About the job

Job summary

 

The People Capability & Change (PC&C) Directorate provides direction, drives change and delivers support on the Department’s people issues. We are an exciting, fast-paced place to work, and we operate as a single team, working flexibly across themes as required, to use our combined knowledge and expertise in the most effective and efficient way. 

We expect our people to be curious and engage positively with other Government departments and external stakeholders across the public and private sectors to understand the wider context of our work and to identify current and emergent best practice. We promote closer working across Government to meet the challenges of the future and we invest in our continued professional development. 

We are looking for a HR Business Partner to join the HRBP team in DLUHC’s People, Capability and Change Directorate (PC&C). The HRBP team is a supportive and high-performing team with a variety of experiences where diversity of thought is welcome and encouraged.  HR Business Partners are trusted advisers for senior leaders at Director level to enable the delivery of their objectives through their people priorities, which can include: 
 
• Organisational change. 
• Planning the current and future size and shape of the workforce against workplans. 
• Building capability and supporting employees to perform at their best. 
• Advising on creating a diverse and inclusive organisation. 
• Promoting staff wellbeing and supporting initiatives to promote wellbeing in the organisation. 
• Providing strategic HR advice to business strategy and plans, diagnosing and advising on people implications and risks. 
 
HR Business Partners also work with colleagues across PC&C to support the delivery of people priorities by providing business insight into people strategy and initiatives, and also helping to adapt the work programme for the HR function as the Department’s context, needs and priorities shift.  HR Business Partners also work closely with other corporate teams, especially Finance.   

Job description

•  Building and managing relationships and partnerships - influencing, consulting, negotiating, and securing the confidence of senior stakeholders.  
• Providing challenge and influence at senior management team level to deliver objectives.  
• Using data and evidence to make decisions and influence - interpreting complex data at an operational and strategic level to create and present evidence based insight. Using data to highlight risks to customers and to drive excellence in HR systems and practice.  
• Capability building - effectively coaching and mentoring, both on an individual and team level, to drive high performance. Enhancing the capability of others, taking into consideration the needs of different groups, to raise standards and drive delivery.  
• Leading transformation and change - leading delivery of people focused transformational change management programmes and managing cultural change.  
• Applying employment law or employee relations principles. 

Person specification

• Able to build effective relationships with senior stakeholders that enable you to challenge, influence and persuade. 
 
• Use a range of best practice, strategies and data to diagnose problems and develop approaches that deliver objectives and outcomes. 
 
• Be curious, ready and able to work with ambiguity and use your initiative to develop ways of getting the best outcomes that meet business need. 
 
• Able to maintain personal effectiveness in the face of pressure, set-backs of when dealing with challenging situations. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,934, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £14,022 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.

We are for everyone 

 At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

  

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.  

 

We are for everyone 

 

DLUHC want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.  

 

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).  

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

 

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.  

 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors. 

 

When writing your application, remember: 

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.  
• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.  
• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!) 

 

 

At sift, we will be assessing 

 

Behaviour 1 (lead behaviour) - Communicating and Influencing 

Behaviour 2 - Seeing the big picture 

Behaviour 3 - Leadership   

Experience -  Can you describe how you have operated to influence, challenge and resolve a complex issue in a HR context? What was your approach and how did you ensure the desired outcome was reached? 

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

  

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:    

Behaviour – Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the big picture, Leadership  

Strength - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates invited to interview will be asked to prepare a presentation. The presentation question will be shared with candidates in advance of the interview.  

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Seeing the big picture, Leadership  

Experience: Yes

Strengths: Yes 

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

 

Grade 7 salary 

• The salary for this role is £51,934 (National). 
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

 
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

 

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC 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 https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

  

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Leeds
• Manchester
• Bristol
• Birkenhead
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Rolling sifting is envisaged to take place on this campaign. with interview dates to be confirmed. 
All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 
 
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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.