About the job

Job summary

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

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 HR Division (HRD) is a strategic, corporate, expert division which provides services to the organisation. Therefore, its role is to meet the needs of the organisation by developing, promoting, implementing and embedding best practice in people leadership and management, enabling people to develop and grow and fulfil their potential at work and by ensuring that the organisation is successful. HRD supports the organisation to deliver its priorities.

Upcoming Priorities

• Delivering recruitment remains HR’s number one priority, ensuring we can meet the demands of the organisation whilst continually improving our approach. Supporting this with a structured approach to talent through quality development activity.
• Aligning our reward strategies with our business aims to deliver appropriate pay structures and frameworks.
• Improving diversity and inclusion as well as reducing bullying, harassment and discrimination is key. We are focused on increasing representation from underrepresented groups in our workforce as well as growing the number of women in senior roles.
• Focus on strengthening our health safety and wellbeing arrangements to support and enable colleagues to work in a healthy environment in important to us, no more so than in current times.
• Continue to invest in raising the skills and professionalism of our corporate HR capability.

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

• Deliver high quality, cost effective and business focused HR, organisational development, training and Health and Safety services to ensure the HR provision for HSE is fit for purpose, legally compliant, customer centric and aligned to strategic business requirements.
• Direct line management responsibility for a number Grade 6 equivalents. The HR Division has approximately 120 HR professionals.
• Develop and deliver both strategic and tactical workforce plans to support delivery of business objectives, working closely with directors and Finance colleagues. Ensure talent pools and succession plans are in place, recruitment effectively delivers the numbers and quality of employees required and retention policies ensure key people and talent stay within HSE.
• Lead our HR transformation journey, including embedding our new ways of working, and our services and processes.
• Lead the delivery of HR people plans and priorities, ensuring policies, processes and management data is in place to creatively and effectively deliver people interventions.
• Lead, manage or advise on People Groups and Employee Relations acting as a strong role model and ensuring effective development of the team to continue to deliver a high quality and professional service.
• Ensure that HSE has HR policies, frameworks and procedures that protect its interests, meet legal requirements, reflect good HR practice, and promote sound, fair and consistent management practices.
• As a proactive member of the People Senior Leadership Team within HSE, you will influence and contribute to the delivery of the wider HR, and Civil Service priorities, representing HSE professionally and in line with our organisational values.
• Understand the organisational change impacts of HSE priorities, supporting and leading on the people aspect of organisational design and development so that change is embedded successfully and leaders, line managers and employees are engaged and supported.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

The role requires the post-holder to have the experience and interpersonal skills to establish professional credibility and authority. The following is sought:

• Experience in senior level generalist HR, HR change, transformation or Organisational Development, with specialist expertise, practical understanding and business insight to support advice on key areas of HR;
• Experience of successfully leading and managing transformation and change. In particular, experience of creating a team-wide culture of continuous improvement and challenging the status quo, transforming processes to deliver in radically different ways and ensuring that employees are engaged in the changes;
• Confident, empowering, insightful and inspirational leadership of a high performing diverse workforce who is visible and approachable to all colleagues and stakeholders; With a commitment to continuing personal and professional development;
• The ability to develop strong partnership-based employee relations, ideally including experience of leading on internal communications and engagement;
• Demonstrating understanding of and commitment to diversity, inclusion, equality of opportunity and positive working relationships.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Health and Safety Executive contributes £20,924 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 information

As part of your application, you will be invited to complete a CV and a Personal Statement of up to 1000 words. Your CV should set out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

Within your Personal Statement please outline how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience to provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the Essential criteria within the person specification.

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a personal statement https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/how-to-apply/  

Sift information

At Sift you will be assessed on your CV and your Personal Statement.

The Sift will take place week commencing 8th January 2024.

Interview information 

At interview, you will be assessed against the behaviours and experience detailed within the job advert. 

You will also be asked to make a presentation to the panel on a topic which will be shared ahead of your interview. Full details of the interview process will be provided to shortlisted candidates.

Interviews will take place week commencing 12th February 2024. 

Interviews will be held face to face at HSE, Redgrave Court, Merton Rd, Bootle L20 7HS.  

Further Information 

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application.

For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document. 

Any move to HSE from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at here.

If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk  

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further;
Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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

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.