About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Role title:    

Human Resources Advisor for Tribunals

Team/Directorate:    

Judicial HR Business Partner and Organisational Design & Development Team (HRBP and OD&D team)

Overview of Judicial Office:    

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lady Chief Justice and was established in 2006 to provide support to her and to the wider judiciary following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.  In addition, we support, and are accountable to, the Senior President of Tribunals, whose responsibilities extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The JO is an interesting and unique place to work. Everything we do is in support of upholding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. 

Judicial Office HR (JO HR) places judicial office holders at the centre of our service, ensuring we are visible, proactive as well as responsive, and that we collaborate with colleagues across the Judicial Office, and beyond to ensure we provide judicial office holders with excellent HR support and professional expertise.

JO HR supports the judiciary, judicial leaders, and works in partnership with HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to ensure the Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals have a properly resourced, visible and accessible HR service based on the needs of the judiciary.

Summary:    

With a passion for people/operational management, and a desire to build an HR generalist foundation for a future career, the post holder will work with the HR Business Partners (HRBPs) to optimise effective working relationships and HR support for the tribunal judiciary.

Whilst we are part of the wider Civil Service HR community, we are not a typical HR team in that everything we do needs to meet the, often complex, needs of around 25,000 members of the judiciary who are office holders and not employees or Civil Servants. This provides us with a unique and interesting set of HR challenges. It also provides us with unique opportunities to work with the judiciary at all levels and gives us ample opportunity to broaden our HR skills sets within an environment of continuous learning.

Reporting to a HRBP, the post holder will need to be agile, forward looking and ready to adapt to the evolving priorities of the judiciary.

The role requires a proactive approach to problem solving and finding solutions to HR challenges. With a detailed understanding of the judiciary and their unique position as office holders the role is key to enabling accurate interpretation of HR policy, and the delivery of HR processes to maintain sufficient support to the judiciary.

The post holder will contribute to the link between the judiciary and the HR Centres of Expertise and Operations teams working collaboratively to achieve effective outcomes.

This is an ambiguous environment, and the post holder must be comfortable working autonomously and proactively, garnering credible information from a range of sources to provide accurate advice.

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties:

•    Appraising, assessing and adapting to a range of issues on a day-to-day basis. Offering options to assist the judiciary in discharging their pastoral responsibilities.
•    Building relationships and personal credibility with the judiciary, including travelling to the tribunals across the country for in-person meetings and potential conference attendance.
•    Supporting the HR triage service to judicial office holders. This requires a keen attention to detail, and the ability to ensure information and advice provided is timely, and accurate.
•    Consider sensitive or multiple opposing opinions to establish facts; establishing the best approach; determining appropriate methodologies; analysis to ensure quality and application of results.
•    Exercise judgement, knowing when to seek advice and guidance from their management team as appropriate.
•    Interpreting HR advice may require follow up questions, discussion or further investigation to understand the wider impact of the issue.
•    Decisions might involve considerable discretion but will be constrained by policy and informed practice.
•    Adopting a balance of a data-driven mindset with a personable and empathetic approach.
•    Operating as an integral member of the HRBP/OD&D Team, scanning for emerging trends and acting as an intelligent customer into the wider HR Team on behalf of judiciary.
•    Work closely with the respective Chamber Presidents Offices as appropriate, to identify and address relevant HR issues.  
•    Have a clear understanding of the Lady Chief Justice and Senior President Tribunals priorities and be able to support a Tribunals plan that will add value to the local judiciary.
•    Demonstrate commitment to personal continuous development, professional expertise and skill.

Key tasks:

•    Working closely with the HRBPs to support delivery of a strategic field-based HR service.
•    Analysing HR data and applying understanding to decide on an appropriate intervention or course of action and making recommendations to the HRBPs or directly to judicial office holders.
•    Sickness absence monitoring and escalating any concerns or trends to the HRBP.
•    Formulation of reports which can be fed back into key areas of the organisation.
•    Oversight of all record keeping, ensuring compliance with GDPR and data retention policies.
•    Provide advice to enable judicial leaders to take proactive steps to deal with or pre-empt issues relating to judicial health, welfare and to provide high quality timely advice on specific or generalised HR problems.
•    Liaison with HMCTS on complex workplace adjustment cases.
•    Collation of Judicial Office Holder appeal information and drafting of briefing notes.
•    Supporting the HR triage system, ensuring the advice and signposting is accurate and timely.
•    Signposting complex queries to the correct part of JO HR.
•    Responding to queries which require review of numerous policies and T&Cs in order to provide accurate advice.
•    Providing HR support to the judiciary, including email, call and in-person meeting attendance. Taking minutes in appropriate meetings which require HR to be present.
•    Presenting information, both virtually and in-person, on HR topics to increase understanding and improve collaborative processes amongst stakeholders, including operational colleagues and judicial office holders.
•    Forming a collaborative relationship with stakeholders namely Chamber President Offices to garner local insights.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

•    An ability to forge strong working relationships; being recognised as a trusted Advisor.
•    Solution focused and able to identify opportunities for improvements.
•    Able to work well under pressure.
•    Excellent communication skills, both in verbal and written formats, including the confidence to speak with authority when operating at a senior level.
•    Experience of working in an operational delivery environment and/or knowledge and experience of HR, or as a manager working with complex problems.
•    Confidence working autonomously and in an ambiguous environment.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

•    Understanding of the judiciary.
•    Previous experience of working in a HR team/environment.

Technical Skills/ Qualifications:

•    Credible HR/operational experience.
•    Level 3 or 5 CIPD qualified or willing to work towards. This role can be linked to the HR Apprenticeship and as a route into CIPD qualification.

Security clearance required:    

Security clearance will include a requirement of CTC and DBS

Additional Information:    

The successful candidate will be expected to spend at least 60% of their working hours in the office (this includes court visits and national travel where required). There will be a need to attend meetings with the judiciary (including in person at sites), with meetings often taking place before or after court (before 9.30am and after 4.30pm) so flexibility is required in the role.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess the Behaviours, Experience and Strengths elements. 

Behaviours & Strengths (for Recruitment/Success Profiles):     
Behaviours 
•    Communicating and influencing
•    Making Effective Decisions 
•    Managing a Quality Service 
•    Seeing the Big Picture 

Application stage
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Personal Statement / Statement of Suitability in no more than 750 words.  Using the job advert as a guide you will be required to provide an overview of transferable skills and / or evidence that would fulfil the role requirements. 
 
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. 

We will assess you against these behaviours during the application stage:
•    Managing a Quality Service (250 word limit)
•    Communicating and Influencing (250 word limit)

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial sift will be conducted on the Communicating and Influencing behaviour. Those who are successful in the initial sift will then be scored on all elements of the application.
 
Interview stage 

It is anticipated that interviews will take place online in the week of 22nd or 29th April 2024 but please note that dates are subject to change

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,827, Ministry of Justice contributes £8,896 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, Strengths and Experience.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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 counter-terrorist 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.