As Head of People & Culture - Saudi Arabia, you will lead the development and execution of the people strategy across the Kingdom, ensuring alignment with business priorities and organizational values. Acting as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, you will drive talent, culture, employee engagement, organizational effectiveness, and workforce planning initiatives that support sustainable business growth while fostering an inclusive and high-performing workplace. Based in Accor office in Jeddah and reporting to the Regional Director of People & Culture and the Vice President of Operations.
What You Will Be Responsible For:
People and Culture Regional Strategy
- Work with the hotel People & Culture and operational leaders establish the People & Culture roadmap with annual objectives and action plans.
- Activate the People & Culture strategy with operational leaders and Hotel General Managers to ensure alignment and commitment to its delivery.
- Champion the Heartist program ensuring that the employees, guests and owners are at the center of all strategic decisions and initiatives.
Talent Acquisition
- Ensure that a strong people management culture is promoted among all leaders through the people management cycle: continuous feedback conversations, yearly wrap-up reviews, potential assessments, talent reviews, career development interviews and succession planning.
- Support the leadership team in the talent management cycle, promote employee (local/foreigner) mobility, which meet the region’s growth and needs across the Kingdom and large Middle East region.
- Partner with Accor Academy, Talent Experience teams and hotel leaders on workforce planning, attraction and retention. Build succession pipelines and promote internal mobility across brands, hotels and geographies.
- Establish strong relationships with universities, hotel schools and other educational institutions to create a pipeline of entry level talent into our hotels and offices.
Capability, Talent & Employee Experience
Partner with hotels People & Culture leaders to:
- Maintain all the localization rules set by the Ministry of Tourism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and ensure full compliance by all hotels.
- Maintain a best practice recruitment approach, including Accor’s recruitment management system, to attract the best applicants.
- Anticipate recruitment needs and maintain a leadership pipeline of potential candidates and talents to match hotel needs.
- Ensure the Hotel selection process is compliant with the Company policy (Assessment, interview guides, validation steps in selection process, etc).
- Heartists engagement and workplace culture improvement programs not limited to the annual engagement survey for the company.
Employment Law and Labor Relations
- Act as an advisor for hotels for any employment law and labor relations as per the country labor laws.
- Ensure proper follow-up and due diligence on all employee complaints and liaise with hotels People & Culture leaders and General Managers.
- Lead complex employee relations (ER), industrial relations (IR) and workplace investigations, ensuring fair, consistent and timely handling of sensitive matters.
- Monitor legislative changes and provide guidance to People & Culture business leaders.
What We’re Looking For:
- Local Saudi Talents, currently holding a senior HR role.
- 10+ years’ People & Culture leadership experience, ideally across multiple properties or regions.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Deep knowledge of Saudi Labor Law, including Nitaqat, Qiwa, GOSI, and Mudad.
- Proven ability to partner with executives and influence business decisions.
- Experience leading organizational change and transformation.
- Data-driven approach to workforce planning and labor cost optimization.
- Strong business acumen, executive presence, and cultural awareness.
- Resilient, adaptable, and able to handle confidential matters with discretion
What is in it for you:
- Employee benefit card offering discounted rates at Accor hotels worldwide.
- Develop your talent through Accor’s learning programs.
- Opportunity to grow within your property and across the world.
- Ability to contribute to the community and make a difference through our Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) activities.
Our culture of inclusion welcomes everyone regardless of race, gender and background.