Job summary
This role represents a fantastic opportunity to positively impact a large and impressive NHS organisation at scale. Reporting directly to the Group Chief People Officer, this role is an integral part of the People Function's senior leadership team, with shared accountability for delivery of all our People Strategy and plans. They will take the lead on the strategic development and implementation of cultural initiatives, utilising evidence-based practices to support organisational development diagnostics that facilitates meaningful and sustainable change across the Group. They will drive our equality, diversity and inclusion agenda with innovation and passion, embedding our values in all aspects of HR delivery. They will improve organisational effectiveness through capability building, enhancing employee engagement, and fostering a high-performance culture within our Group. Working closely with our Executive team and stakeholder across the organisation, designing and delivering strategies that align with our ambitious organisational objectives. This role can also be based in Epsom with the salary adjusted to reflect the appropriate HCAS, based on the successful candidate's preference. Regular travel to all gesh sites will be expected.
Main duties of the job
This role will be pivotal in integrating and redesigning organisational development and culture-related services across the Group, enabling clinical services to be as effective, innovative, and resilient as possible. They will lead the development and delivery of the Group-wide organisational development offer, utilising their significant expertise to oversee the roll out of programmes that deliver sustainable change, engaging with senior leaders to improve organisational effectiveness and organisational health by aligning the way we work to our values and behaviours.
An integral part of the role will be leadership of the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda, where there has been a commitment to develop the organisational culture to make the Group a more inclusive place to work to enable great patient care.
They will provide leadership on Group-wide corporate learning and development, adopting and maximising the potential of local and national developments, integrating dynamic digital platforms across the health & social care system to meet complex changing needs of our workforce and services.
They will lead staff wellbeing and engagement services, ensuring gesh delivers on the People Promise, and other national and local commitments centring around supporting our people now and for the long-term. They will collaborate closely with our Communications function on our approach to staff recognition including our awards and long service events.
About us
St George's, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals and Health Group cares for a population of four million people in South West London and North East sites include St George's Hospital, one of 11 major trauma centres in the UK and the largest healthcare provider and major teaching hospital in the area; St Helier Hospital, home to the South West Thames Renal and Transplantation Unit and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children; and Epsom Hospital, home to the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC).
After years of collaboration, our two Trusts became a hospitals group in 2021. While remaining as two separate Trusts, being a hospitals group will help us to collaborate more closely on research, and the development, education, and training of our 17,000-strong workforce.
Job description
Job responsibilities
People Function Leadership
Assist in the design, delivery and implementation of the Group People Strategy through strong engagement with stakeholders.
Use data relating to services and patients to provide insights into People solutions, to identify plans for mitigation and to address opportunities and risks.
Partner with customers to understand their current and future needs and contract with them effectively through other SLT members.
Integrate diversity and inclusion principles into all areas of our people practice.
Support the development of a continuous improvement approach to workforce transformation across site activities.
Coach and lead by example and work as a unitary member of the SLT.
Keep abreast of national developments in people practices and take a systemic system wide approach to understanding and framing emerging organisational and system issues.
Proactively contribute to the development of operational workforce plans ensuring they are consistent all People priorities and Group objectives.
Team management and development
To directly manage relevant Head(s) of Learning and Development; Organisational Development; Equality, Diversity & Inclusion; Staff Wellbeing and Counselling Leads.
To provide ongoing guidance and managerial support to the team, leading by example and championing a learning culture.
Undertake coaching and performance management activities with teams and individuals, modelling behaviours of a good leader and to be able to give constructive feedback.
To ensure all team members are set objectives and KPIs, receive regular supervision, appraisals and updated personal development plans.
To ensure the team is properly staffed at all times to maintain a high level of service.
Overseeing the effective utilisation of all site-related workforce budgets, including around establishment control, apprenticeships and the delivery of staff-related cost improvement programmes.
Leading Organisational Development and Culture change
Accountable for the successful delivery of a range of Group-wide People & Culture programmes of work.
Responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive organisational development and culture strategy and performance improvement programmes that align with the Groups overall business goals and objectives; building cultural change that enhance employee performance, fosters a positive work culture and drives organisational success.
Partner with senior leaders and key stakeholders to identify and address organisational development needs, gaps, and opportunities.
Conduct organisational assessments and diagnose organisational issues to identify areas for improvement and develop targeted interventions.
Lead cultural transformation initiatives and foster a positive work environment that promotes collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Actively promote partnership working and cultural change through user/carer involvement in the development of policy and strategy and change management.
Provide strategic leadership on the NHS Staff Survey for the Group; develop and deliver associated Group improvement plans and support Heads of Service to develop and drive action plans within their Divisions.
Provide leadership coaching and development to senior leaders and managers to enhance their leadership capabilities and drive employee engagement.
Leadership and talent management
Responsible for the development and implementation of the Group approach to leadership development and talent management, ensuring there is a robust approach to succession planning and talent management for key roles and more broadly across the Group.
Working closely with colleagues across the Group to lead on the learning and talent agenda, linked with aspirations to be a learning organisation. Design and deliver programmes and initiatives that support employee development, talent management, and succession planning and building of high performing teams.
Responsible for the continuous review of the leadership and management development offer, ensuring our programmes build capabilities and capacity of leaders, including clinical leaders, at all levels across the Group to accelerate cultural and service transformation.
Build strong relationships with the national bodies such as the Leadership Academy and HPMA plus local partners in South-West London to further the leadership agenda.
Oversight of the design and delivery of bespoke development activity for senior leaders within the organisation, up to and including board level.
Manage the interface with Group shared services and specialist people management functions, ensuring there is clear hand-off and responsiveness to people related needs on the hospital sites.
Learning and Development (L&D)
Lead a programme of change to create one integrated team that has a consistent and single Group wide approach to:
- corporate induction and on-boarding of staff, integrated with the Group recruitment service
- Mandatory and Statutory (MaSt) training, streamlining and removing unwarranted variation (working with subject matter experts)
- recording learning management through appropriate system(s); overseeing the programme of implementation, working with IT services and workforce information teams
- increasing adoption of e-learning and other learning technologies
- management of learning centres, standardising the support to users across the centres
- assessing long-term capacity and capability requirements for the team to reflect the agreed integrated working model
- reviewing the system wide education and development requirements of the Group in collaboration with key stakeholders in Medical and Nurse Education, ensuring the development of education and workforce development strategies and interventions to meet those needs
- ensuring L&D investments (on-the-job training, in-house development programmes, coaching/mentoring, e-learning, external conferences, workshops, facilitated training delivered off the job, blended learning) are the rights ones and activity is directed towards improving individual and organisational performance through developing employee capability
- monitoring and evaluating the impact of learning and development activity, assessing transfer of the learning to the workplace and the wider impact on the business.
Oversee the allocation and utilisation of income from NHS England, Apprenticeship Levy and other learning and development income to ensure best value for investment and alignment to the Group priorities.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI)
Manage the performance and direction of the EDI function for the Group, to ensure that the strategies that are built are evidenced and researched based, innovative and will effectively deliver our ambition of equality and equity throughout what we do.
Oversee the development of a more inclusive culture that prioritises civility, respect, individuality, collectiveness and belonging in the workplace. Provide strategic and operational direction and leadership in relation to equality, diversity and human rights matters, overseeing EDI business assurance, people analytics, performance management and project and programme management support.
Facilitate ongoing Group-wide engagement and focus on this agenda at all levels, to ensure our workforce reflects the communities, service users and patients we serve.
Staff Wellbeing
Oversee the development of long-term wellbeing strategies for the Group, with a meaningful programme supporting improvements based on current evidence and best practice in response to wellbeing-related staff survey results, including appropriate evaluation of programmes, to ensure benefits are realised.
Work with colleagues across the regional system to make best use of resources, opportunities and comprehensive access to health and wellbeing support.
Other Responsibilities
Engage as an effective member of the Hospital Site Management Team and embody the Groups Outstanding Care, Together values, role modelling good leadership and inclusion through own actions and challenging behaviours that fall short of those expected.
Build a strong People Services community that delivers a high-quality service to clients.
Contribute to business performance by being accountable for the effective review and management of People management budgets, demonstrating value for money in the way services are delivered.
Accountability for the effective management of pay and non-pay budgets.
Senior leadership responsibility for identification of and delivery of cost improvement programmes.
To receive and deal with any escalated complaints about relevant areas of the People Service.
Person Specification
Education & Qualifications
Essential
1. Highly developed specialist knowledge of organisational development, learning and development, and / or equality, diversity and inclusion through experience and professional qualification
Desirable
2. Educated to Master's level or holder of relevant professional qualification in Organisational Development, Change, Social Psychology or similar field
Skills & Competencies
Essential
3. Able to develop, deliver and implement wide reaching long-term strategy and service plans for supporting and developing individuals, teams, and groups / communities of practice
4. Ability to translate strategic goals into clear delivery plans
5. Evidence of ability to act as a leadership role model, advocating best practice interventions across complex organisations that promote equality, fairness, dignity, and respect
6. Able to facilitate change in a way that includes diverse voices, and inspires and engages the organisation
7. Champions a continuous improvement mindset and a 'can do' approach to ensuring OD delivers added value through its services
8. Regularly undertakes research and development in relation to organisational development and capability requirements, including horizon scanning for upcoming good practice, benchmarking with other organisations/industries to add value to our internal OD/L&D services, triangulation of data to provide meaningful analysis of organisational trends and regularly maintains own continuous professional development
9. Ability to work effectively in a matrix environment, modelling resilience through leadership of others and creating a sense of direction in challenging times
10. Confidence and credibility to operate at a senior level, with the ability to take a visible lead in progressing difficult issues for the benefit of the organisation
11. Employee centric approach delivering high quality services at scale, underpinned by the production and effective use of relevant data, processes and systems
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
12. Experienced leader able to influence and drive change and transformation at the highest level
13. Significant track record of building leadership capability, team development, facilitation and OD skills
14. Proven track record of leading the development of compassionate and inclusive cultures from team to organisation level
15. Significant experience of operating effectively in a political environment with cultural sensitivity
16. A demonstrable track record of delivering high quality results at pace and at scale
17. Substantial experience of dealing with executive and divisional level colleagues within large organisations in previous Director of OD or equivalent role