About the job

Job summary

Bristol 

£63,386 - £69,444 

Plus generous civil service defined benefit pension 

 

 

About us 

 

The Office for Students (OfS) is the statutory regulator for higher education in England.  Our aim is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.  We do this by regulating the higher education providers on our register to make sure they are delivering high quality courses and positive outcomes for their students; where they are not, we take action.  

Job description

Purpose of the job  

 

The Senior HRBP role is a critical in ensuring that the HR function delivers a professional and high-quality service which supports the delivery of the organisation’s strategic aims and objectives. 

 

The role will be instrumental in shaping and executing the new people strategy for the Office for Students, taking a lead role on complex policy development and being instrumental in driving forward operational excellence, ensuring the HR team work effectively with a focus on continuous improvement. 

Person specification

About you 

 

You will be required to think strategically and demonstrate a broad view of issues and activities that will inform longer term planning and people solutions. 

 

The post holder will work with a broad range of stakeholders, including DfE, directors, senior colleagues, trade unions, and the wider HR team to enhance and add value to business performance. 

 

The key person attributes to fulfil this role are: 

 

Essential 

 

• Experience of business partnering at a senior level 
• Strategic thinker demonstrating a broad-based depth of knowledge of HR and people issues and their potential impact 
• Complex HR policy development & implementation experience and an understanding of what it means to work with TUs 
• Stakeholder management and facilitation skills and the ability to quickly build trusting and effective relationships with customers.
• Coaching capability and style. (new bullet added)
• Experience of project delivery in HR 

 

Desirable 

• MCIPD qualified 
• Experience in coaching 

 

 

Key responsibilities  

• Providing a professional and proactive HR service to enable the delivery of the business strategy.  You will have a clear understanding of organisational priorities, context and culture and demonstrate this within the development of HR policies, processes, and activities to drive a high performing organisation.   

 

• You will play a leadership role in enabling business change and improvement, ensuring consistent adoption and adherence of programs, policies, and procedures across the business. 

 

• You will business partner with senior leaders in the organisation and across projects to ensure that business challenges are understood, and strategies are put in place that bring together people practices and high performance. 

 

• You will take a leadership role in implementing and supporting the delivery of the people strategy across the employee lifecycle, working closely with the HR functions to ensure that HR activities are coordinated and planned.  You will ensure people risks are identified and managed utilising a risk-based approach. 

 

• You will ensure there is continuous improvement across the HR function, by ensuring HR activities are evaluated and improved in line with priorities, considering HR best practice and evidence from management information. 

 

• You will play a key role in strategic workforce planning, with a focus on the long-term needs of the organisation, working closely with the wider HR team to build solutions. 

 

• You will lead and coach senior managers/ directors and HRBPs on high-risk employment casework. 

 

• You will play a key role developing organisational and people capability by supporting, coaching and mentoring on people activities. 

 

• Leading and managing a team to best meet the needs of an agile organisation, you will act as a strong role model ensuring the effective development of the team to deliver a high quality and effective service with a focus on continuous improvement. 

 

• You will support business planning for the HR function to ensure delivery alongside the organisation's business plan 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £63,386, Office for Students contributes £17,177 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

Working for us 

 

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do. 
 
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background. 

Working arrangements 

 

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two to three days in a typical week. 

 

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part-time working, applies to the role.  

 

 

Closing date for applications:  11 February 2024

Interviews:  From 26 February 2024

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.