Human Resources Business Partner

About Tuncarp

Tuncarp is a design process outsourcing agency based in Manila, Philippines. We embed high-calibre UX, UI and CX squads into agencies and enterprises, fast. From Manila we support global clients with flexible staffing, strong craft, and a healthy disrespect for unnecessary jargon.

The role in one paragraph

We are looking for a commercially minded HR Business Partner who can scale people operations for distributed design squads, keep our culture strong as we grow, and partner with leaders to hit utilisation, quality and retention targets. You will blend hands-on HR operations with strategic workforce planning across the Philippines, with exposure to Singapore and the UAE.

What you will do

Strategic people partnering

• Act as the primary HR partner to the MD, GM and Sales and Squad Leads, advising on org design, headcount planning, and capability build for embedded client teams.
• Translate demand forecasts into hiring plans, bench strategy and secondment plans that protect margin and delivery quality.
• Coach managers on performance, feedback, and difficult conversations.

Talent acquisition and onboarding

• Responsible for executing end-to-end hiring, including all administrative requirements, file management, and documentation from preparation through to secure storage.
• Partner with Talent to define role profiles for UX, UI, CX and design leadership roles, including short-term contractor needs.
• Improve time-to-hire and offer acceptance through clear briefs, structured interviews and fair assessment tasks.
• Own Day 0 to Day 30 onboarding for squads joining client accounts, including compliance, client-specific induction, and ways of working.

Performance, growth and culture

• Run a simple, consistent performance cycle each quarter. Ensure expectations, feedback and growth plans are clear and timely.
• Maintain role frameworks and salary bands for design disciplines. Keep them market-aligned and fair.
• Drive learning programmes tailored to our craft community. Think design leadership, client readiness, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Keep engagement high through listening, practical actions, and honest communications.

Employee relations and wellbeing

• Handle Employee Relation matters with discretion and fairness, including investigations, disciplinary processes and grievance resolution.
• Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders on HR-related matters, ensuring decisions align with local employment laws, cultural practices, and regulatory obligations.
• Support wellbeing, workload balance and reasonable adjustments for distributed teams who work with international time zones.

Reward, compliance and operations

• Oversee payroll inputs, benefits, contractor agreements and renewals, working with Finance and any EOR partners.
• Ensure compliance with Philippine labour law and sensible alignment for cross-border engagements in Singapore and the UAE.
• Maintain clean HR data, files and HRIS hygiene. If it is not in the system, it did not happen.

Data, systems and continuous improvement

• Use people analytics to spot trends in attrition, utilisation, capacity, and hiring funnel health.
• Simplify processes. Automate where possible. Remove steps that do not add value.

What success looks like

• Time to hire meets target, and hiring quality is high at the 90-day mark.
• Regretted attrition stays low, and eNPS trends up.
• Performance cycle completion at 100 per cent with clear outcomes and growth plans.
• Bench is healthy and short, utilisation targets are met by squad and by practice.
• Zero compliance misses and clean audits.
• Managers feel supported and capable. Designers feel challenged and cared for.

Example KPIs

• Time to hire and offer acceptance rate
• Probation pass rate
• Regretted attrition and retention of top performers
• eNPS and onboarding satisfaction
• Utilisation and bench days per FTE
• Performance cycle completion within SLA
• ER case cycle time and outcomes
• HRIS data accuracy

What you will bring

• 6 to 8 years in HR, with at least 3 years as an HRBP in consulting, digital, BPO or a design-led environment.
• Strong grounding in Philippine labour law and practical experience across payroll inputs, benefits, and ER.
• Experience supporting cross-border talent or working with EOR providers is a plus.
• Comfortable partnering in a matrix with Ops, Finance and Client Delivery.
• Evidence of building simple frameworks that scale. You keep things human and practical.
• Data fluency. Comfortable with Google Workspace, the Microsoft suite and basic dashboards.
• CIPD Level 5 or above, or equivalent experience.
• Excellent written and verbal English.
• Calm under pressure, direct, and fair.
• Proactive and largely self-managed. You take initiative, seek direction when needed, and consistently bring thoughtful, well-considered solutions to the table.