As an organisation’s 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 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.

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.

Essential Criteria:

• Proven Leadership: Demonstrated success in a senior HR leadership role, in a large, complex and geographically distributed organisation.
• 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 organisation.
• 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.