About the job

Job summary

The Deputy Director for Group HR Reward and Employee Experience provides strategic oversight and leadership for the development and continuous improvement of our reward and benefits strategy, HR policies and employee relations across the DfT Group of c.15,000 employees. This is a priority area for the Department and our agencies and is critical for our ability to recruit, retain and engage our people.

This is a high-profile role with Group HR, engaging frequently with the Department’s Executive Committee, Chief Executives of our agencies and Arm’s Length Bodies, our people within DfTc, and leading our relations with Trade Unions across the DfT Group.

This portfolio will give you the opportunity to work at scale and with complexity; you will need to be strategic, able to influence and work with others and have confidence in your own expertise, as you balance Group wide priorities against the needs of the individual organisations.

You will be an inclusive and engaging leader, supporting, developing and leading your team of around twenty, through a challenging workload, complexity, ambiguity and change.

You’ll also be part of a friendly and supportive Senior Leadership Team that oversees the delivery of our People Strategy across the DfT Group.

Job description

Responsibilities of the role include:

• Lead and develop your team in delivering the Department’s reward, HR policy and employee relations agenda.  
• Lead and provide strategic direction to the development of the DfT Group Reward Strategy, including developing and considering a case for making a Pay Flex Business Case next year.  You will also ensure there is a clear engagement and communication strategy with our people, senior stakeholders and the Trade Unions across the agencies and the core Department.   
• Ensure we have a clear and well understood benefits proposition that demonstrates and maximises our wider reward offer – pushing the boundaries on what we are able to offer as a Civil Service employer. 
• Provide leadership on HR Policies, ensuring that we not only keep up with legislation changes but that we use insight from our wider HR services to prioritise and continuously improve.   
• Build collaborative and productive relationships with our Trade Unions including supporting agency colleagues on employee relations matters. 
• Lead senior engagement with Shareholder and Sponsor Teams within DfTc to understand and prioritise HR requirements and ensuring the appropriate level of HR support and advice is in place to support their oversight of the Department’s ALBs.   You will be the point person for HR providing this advice as a strategic business partner, drawing on the expertise of colleagues in the function as needed and handling some complex people issues. 
• Support the delivery of the Department’s responsibilities on pensions, both for staff and in respect of rail pension schemes. 
• Work collaboratively across the wider HR leadership team to ensure joined up responses, and clear ownership for issues. 
• As a key member of the HR SCS leadership team, provide wider Directorate leadership to support wider engagement and capability building. 
• Build positive relationships with key senior stakeholders including DfT Group, DfT Arm’s Length Bodies, and the wider Civil Service HR function; especially with the Chief Executives and HR Directors of the Agencies, DfT Directors General, the Permanent Secretary and the Government People Group. 
• Management of the Group People Committee. 
• Attend the DfT Executive Committee and brief the Permanent Secretary on key Group wide issues as required, such as reward strategy.  
• Financial management of the function’s budget. 

Person specification

You will need to be able to show, through your application, that you have the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post, as well as the leadership skills to succeed at Deputy Director level in the Senior Civil Service. 

Essential skills and experience:

• Using data and evidence to make decisions and influence - interpreting complex data to create and present evidence-based insight and recommendations. Leading and driving a shift to a more data focussed approach, including using data to effectively drive, monitor and evaluate the impacts of policy.
• Building and managing relationships and partnerships - influencing, consulting and negotiating at a strategic level with very senior stakeholders on reward strategies and ER issues. Collaborating with partners to achieve objectives, including experience of navigating conflicting views and priorities.
• Applying complex employment law or employee relations principles - significant experience of interpreting and applying complex employment law, including the commissioning of expert legal advice, to a range of organisational issues. Ensuring organisational policy and procedures reflect best practice for disciplinaries, redundancies and employee relations. Working with trade unions to drive change.
• Capability building - effectively coaching and mentoring, on an individual, team and organisational level, to drive high performance. Enhancing the capability of a workforce, taking into consideration the needs of different groups, to raise standards and drive delivery.
• Driving change through digital technology - maximising collaboration of leading-edge technology and HR systems to transform ways of working and deliver efficiencies and value for money.
• Business planning - budget management, financial planning and contract management. Specific experience should be chosen based on the role description and specific responsibilities. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Transport contributes £20,250 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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online form. This should be completed no later than 23:55 on 07/01/2024

The application will include:

• 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 1000 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the criteria in the person specification.

Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say’.

All monitoring data will be treated in the strictest confidence and will not be provided to the selection panel. 

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Shortlist

Your application will be acknowledged when it is received.  

The panel will select a shortlist of candidates whose applications best demonstrate suitability for the role, by considering the evidence provided against the essential criteria set out in the Person Specification.

Candidates applying under the Disability Confident Scheme who meet the minimum selection criteria in the job specification are guaranteed an interview.

Assessment

Shortlisted candidates may be asked to take part in a series of assessments which could include:

• Individual Leadership Assessment – a combination of psychometric assessments
• Staff Engagement Exercise - a presentation and Q&A with a representative staff group from across the DfT.

These assessments will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Informal Discussions​

Shortlisted candidates will have the opportunity to speak to James Norton, prior to the final interview.  This is an informal discussion to allow candidates to learn more about the role and is not part of the assessment process​

Interview

You will be asked to attend a panel interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.   

The Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate.  As well as Experience, we will also be using the following four behaviours will be used at the interview stage:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving
• Working together 

Further information about Success Profiles can be found here:

Interviews are expected to take place face to face in our London office, between 14th & 16th February 2024. All shortlisted candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation.

Offer and Feedback

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated number of applicants for this role, we are unable to provide feedback to those not successful at shortlist stage. Candidates who are shortlisted and attend an interview will be offered verbal feedback from a member of the interview panel. 

The timeline later in this pack indicates the date by which decisions are expected to be made, all candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter, and we will advise on any delays.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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 also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.