About the job

Job summary

As a member of DWP’s Employee Policy Team, you will fulfil a national role in the largest Department in Government. You will be recognised as an expert in the field of HR Policy and related employment law. This is a high-profile role, which will bring you into regular contact with members of DWP’s senior HR team and involve you in some of DWP’s biggest change projects.

In this role you will implement new HR policies and ensure existing HR policies are legally compliant to equip DWP’s 90,000 employees to do their jobs effectively. You will give advice on using HR policies to solve employment problems which have passed through other hands to the team only because they are the most difficult to solve.

Your clients will be HR colleagues, senior leaders and people responsible for implementing big change projects. HR colleagues include those in the wider HR family across Government because you will play a key role in maintaining DWP’s reputation as a leader and active collaborator across Whitehall.   

You must have good knowledge of key employment law, e.g. the Equality Act 2010, and be experienced in using HR policies to achieve good employment outcomes. Comfort at working in a national role, first-class analytical ability, excellent communications skills, ability to influence stakeholders and establish your credibility as an expert are critical requirements of success in the role.  

The Employee Policy Team is a corporate team in DWP’s HR Services & Resourcing Directorate.

Job description

The successful candidate will have responsibility for the following:

• Providing HR policy advice to other HR professionals to resolve out of the norm problems, including very sensitive situations relating to individuals.
• Steering (sometimes nationally) important change and modernisation projects whose implementation could have significant employee impacts, thus requiring
• trust-worthy HR policy input.
• Drafting new HR policies or amendments to existing HR policies and involving others in quality assuring these as easy to use.
• Negotiating with national trade union reps. over disputed discipline or grievance cases which they may refer to the Employee Policy Team for review.
• Negotiating HM Treasury approval for funding to settle certain employment tribunal litigation and negotiating with HM Treasury for the desired outcome.
• Stepping up to give HR policy advice as a national level DWP witness at employment tribunals.
• Being a proactive member of the HR Policy network across Government, having a Whitehall profile, reaching out to Whitehall counterparts and working collaboratively with them.
• Drafting briefing for senior colleagues or responses to Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests potentially across dozens HR policies.

Person specification

Key criteria for the role, which will be used to assess your application, alongside Success Profiles.

The successful candidate will:

• Demonstrate their good knowledge of key employment law and proven ability to use HR policies to solve complex problems and help deliver project outcomes – this will be a lead criterion for sifting.
• Have good critical faculties and exercise sound judgement, using policy and other evidence to assess risk and develop solutions that deliver successful outcomes.
• Possess strong interpersonal, communication and influencing skills as an acknowledged expert, able to explain complicated things clearly and persuasively to non-experts.
• Have the resilience and sensitivity to deal with confidential and frequently contentious issues, plus the self-confidence and professionalism to back your judgement in being the ultimate, quotable source of HR policy advice.
• Able to work to tight deadlines, including working on complex work at pace whilst demonstrating a good level of attention to detail when providing HR support and guidance.

Desirable criterion

You will be a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or willing to work towards this.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,201, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £10,854 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.

Applicants will be required to draft a CV and 1,250 word personal statement to show how they match against the key criteria.

Applications will be sifted against the personal statement. Note the inclusion of a lead criterion.

The interview stage will comprise of a behaviour and strength based interview. Behaviour questions will be provided in advance.

Apply and further information

Contact point for applicants

For more information about this vacancy, please contact colin.herring@dwp,gov.uk

Sift

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead criterion “demonstrating good knowledge of key employment law and a proven ability to use HR policies to solve complex problems and help deliver project or other successful outcomes”. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview. 

The CV is an on-line tool accessed through the Civil Service Jobsite and there is no requirement to upload your personal CV. Our CV element is short and allows an initial check of eligibility. Please note, the CV is not assessed, so please put the main content of your evidence and skills in your Personal Statement.

Interview

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview. This will be a video interview which will take approximately 30-40 minutes. The interview panel will be more than one person, probably three people. The interview will assess: Behaviours and Strengths. The interview aims to be more of a conversation exploring the candidate’s capability for the role.

To help you prepare and settle into the interview, you will be sent the Behaviour questions 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions and questions about your Strengths. 

You will be assessed against these Behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and influencing
• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Working together

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed. 

Location – Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds hub – this role is suitable for hybrid working.

Reserve list - we will keep a reserve list of successful candidates for (3 months) and if further similar roles become available, we may contact you.

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

Any move to DWP 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

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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 security 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. 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.