Chief People Officer

Chief People Officer

Cabinet Office

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 12th January 2025

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%

Contract type: Permanent

Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share

Location: Glasgow, London

About the job

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 the 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.

Benefits include:

• 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.