The Home Office’s mission is to build a safe, fair, and prosperous UK through its Outcome Delivery Plan: reducing crime, strengthening Homeland Security, legal migration and the border and tackling illegal migration. We deliver our outcomes through three strategic shifts: building greater resilience, applying a system thinking approach and harnessing data and technology.
Home Office HR is a key enabler of this mission and strategy with five strategic pillars driving our work: an engaged, motivated, and productive workforce; collaborative expert leadership and management; building a diverse and inclusive organisation; a flexible and interoperable workforce; and an improved employee experience. As a member of ExCo, Corporate and Delivery Group and head of the HR Profession in the Home Office, the Chief People Officer ensures alignment of the people agenda with the Home Office mission and the Government People Group priorities.
The Deputy Director, Senior Civil Service HR (SCS HR) post is a key leadership role within the Home Office HR Function, operating right across the Drive, Develop, Deliver model. The role provides an exciting opportunity for a strategic HR professional to lead our SCS HR Team in supporting and developing the most senior leaders in our organisation.
The Senior Civil Service HR Team provides strategic and tactical support to the most senior leadership cadre within the Home Office, encompassing the SCS joiner, mover, and leaver employee life cycle. The role holder will lead the team to provide key professional advice to this senior cadre on a range of complex workforce management and recruitment related issues, both within the Department and across the wider Civil Service.
The role holder will lead the team in developing a deep understanding of the SCS cadre across the Department and drive improvements across all elements of the employee lifecycle, most notably in recruitment, talent, and performance management. In partnership with the Chief People Officer, the role holder will lead the redesign and operation of the Senior Leadership Committee and Executive Talent Board, both chaired by the Permanent Secretary, as the key governance forums with oversight of the SCS cadre. The role holder will work closely with business facing HR Deputy Directors, each of whom partner the Home Office Directors General, and will also lead the Chief People Officer and HR Directors’ Private Office.
This is a new and highly influential role, the key requirements of which are excellent stakeholder engagement skills, the ability to build trust, and resilience.
Key responsibilities:
* Leading the newly created SCS Team (20 FTE); consulting and engaging on the scope and set up of a premium end to end service; and leading the transition to a new delivery model for SCS HR. Key elements in scope for consideration within the Team’s remit are (within the context of SCS): recruitment, talent, performance management, development, reward and casework.
* Providing strong, visible leadership for this new service focused on two user groups, the Permanent Secretaries / ExCo, and SCS members themselves. Leading highly effective, business / end user focused teams across the range of SCS related areas, providing direction, motivation, and leadership to ensure the teams reach their maximum potential.
* Maintaining and continuously developing SCS specific policies and transforming processes through automation to deliver high-quality professional support.
* Providing leadership of the Chief People Officer and HR Directors’ Private Office. Driving co-ordination of all incoming HR commissions and approvals effectively, often from the Permanent Secretary and Ministers, as well as the wider Civil Service HR community, being mindful of the high profile and sensitive political context within which we operate. Ensuring the Chief People Officer and HR Directors are given the highest calibre support to enable the effective and efficient running of the HR function.
* Developing an in depth understanding of the Home Office’s SCS cadre and leading the team to work collaboratively across HR and the wider Department to shape business direction and strategy across the range of SCS workforce management issues, ensuring this is aligned to business requirements at a time of major change.
* Playing a leading role in the effective governance of the SCS cadre within the Home Office and across Government by leading the agenda of the Home Office Senior Leadership Committee and Executive Talent Board to focus on developing a high performing SCS cadre; and contributing to the shape of a common SCS HR model and service model (as appropriate) across the Shared Service Synergy Cluster.
* Build relationships with senior customers and stakeholders across the Home Office, particularly the Permanent Secretaries and their Private Office, Ministerial and SPAD offices, and Cabinet Office.
* In collaboration with business facing HR Deputy Directors, identify and implement career and development interventions (for example, executive coaching) for SCS members.
* As a member of the HR Senior Leadership Group, proactively lead the wider HR function.
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