Ministry of Justice

Role title: Senior Reward Lead

Location: National

Team/Directorate:  People & Capability / People Services / Pay and Reward, Pensions and Job Evaluation

Overview of the role:    

This is a Senior Reward Lead role in the Pay and Reward, Pensions and Job Evaluation team, which sits within People Services in the People & Capability function. The Pay and Reward team is responsible for the pay strategy and implementation for MoJ’s c.90k staff, with an overall pay budget of c.£4bn. 

The Senior Reward Leads have oversight of the total reward offer and structure (including job evaluation and pensions), specifically pay policies and arrangements, for each of our constituent workforce groups and remits, i.e. Senior Civil Service (SCS), MoJ core (HQ and agencies), Prison Service and Probation Service. Note that pay for MoJ core and the Probation Service is determined according to the Civil Service pay remit guidance (separate remits) and pay for the Prison Service is determined through recommendations of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB). 

As the size of our portfolio is so wide-ranging, each Senior Reward Lead tends to oversee a specific workforce within the MoJ family, being accountable for leading and owning discrete projects and workstreams, as well as proactively supporting and contributing to the development of longer term reward strategy and working closely with the other Senior Reward Leads to ensure an overall joined-up approach. The role-holder may be expected to move around the team to cover a different area where required and/or for development purposes.

Work will include delivery of core cyclical activity (e.g. annual pay awards, reporting requirements), pay design and modelling, team reward projects (e.g. allowances review, policy refresh), provision of expert advice (e.g. commissions, casework, policy), provision of support to high priority/strategic change projects (e.g. Finance/HR system replacement), and development of reward strategy.

This is a substantial and challenging role. We are looking for an experienced Reward Lead, with confident stakeholder and relationship management skills and a strong track record of delivering high-quality pay and reward solutions. Ideally, you will have experience in changing and improving the employee offer and development of reward strategies.

Occasional travel to main office hubs (London, Leeds, Birmingham) for team meetings will be required in addition to usual hybrid/office working requirements.  

Responsibilities, Activities & Duties:

The Senior Reward Lead will be required to carry out the following responsibilities, activities and duties:

•             Assist the Head of Reward, in the effective development and delivery of future reward strategies, practices and reward programmes across the business.

•             Build and maintain positive relations with key stakeholders (internal and external), including senior leaders and their offices, trade unions, HR Business Partners and other HR teams, analytical specialists, Finance, Cabinet Office and cross-government reward colleagues.

•             Work with third party partners (e.g. payroll) to implement pay related changes effectively, including tactical delivery and implementation planning.

•             Provide effective consultancy advice to the business / senior leaders on pay and reward related strategies and policies to inform and influence departmental projects.

•             Line manage a small team of pay and reward specialists, providing direction and support in the day to day running of the team to deliver effective and timely outputs, ensuring stretching development opportunities to aid retention and build the talent pipeline.

•             Develop pay and reward proposals for the annual pay awards using data-driven evidence and lead the commissioning/collation of comprehensive data and insights from diverse sources working alongside data analysts to inform and generate innovative, credible and cost-effective solutions to pay challenges, ensuring accuracy of the information from both policy and data provision perspectives.

•             Lead pay negotiations, pay round activity and routine trade union engagement for staff groups reliant on collective bargaining machinery.

•             Lead confidently when presenting complex, evidence-based decisions to senior leaders, committees, TUs and other stakeholders in a simple, clear and concise manner.

•             Be responsible for drafting briefing papers, ministerial submissions, parliamentary questions and business cases, taking account of public sector pay policy, Cabinet Office pay remit guidance, related reward legislation, best practice and governance issues.

•             Drive continuous improvement through new policy development, introducing innovation and simplification into pay and reward processes and guidance and working with third party partners to deliver service improvement.

•             Provide pay expertise and advice to various MoJ programmes and projects including the wider HR community, Shared Services and the business on solutions to pay and reward issues.

•             Work with internal communications colleagues and Shared Services to publish communications, ensuring that diverse audiences can easily understand complex/technical information.

•             Liaise with stakeholders including the Government Legal Department providing reward policy input in pay grievances and Employment Tribunals including acting as pay policy expert as required. 

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and are not intended to be exhaustive. 

Behaviours (for Recruitment/ Success Profiles):  

You will need to demonstrate your skills and experience against the following criteria: 

Behaviours:

Communicating and Influencing

Leadership

Making Effective Decisions

Working Together

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills:   

•             Experience in Reward or as a HR generalist or similar role (assessed via Statement of Suitability).

•             Experience of developing and delivering pay strategies (assessing via Making Effective Decisions).

•             Excellent communication skills, both in verbal and written formats (assessing via Communicating and Influencing).

•             Experience of building positive relations with senior stakeholders, TUs, HRBP teams and suppliers (Working Together).

•             Ability to manage multiple priorities and organise overall workloads in order to meet deadlines (assessing via Leadership).

•             Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or willingness to work to gain the qualification.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and Skills:  

•             An understanding of the Civil Service reward landscape.

•             Working knowledge of employment law.

•             Experience of payroll administration and/or risk related benefits administration.

•             Experience of line managing a small team.

We may consider any evidence within your application and/or from interview that demonstrates meeting the desirable criteria as set out in the job description. This will only be after essential criteria is scored and where there is a need to differentiate between closely scored candidates.

Application process

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

Sift:

Behaviours - Please provide examples of how you meet these behaviours with reference to the essential criteria above:

•             Communicating and Influencing (lead)

•             Leadership

•             Making Effective Decisions

•             Working Together 

Experience –

•             You will need to submit an anonymised CV.

•             A Statement of Suitability evidencing how you meet ‘Experience in Reward or as a HR generalist or similar role’ as outlined above in the essential criteria.

Technical –

•                Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or willingness to work to gain the qualification. You will confirm you have this or are willing to work towards gaining it.

In the event that we receive a large volume of applications we reserve the right to conduct an initial sift on the lead behaviour – Communicating and Influencing.

Interview:

Interviews will be carried out remotely.

During the panel interview, we will be assessing you on Behaviours and Strengths from the Civil Service (CS) Success Profiles Framework.

The Behaviours assessed at interview will be:

•             Communicating and Influencing (lead)

•             Leadership

•             Making Effective Decisions

•             Working Together 

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade: Success Profiles - GOV.UK