Details

Reference number

371909

Salary

£130,000

A salary of up to £130,000 per annum is available. Standard pay rules apply for existing civil servants.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 2

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

CO - Cabinet Office People and Places

Type of role

Human Resources
Senior leadership

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share

Number of jobs available

Contents

Location

About the job

Benefits

Things you need to know

Apply and further information

Location

Glasgow, London

About the job

Job summary

As our new Chief People Officer (CPO) you will be joining during a pivotal time in the Cabinet Office and will ensure that, as a department, we maintain and build workforce capability, engagement, support and trust as we reshape the department to enable it to deliver the key strategic priorities for Government.

You will report to Sarah Harrison, Cabinet Office Chief Operating Officer and work closely with Cat Little, Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Civil Service Chief Operating Officer. You will partner functional leaders in Strategy, Finance, Commercial and Digital as a key member of the Cabinet Office Corporate Services Senior Leadership Team.

You will lead a team of 4 Deputy Directors and c100 FTE based based predominantly in our two headquarter locations, London and Glasgow, with some colleagues in other locations around the country as well.

You will be a member of the Cabinet Office Executive Committee and the Departmental Board, as well as representing the Cabinet Office within the Government People function, led by the Government Chief People Officer, Fiona Ryland.

Job description

As Chief People Officer your key responsibilities will include:

Strategic Leadership:

Providing visionary leadership particularly in relation to workforce planning, skills and capability building, leadership development, performance management and recognition, culture, inclusion and wellbeing and excellence in business partnering.

Transformation Management:

Working with the Permanent Secretary, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Strategy Director, to lead transformation in the Cabinet Office as it aligns with the objectives for the strategic centre of Government.
Working with the COO and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) to seize opportunities and deliver change which consolidates corporate functional expertise and services internally and across departmental boundaries via shared services.

Skills and capability:

Overseeing the design and delivery of learning and development programmes that equip leadership, line managers and staff across CO locations with the skills and knowledge required to excel in their roles.
Establishing and delivering a programme to build line manager and leadership capability aligned to cross government standards.

Performance and recognition:

Delivering a reward, recognition and performance management strategy which recognises high performance and reinforces core capabilities, behaviours and values.

Employee Engagement and culture:

Developing and implementing strategies to maintain high levels of staff engagement, inclusion, morale and wellbeing which align with the Cabinet Office’s values.

Business partnering and stakeholder management:

Acting as senior business partner to the most senior leaders in the department.
Leading the development of an expert and strategic business partnering function.
Working in partnership with the Government’s Chief People Officer and HR leaders across government to drive forward the people agenda for civil service.

Modernise HR services:

Shaping and leading the development of Cabinet Office HR professional capability and systems (as part of the Matrix Shared Services cluster).
Ensuring services which are data and insight led, modern and intuitive and highly user focused.
Wherever possible, exploiting opportunities for consolidation, simplification and shared services.

Person specification

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, you provide evidence of the following Essential Criteria:

Proven Leadership:Demonstrated success in a senior HR leadership role, in a large, complex and geographically distributed organisation.
Strategic Vision: Based on previous experience, clear evidence of the ability to both shape, develop and deliver on the ground a clear, strategic vision for the future of the Cabinet Office workforce and department.
Change Management:Demonstrable experience of having led large-scale transformation implementation, with a focus on maintaining delivery at pace, employee engagement and trust through significant change.
Stakeholder Engagement:A track record of successfully influencing and building relationships and partnerships with senior leaders, stakeholders, staff representative groups and Trade Unions, as well as external partners.
Cultural Sensitivity: A deep understanding of how to foster an inclusive and positive workplace culture across a diverse and highly geographically distributed organisation.
Operational Excellence:Expertise in the delivery and management of data and insight-led HR functions and services, supporting a distributed workforce.

Qualifications

You must hold Fellowship of CIPD or an equivalent HR qualification, or be able to achieve that level within 6 months of appointment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £130,000, Cabinet Office contributes £37,661 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead. You’ll benefit from a wide range of training and development opportunities, regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

This includes:

25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
Flexible working patterns including part-time or time-term working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and
Occupational sick pay.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below. This should be completed no later than 23.55, Sunday 12 January 2025.

A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 2 pages) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to submit both CV and Statement of Suitability will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates.

This is likely to include:

a Staff Engagement Exercise (SEE), which does not result in a pass or fail decision but is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview
at least one, formal interview.

The interview(s) will provide the panel with the opportunity to have a more in-depth discussion with you about your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria set out in the Person Specification.

If you are required to prepare a presentation for the final interview you will be given the subject in advance.

You may also have the opportunity to speak to Sarah Harrison prior to the final interview to learn more about the role and organisation. Please note this is not part of the formal assessment process.

Should you encounter any issues with your online application please get in touch with us via: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Expected timeline (subject to change)
Expected sift date – w/c 20 January 2025

Expected SEE date - 28th January 2025

Expected interview date/s – w/c 3 February 2025

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the ‘assistance required’ section in the ‘personal information’ page of your application form to provide information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Reserve lists

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, which the Civil Service may use to fill future suitable vacancies across government for candidates who are considered appointable following interview.

Further Information

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Any move to Cabinet Office 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 here.

Current Civil Servants (all contract types) will need to ensure that they are still employed as a civil servant at the point of starting in the relevant new post. If their contract ends (e.g. end of FTA contract or resignation) at any point during the recruitment/onboarding process for the advertised role, they will no longer be eligible and may be withdrawn.

Please note that this role requires Security Check (SC) clearance, which would normally need 5 years UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name :

SCS Recruitment Team

Email :

scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email :

scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Civil Service Commission Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance you should contact; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk and more information can be found at www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Cabinet Office jobs

Chief People Officer