About the job

Job summary

The UKHSA People Function plays a key role in supporting the business through change and to ensure we recruit and retain the very best people to achieve our vision. Our people and culture are integral to our organisation’s identity and the success of our strategy, policy, and operations for protecting the public requires recruiting, developing, and retaining high-calibre people in all areas and ensuring they work well together. This means a customer-focused, solution-driven delivery of priorities across the whole HR spectrum.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the well-established HR Business Partnering team within the People Group in UKHSA as we embark on enabling the new organisation to the next stage of its development. These roles are to backfill two positions on a temporary basis, but there is potential for the roles to be extended or made permanent

Job description

We are looking for two experienced HR Business Partner who will work alongside senior managers and leadership teams to provide strategic HR input and support on a wide range of critical business and workforce issues. The HR Business Partner is a key partnering role that supports the development and implementation of workforce strategies, change programmes, employee capability and skills, employee engagement, policies and solutions, to support and enable UKHSA and its leaders to deliver against its strategic goals.

Responsibilities

• Develop understanding of UKHSA’s business plans and people issues to ensure that workforce requirements are identified.
• Work with key stakeholders to identify, develop and implement workforce planning strategies.
• Work with key stakeholders through organisational change activities ensuring that the people impacts are fully considered throughout.
• Work alongside senior managers and leadership teams to provide strategic HR Input and support on a wide range of critical business issues.
• Supporting managers and leadership teams to build and develop staff capability, skills; and engagement.
• Building strong and significant relationships with stakeholders, supporting business areas though change programmes and providing strategic HR advice and guidance coaching senior leaders throughout.
• Ensuring that the development of HR solutions meet business need, that diversity issues are fully integrated and champion UKHSA’s diversity and inclusion policies and initiatives, working closely with trade union colleagues as appropriate.
• Ensure the provision of expert people management advice and offer guidance / interpretation of UKHSA policy and employment law.
• Manage job evaluation activities.
• Contribute to the development and review of UKHSA employment policies and procedures using business insight to inform where appropriate.
• Lead and contribute to a range of projects and initiatives requiring HR Business Partner input across the People agenda.
• Deputise for Head of HR Business Partnering as required and support HR Business Partnering across all people and organisational development initiatives.

Person specification

You will be assessed on the below 5 essential criteria, which have been selected from the Job Description. 

Essential Criteria:

• Significant strategic HR experience in a demanding and changing environment
• Experience of supporting a business through Organisational Change
• Experience of partnering with and influencing a range of senior stakeholders on a range of people priorities and change programmes
• Ability to provide, receive and analyse highly complex, sensitive or contentious information and present this to large and influential groups.
• Strategic thinking – ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise, plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,824, UK Health Security Agency contributes £13,992 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 and will assess your Behaviours and experience.

STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the above listed 5 essential criteria, and this will be in the form of:

• An application form, where you will 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.
• A Statement of Suitability, in no more than 1000 words outlining why you will be suitable for the role.

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. Please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number. 

The application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked separately.  

Feedback will not be provided at this stage. If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.

STAGE 2 – INTERVIEW
You will be invited to a (single) remote interview. This competition will involve a presentation.

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. Candidates will also be asked to participate in a session where they will be required to prepare and deliver a 5-minute presentation to the panel. This will be followed by a question-and-answer segment.The presentation will be designed to assess each candidate’s experience in line with the requirements of the role. Full details will be provided prior to the interview.

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

· Changing and Improving
· Communicating and Influencing (Lead behaviour)
· Making Effective Decisions
· Seeing the Bigger Picture
· Delivering at Pace

Interviews will be held week commencing 17th of June. Please note, these dates are subject to change.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. 

Eligibility Criteria 

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

Disability Confident scheme  

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.  

Reserve List clause  

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.   

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.  

Starting salary  

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.    

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.    

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.  

  

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.