Vacancy -- Director, People and Places Chief Operating Officer’s Group

This role operates in a complex and fast-moving environment, and as the most senior HR role in the organisation the post holder has responsibility for:

• Developing, leading and implementing the organisation’s strategic people and change initiatives. This will see you collaborating and advising senior leaders on how these reforms can be delivered, shaping the organisation to ensure it is equipped to meet the challenges of the future.
• Leading and contributing to a values-based culture driving high levels of employee engagement built through social partnership.
• Providing outstanding and inspirational leadership of the organisation’s people function: coaching and supporting HR professionals to operate strategically and grow their professional expertise to deliver customer focused, effective, and efficient HR strategy and services to the Welsh Government and its Sponsored Bodies. This is a critical leadership role, partnering across the entire business, defining and delivering our HR services with the support of two Deputy Directors and a team of almost 150 HR professionals across all sites.
• Driving the transformation of HR and corporate services, delivering high quality customer-focused services through efficient processes and systems, maximising the value and use of our data.
• Supporting the Permanent Secretary and members of the Leadership Team on people matters and notably performance management of the senior team; Senior Civil Service (SCS) capability and succession; SCS resourcing and SCS pay and reward. You will be the lead professional adviser to the Permanent Secretary and senior team on complex and sensitive HR issues
• You will play a key role in transforming the organisation: acting as a role model for our values of creativity, fairness, partnership and professionalism, driving a collaborative and inclusive culture where we have high expectations and empower our staff to deliver.
• Providing expert leadership on learning and development and capability- building. You will ensure that we have the right skills to support the organisation to deliver and support our employees to be the best they can be.
• Leading our workforce strategy and being passionate about building a diverse, inclusive, and bilingual workforce – including delivery of the ambitious commitments set out in our Anti-racist Wales Action Plan, our Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and Welsh Language Strategy – ‘Cymraeg: it belongs to us all’.
• Managing the Welsh Government administrative estate, ensuring that the organisation has the modern, cost-effective spaces it needs to support staff to work effectively, connect and collaborate across Wales. We are currently part-way through a Hybrid Working ‘pilot year’ which will help us develop our ways of working and office spaces for the future – including sharing our buildings with public service partners.
• Leading our security and cyber security function – ensuring that the Welsh Government, its Ministers, staff physical and digital infrastructure are protected and secure.
• Leading our internal communications function and employee engagement programme – ensuring that our entire workforce has the information it needs to deliver effectively and the opportunity to engage in change and improvement.
• Providing leadership for our Public Bodies Unit and key corporate services such as our Translation Service as part of an active leadership role in the Chief Operating Officer’s Group, the wider organisation and wider public sector.
• Ensuring a strong evidence base of employee insight, management information and data to inform decisions and manage effective services.

Managing budgets, resources, and expenditure proposals for the areas of direct accountability and as a member of the organisation’s senior leadership team delivering HR programmes, achieving further efficiencies and maintaining an effective HR, OD and aligned corporate services workforce. 

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Welsh Government accepts the social definition of disability, in which it is recognised that barriers in society act to disable people who have impairments or health conditions or who use British Sign Language. We are committed to removing barriers so that all (or potential new staff) can perform at their best. The Equality Act 2010 uses the medical definition of disability (“a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term impact on a person’s ability to carry out normal day to day activities”).

We guarantee to interview anyone who is disabled whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. By ‘minimum criteria’ we mean that you must provide us with evidence in your application which demonstrates that you generally meet the level of competence for the role and any qualifications, skills or experience defined as essential. We are committed to the employment and career development of disabled people.

If you have an impairment or health condition, or use British Sign Language and need to discuss reasonable adjustments for any part of this recruitment process, or wish to discuss how we will support you if you were to be successful, please email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales as soon as possible and a member of the team will contact you to discuss your requirements and any questions you may have.

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Completed application form, an up to date CV, together with a personal statement of suitability for the post should be submitted by the closing date.  All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have an impairment which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SCSrecruitment@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format or if you need to request a reasonable adjustment related to an impairment in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Senior Civil Service recruitment process within the Welsh Government, please see the SCS Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link). Further guidance on Preparing Your Personal Statement (link) is also available.