About the job

Job summary

National Location: £38,724 - £44,393

Outer London Location: £40,721 - £46,231

Inner London Location: £42,716 - £48,068

Fixed term (maternity cover): September 2024 – September 2025

Minimum of 30 hours over 5 days

The UK Health Security Agency is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats.  

This role sits within UKHSA’s award winning Commercial Directorate, who played a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Truly dynamic, our teams operate at significant pace in a commercially complex environment to procure a diverse range of goods and services in a highly competitive global market.    

UKHSA’s Commercial teams continue to play a central role in priority activity, supporting the response to health threats such as Mpox (Monkeypox) and Strep A as they occur, and ensuring a resilient infrastructure to secure the UK in the strongest position to protect the public from future threats to health.   

We are looking for a Commercial People and Capability Manager to join us in the Commercial Operations team. The successful candidate will hold a key role ensuring that the Commercial function has the Commercial talent and capability required to deliver their objectives.

The role holder will support the Commercial People and Capability Lead to continue to shape the Commercial People and Capability strategy, mission, vision and aim and will deliver best practice and standards across UKHSA Commercial. The role will be predominantly focused on Commercial Capability uplift and learning and development.

Location

The UK Health Security Agency operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow.  This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London).  Specialist or regional roles will be based at the appropriate UKHSA site. For certain roles, some additional flexibility may be possible, which will be agreed upon with the hiring manager based on individual requirements and business needs.

*Please be aware that this role can only be worked from within the UK and not overseas. Relocation expenses are not available.* 

Job description

The Commercial People and Capability Manager sits within the Commercial Operations team and is responsible for ensuring that the Commercial function has the right Commercial Talent and Capability.

You will lead on a range of activities such as analysing and communicating the results of the annual People Survey, supporting early talent initiatives such as apprenticeships and supporting with delivery of the performance management process. You will work with colleagues to understand capability gaps and identify appropriate and effective interventions to address these gaps. You will be responsible for the planning, communication and delivery of the learning and development offering for Commercial, which is released quarterly. As part of this you will track and manage the learning and development budget whilst ensuring all learning spend is in line with spend controls, to ensure the organisation gets the best outcome both in terms of quality of learning and value for taxpayers.

This list is not exhaustive and flexibility will be required to support the team on other projects and tasks as they arise, as required by the Commercial People and Capability Lead. You may from time to time be required to support the wider Commercial People and Capability team, which is responsible for resourcing, workforce planning, business planning and people data and reporting.

This is an exciting and rewarding role and will give the successful candidate the opportunity to make a real impact by delivering learning and development initiatives for the whole of the Commercial function.

We are looking for someone who is outcome driven with strong emotional intelligence, excellent communication skills and the ability to work with and influence others, including senior leadership, and drive collaborative working.

This is a dynamic and challenging environment, and the post holder will need to be confident in managing complexity, applying judgement and supporting decision making whilst collaborating effectively with other members of the team, UKHSA and wider stakeholder groups.

The job holder will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

• Operating as a proactive member of the Commercial Operations team, working collaboratively with colleagues to create a workplace culture that fosters a diverse and inclusive environment that makes UKHSA an employer of choice
• Building on the current Commercial capability needs analysis work, designing and delivering Learning and Development outputs and recommendations to enable the business to fulfil its potential, and to ensure our learning offering meets the diverse needs of colleagues
• Developing a quarterly learning offering to meet the needs of commercial colleagues, and liaising with suppliers and course delegates to deliver the offering
• Present to The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) People board
• Delivering a Commercial induction session for new starters to welcome them to the function
• Analysing the annual People Survey results for Commercial and working with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to understand their team’s results, providing support and guidance in identifying areas for improvement
• Ensuring Talent Management strategies are implemented and delivered, ensuring engagement and understanding from the teams involved
• Develop early talent initiatives such as Apprenticeships and Commercial Fast Stream
• Supporting the Commercial People and Capability Lead with delivery of the performance management process
• Creating an environment where wellbeing, balance and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do, encouraging everyone to reach their full potential, ensuring that all individuals feel confident in bringing their whole selves to work
• Supporting the delivery of all programmes of change related to Commercial People and Capability, as required by the Commercial People and Capability Lead

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.

Person specification

It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 750 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria (for full details of all essential criteria please refer to the attached job description):

Essential

• Evidence of working to high standards and maintaining a high level of accuracy
• Evidence of delivering to deadlines in a fast paced and ever-changing environment with conflicting priorities
• Evidence of strong stakeholder management skills
• Evidence of strong written and verbal communication skills while under pressure in a fast changing environment
• Experience working in a Learning and Development related role
• Knowledge of approaches to address capability gaps through Learning and Development solutions

Desirable

• Central Government experience
• Achieved or working towards CIPD accreditation
• Experience of operating in a Commercial environment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,724, UK Health Security Agency contributes £10,455 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT: 

You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed in line with the full list of essential criteria as detailed in the attached job description – please do provide evidence of how you meet this. 

Your Statement of Suitability should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria (outlined in the person specification section).

You will also be asked to provide information within the ‘Employer/ Activity history’ section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW 

This competition will involve an interview by video. 

As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. 

The Success Profiles framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate.  The following behaviours will be used at the interview:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making effective decisions
• Developing Self and Others
• Changing and Improving

 

For further information on the selection process, please refer to the attached Candidate Pack.

Expected Timeline:

Advert close: 23:55hrs on the 21st of July 2024 – unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Interviews: TBD

Please note these dates could be subject to change.  

Eligibility Criteria

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants)

Nationality requirements

Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Security clearance level requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.  Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard.  People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.

For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest. 

Please Note

This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&C’s are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.

Do you meet the nationality requirements for this post? https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.