• Support or coordinate field-based activation initiatives where required.
• Develop practical engagement approaches for employees who may have limited access to traditional workplace communication channels.
• Leverage digital and mobile communication channels, including WhatsApp, to drive engagement at scale.

• Monitor activation, engagement and usage metrics across client employee populations.
• Use data and feedback to identify trends, gaps and opportunities.
• Develop reports and insights for senior management and relevant stakeholders.
• Continuously test and optimise activation strategies based on employee behaviour and performance.
• Maintain accurate project and engagement information using CRM and project management systems.

• Build and establish effective employee activation processes and frameworks.
• Develop scalable approaches that can be replicated across multiple clients and workforce environments.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes, systems and ways of working.
• Establish best practices for employee onboarding, activation, engagement and adoption.
• Contribute to the strategic development of the function as the business scales.

POSITION INFO:

Role Requirements

• Relevant tertiary qualification in Business, Communications, Marketing, Psychology, Human Resources, Change Management or a related field will be advantageous.
• Senior-level experience in a highly engaging, client-facing environment.
• Proven experience in onboarding, change management, internal communications, employee engagement or field activation.
• Experience working with large employer environments and/or deskless workforces.
• Experience within retail, logistics, manufacturing or similarly distributed workforce environments will be advantageous.
• Strong understanding of the South African workforce context and the financial pressures experienced by low-to-middle income employees.
• Experience using CRM or project management platforms such as Monday.com, Salesforce or similar.
• Strong project management and stakeholder coordination capabilities.
• Commercially minded with the ability to translate engagement initiatives into measurable business outcomes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data to drive decisions.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to build engagement strategies that work across diverse employee populations.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, evolving environment and building processes from the ground up.

Advantageous Experience

• Experience in fintech, financial wellness or Earned Wage Access (EWA).
• Experience building a function, process or operating model from scratch.
• Experience using WhatsApp-based communications at scale.
• Experience driving behavioural change or sustained product adoption.
• Experience working with large-scale employee engagement or activation programmes.

Key Competencies

• Commercial acumen
• Strategic thinking
• Employee engagement and activation
• Change management
• Stakeholder management
• Project management
• Data-driven decision making
• Communication and influencing
• Problem-solving
• Innovation and initiative
• Adaptability
• Strong execution focus
• Ability to build and scale new functions
• Customer and employee centricity