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Chief People Officer
12 months ago
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As our new Chief People Officer (CPO) you will be joining during a pivotal time in the Cabinet Office and will ensure that, as a department, we maintain and build workforce capability, engagement, support and trust as we reshape the department to enable it to deliver the key strategic priorities for Government.
You will report to Sarah Harrison, Cabinet Office Chief Operating Officer and work closely with Cat Little, Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Civil Service Chief Operating Officer. You will partner functional leaders in Strategy, Finance, Commercial and Digital as a key member of the Cabinet Office Corporate Services Senior Leadership Team.
You will lead a team of 4 Deputy Directors and c100 FTE based based predominantly in our two headquarter locations, London and Glasgow, with some colleagues in other locations around the country as well.
You will be a member of the Cabinet Office Executive Committee and the Departmental Board, as well as representing the Cabinet Office within the Government People function, led by the Government Chief People Officer, Fiona Ryland.
Strategic Leadership:
- Providing visionary leadership particularly in relation to workforce planning, skills and capability building, leadership development, performance management and recognition, culture, inclusion and wellbeing and excellence in business partnering.
Transformation Management:
- Working with the Permanent Secretary, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Strategy Director, to lead transformation in the Cabinet Office as it aligns with the objectives for the strategic centre of Government.
- Working with the COO and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to seize opportunities and deliver change which consolidates corporate functional expertise and services internally and across departmental boundaries via shared services.
Skills and capability:
- Overseeing the design and delivery of learning and development programmes that equip leadership, line managers and staff across CO locations with the skills and knowledge required to excel in their roles.
- Establishing and delivering a programme to build line manager and leadership capability aligned to cross government standards.
Performance and recognition:
- Delivering a reward, recognition and performance management strategy which recognises high performance and reinforces core capabilities, behaviours and values.
Employee Engagement and culture:
- Developing and implementing strategies to maintain high levels of staff engagement, inclusion, morale and wellbeing which align with the Cabinet Office’s values.
Business partnering and stakeholder management:
- Acting as senior business partner to the most senior leaders in the department.
- Leading the development of an expert and strategic business partnering function.
- Working in partnership with the Government’s Chief People Officer and HR leaders across government to drive forward the people agenda for civil service.
Modernise HR services:
- Shaping and leading the development of Cabinet Office HR professional capability and systems (as part of the Matrix Shared Services cluster).
- Ensuring services which are data and insight led, modern and intuitive and highly user focused.
- Wherever possible, exploiting opportunities for consolidation, simplification and shared services.v
Person specification: It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, you provide evidence of the following Essential Criteria:
- Proven Leadership: Demonstrated success in a senior HR leadership role, in a large, complex and geographically distributed organization.
- Strategic Vision: Based on previous experience, clear evidence of the ability to both shape, develop and deliver on the ground a clear, strategic vision for the future of the Cabinet Office workforce and department.
- Change Management: Demonstrable experience of having led large-scale transformation implementation, with a focus on maintaining delivery at pace, employee engagement and trust through significant change.
- Stakeholder Engagement: A track record of successfully influencing and building relationships and partnerships with senior leaders, stakeholders, staff representative groups and Trade Unions, as well as external partners.
- Cultural Sensitivity: A deep understanding of how to foster an inclusive and positive workplace culture across a diverse and highly geographically distributed organization.
- Operational Excellence: Expertise in the delivery and management of data and insight-led HR functions and services, supporting a distributed workforce.
Qualifications
- You must hold Fellowship of CIPD or an equivalent HR qualification, or be able to achieve that level within 6 months of appointment.
Selection process details
To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below.
- A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
- A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 2 pages) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
Note: Failure to submit both CV and Statement of Suitability will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.
Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.
This is likely to include:
- a Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE), which does not result in a pass or fail decision but is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview
- at least one, formal interview.
The interview(s) will provide the panel with the opportunity to have a more in-depth discussion with you about your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria set out in the Person Specification.
If you are required to prepare a presentation for the final interview you will be given the subject in advance.
You may also have the opportunity to speak to Sarah Harrison prior to the final interview to learn more about the role and organisation. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.
Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Expected timeline (subject to change)
- Expected sift date – w/c 20 January 2025
- Expected SEE date – 28th January 2025
- Expected interview date/s – w/c 3 February 2025
Nationality requirements: This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- Nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- Individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service