Lead Assistant Manager - Compliance & BGC Specialist at EXL South Africa

Job Description

• The Lead Assistant Manager – Recruitment Compliance & Governance is accountable for the end‑to‑end governance, compliance, and people leadership of recruitment compliance operations. The role ensures that all recruitment and hiring activities are legally compliant, audit‑ready, client‑aligned, and consistently applied, while building and leading a high‑performing compliance team.
• In addition to owning background checks, digital employee file integrity, labour legislation adherence, client contractual compliance, and recruitment policy governance, this role is responsible for leading, training, mentoring, and continuously upskilling the recruitment compliance team, ensuring sustained alignment with BCEA, POPIA, and other applicable South African legislative requirements.

Responsibilities

Lead, manage, and develop a Recruitment Compliance team, ensuring clarity of role, accountability, and performance.

• Set clear objectives, KPIs, and quality standards for the team, aligned to recruitment and business priorities.

Coach, mentor, and support team members to build: 

• Strong legislative understanding (BCEA, POPIA, EEA, LRA, etc.)
• Sound judgment in screening adjudication and compliance decision‑making
• Confidence in audit readiness and client engagement

Create and execute a continuous upskilling framework, including: 

• Regular legislative refreshers and impact briefings
• Policy and process training
• Practical case studies and lessons learned from audits and incidents
• Ensure succession planning, cross‑skilling, and knowledge continuity within the compliance function.
• Foster a culture of integrity, consistency, and proactive risk management

Own, draft, review, and maintain all recruitment‑related compliance policies, ensuring alignment with: 

• BCEA, LRA, Employment Equity Act (EEA)
• POPIA / PAIA
• Sectoral determinations and bargaining council rules (where applicable)

Establish a formal policy review cycle, ensuring: 

• Regular reviews against legislative updates
• Timely communication of changes to the team and stakeholders
• Controlled versioning, approvals, and governance sign‑off
• Translate legislative changes into clear operational guidance, SOPs, and recruiter‑friendly checklists.
• Act as the escalation point for interpretation of recruitment‑related legislation and policy application.

Own and govern the pre‑employment screening framework, including: 

• Identity, right‑to‑work, qualifications, references
• Criminal, credit, and role‑specific checks (where lawful and justified)
• Biometric or enhanced checks where contractually required

Ensure screening practices are: 

• Legally defensible and proportionate
• POPIA‑compliant with proper consent, purpose limitation, and data security
• Lead the team responsible for screening adjudication, exception handling, and escalations.
• Manage screening vendors, SLAs, quality standards, and compliance reporting.

Own standards for digital employee file completeness and integrity, including: 

• Mandatory recruitment and onboarding documentation
• Evidence requirements, indexing, version control, and retention
• Lead the team responsible for file audits, remediation, and ongoing quality assurance.
• Partner with HR Operations and Payroll to prevent repeat gaps and systemic issues.

Design and lead the recruitment compliance audit program, including: 

• Routine internal audits
• Client and campaign‑specific audits
• Spot checks and thematic reviews
• Prepare the team to confidently support audits with accurate evidence and consistent responses.
• Drive corrective and preventive action plans (CAPA) and ensure closure.
• Maintain a recruitment compliance risk register and escalate material risks appropriately.

Interpret recruitment‑related client contractual obligations and embed them into: 

• Recruitment policies and SOPs
• Screening packages and file standards
• Ensure the team understands and applies client‑specific recruitment requirements consistently.
• Act as a senior compliance representative in client audits and governance forums.

Design and deliver structured training for: 

• Recruitment Compliance team members
• Recruiters and hiring managers (where required)

Maintain a central knowledge base covering: 

• Legislative updates
• Policy interpretations
• Frequently asked compliance scenarios
• Ensure learnings from audits, incidents, or legal changes are embedded into training and practice.

Lead the production of compliance dashboards and reporting, covering: 

• Screening completion and SLA performance
• File audit outcomes
• Policy deviations and trends

• Use insights to drive continuous improvement, automation, and risk reduction.

Qualifications

• 5–7 years’ experience in recruitment compliance, HR governance, or risk
• Demonstrated people‑leadership experience (leading, coaching, developing teams)
• Strong working knowledge of South African labour legislation impacting recruitment
• Proven experience owning recruitment or HR policies
• Audit and compliance assurance experience in high‑volume environments
• Degree or Diploma in HR, Law, Compliance, or Risk
• SABPP registration or membership
• BPO / GBS or multi‑client recruitment exposure
• ATS / HRIS workflow and control experience