Ministry of Justice

Overview of the Role

HR Business Partners work closely with Senior Leaders supporting development of business strategies through HR Consultancy and Interventions on people issues, and successfully delivering change programmes and initiatives through comprehensive People change approaches.

They achieve this by:

·        Solving: Provide strategic input on HR topics and help leaders develop effective people solutions by identifying people issues by using effective people quantitative and qualitative data analysis

·        Connecting: Help the organisation draw on appropriate Centre of Excellence and shared service support

·        Coaching: Coach leaders on how to manage people issues and drive the people agenda effectively.

Within the MoJ HQ Business Partnering team there are number of HRBP roles ranging from SEO to G6 and all are responsible for forging productive relationships with relevant senior leadership teams, enabling translation of business priorities and strategy into a coherent people agenda with targeted interventions.

They work alongside a Director or Director General(s) (the G6 Group Lead role), and support their Senior Leadership Team to design and deliver tailored HR interventions to drive improvements in effective leadership, people management, organisational design and development, change management and workforce strategy.

Business Partners also work closely with colleagues across People & Capability Function to provide business insight to improve HR processes, systems and the service provided to business areas. They will address medium and longer-term challenges by working closely with People & Capability Function Expert Centres and HR colleagues across MoJ and its agencies, as well as the wider Civil Service professions.

Key to the business partnering role is the need to be a credible HR professional with the ability to establish quality relationships. While the HRBP is the primary contact for senior stakeholders, their success is reliant upon the strength and support of the rest of the People & Capability Function via Shared Services and Expert Services, as such the individual will need to be able to deliver through others.

The HRBPs sit within the People teams in MoJ, which are part of the Chief Operating Officer Group.  The role we have available is a Group Lead Senior HR Business Partner (Grade 6) and is part of the team supporting MoJ Head Quarters and the ALBs.  They support the MoJ HQ Director Generals (and either support one or two depending on the Groups) leading the strategic business conversation from a people perspective. They lead and develop the HR Business Partners ensuring high levels of engagement. performance, ensuring that services are joined up and aligned with the People Strategy.

Summary

In summary the postholder will (directly or via their teams):

-  Work closely with Director Generals, Directors, Deputy Directors and Senior Leadership Teams on strategic workforce planning to establish existing and future workforce numbers, skills requirements and organisation structures.

-  Advise on and deliver talent management - supporting building capability through implementing talent reviews, supporting performance validation, and advising on capability plans for the business.

-  Support Director Generals, Directors, Deputy Directors and Senior Leadership Teams to identify and plan employee engagement interventions, using Civil Service People Survey data, that will drive increased capability and performance.

-  Engage Senior Leaders to ensure people issues and risks are considered at the appropriate time.

-  Support the implementation of changes by proactively planning and advising on effective change management.

In addition to these, the Group Lead Senior HRBP role will be responsible for:

•        Leading the strategic business conversation.

•        Leading and developing HR Business Partners and Associate HR BPs ensuring high levels of engagement and performance, ensuring that services are joined up and aligned with the People Strategy.

•        Horizon Scanning – continuously evaluating the impact of internal and external influences on the workforce.

•        Sharing learning and evidence-based practice across wider CS function (i.e. CS HR, a relevant CS profession) and wider public and private sectors comparators. 

•        Designing and/or commissioning large scale HR interventions from HR Centres of Expertise.

•        Coaching leaders on the implementation and timely and efficient delivery of planned and unplanned Human Resources programmes.

•        Playing a key role in driving up the standard of leadership and people management.

Responsibilities, Activities and Duties

To be successful you will be a self-starter with drive and energy, strong interpersonal skills and a team-centric and collaborative way of working. You will need to demonstrate your skills and experience against the following criteria:

The Group Lead Senior HR Business Partner is responsible for:

•        Leading the strategic business conversation.

•        Leading and developing HR Business Partners and Associate HR BPs ensuring high levels of engagement and performance, ensuring that services are joined up and aligned with the People Strategy.

•        Horizon Scanning – continuously evaluating the impact of internal and external influences on the workforce.

•        Sharing learning and evidence-based practice across wider CS function (i.e. CS HR, a relevant CS profession) and wider public and private sectors comparators. 

•        Designing and/or commissioning large scale HR interventions from HR Centres of Expertise.

•        Coaching leaders on the implementation and timely and efficient delivery of planned and unplanned Human Resources programmes.

•        Playing a key role in driving up the standard of leadership and people management.

Plus, the profile includes tasks identified in the HR BP profile in relation to their stakeholder:

1.     Strategic partnering: Supporting leaders to drive people strategies that enable depts/ALBs to deliver their objectives. Activities include:

•        Working closely with Leadership Teams on developing People Strategies by effective use of data, analysis skills, and challenge

•        Supporting strategic workforce planning and resourcing, to establish existing and future workforce numbers, skills requirements and organisation structures.

•        Constructively challenges a status quo in organisational processes and workforce approaches where appropriate.  

•        Supporting the implementation of change within the business area, by advising on effective change management

2.     Solving: Provide strategic input on HR topics and help leaders develop effective people solutions. Activities include:

•        Engaging Senior Leadership Teams to ensure people issues and risks are considered at the appropriate time.

•        Advising on talent management and succession planning - supporting building capability through talent reviews, performance validation and capability plans

•        Supporting identification of employee engagement interventions, using Civil Service People Survey data, that will drive increased capability and performance.

3.     Connecting: Help the organisation draw on appropriate Centre of Excellence expertise and shared service support.  Activities include:

•        Ensuring their client areas understand and appropriately draw upon the total departmental HR function (including shared services and employee assistance programmes)

•        Working with HR colleagues to deliver a consistent and quality HR service, ensuring joined-up delivery and policy development/implementation.

•        Hold relationships beyond the HR function – such as with Finance Business Partners and Trade Unions

4.     Coaching: Coach leaders on how to manage people issues and drive the people agenda effectively.  Activities include:

•        Supporting leaders through regular coaching style conversations

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills

At sift - Strong candidates will be able to present evidence in their Personal Statement/Statement of suitability (1250 words) of:

·        A proven track record and experience in a relevant senior capacity of stakeholder engagement specifically relating to HR issues and solutions that have enabled organisational transformation at scale. Ideally your experience will be rooted in a large and complex organisation.

·        A proven track record and experience of strong HR business partnering experience gained across different business contexts, ideally having worked with Communities of Practice and Centres of Excellence.

·        Experience of undertaking strategic workforce planning and managing resourcing challenges, providing expert advice and challenge to business stakeholders in areas such as; demand management, governance of resourcing and recruitment to align with best practice, identifying resourcing and recruitment solutions at both local and group level and being able to confidently identify risks and present solutions to resourcing challenges.

·        A demonstrable capacity for strategic thinking, planning and contributing on a broad scale to the leadership and development of an HR Function.

·        Experience of leading high performing HR teams to deliver a broad, joined up and effective service.

·        The ability to build strong, trust-based professional partnerships with a range of stakeholders, constructively challenge and provide appropriate feedback.

·        An ability to understand the client business and an ability to communicate confidently about HR issues and solutions in the language of the business.

·        Strong understanding of the key drivers of employee engagement, clearly linking people activities and interventions to a business outcome.

Qualification

You must have completed and achieved (or be willing to work towards) your Chartered MCIPD or an equivalent HR qualification, and be actively demonstrating Continuous Professional Development.

Application Process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

Sift:  You will be asked to provide an anonymised copy of your CV. You will also be asked to provide a 1250 word statement of suitability and strong candidates will be able to present evidence in their statement against the Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills part of job description. Qualifications, or willingness to work towards, will be assessed via a Technical question.

In the event of a large volume of applications being received, an initial sift will carried out on the statement of suitability.

Interview: Candidates invited to interview will be assessed on the Behaviours (listed below), and Strengths. You will also be asked to deliver a presentation, details of which will be sent to candidates invited to interview. Interviews will be held virtually via MS Teams.

• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing