Head of People & Culture

Description:

Head of People & Culture
Location: The City, London
Salary: £57,257 - £67,725
Hours: 34.75
Job Type: Full time
Contract Type: Permanent

Role Purpose:

The General Optical Council (GOC) are on a journey to be a world class regulator, with a world-class team. To get us to our destination and be ‘fit for the future,’ we are part way into a significant investment in developing our people and culture. In the short-term we need a dynamic, effective, experienced and qualified human resource professional to help us lead the delivery of our people plan and to develop a new 2025-30 five year people strategy.

This will be high-profile and satisfying role, providing leadership of a small team, combining leading and managing the GOC’s human resource functions with the development, co-production and delivery of our new people strategy, revised people plan and developing action plans to respond to and manage recommendations from recent reviews of some of our people policies, their interpretation by managers and staff, management styles and organisational culture.

You’ll be responsible for driving collaboration and relationship management with relevant internal and external stakeholders in accordance with our statutory responsibilities.

The post-holder will be a member of the GOC Leadership Team and will need significant drive, energy and resourcefulness combined with comprehensive experience of leading:

• Culture change & employee engagement
• Equality and diversity initiatives and policy implementation
• Leadership development
• Reward & remuneration
• Succession planning
• HR operational efficiency

An important dimension of the role is the support and advice provided by the post holder to the Director of Corporate Services, the Senior Management Team, Chief Executive, and Chair, Council, Committees, Panels, members and staff on all matters relating to people and culture and the development and co-production of relevant policies and guidance.

Key Accountabilities:

Finalise the design and implementation of a clear and compelling People management strategy (people plan) linked to the existing GOC strategic plan “Fit for the Future” and the developing new five-year strategy to ensure the organisation is equipped to meet current and future strategic objectives.
Lead on delivery of all current HR Projects (new Knowledge Skills and Behaviour framework, Performance Management, Embedding Values and Behaviours and Organisational/ Workforce development) which support the objectives as set out in the Fit for the Future strategy document and any future HR Projects as they arise.
Work as part of the Leadership Team and closely with the Senior Management Team to drive a high-performance culture with highly engaged staff.
Review and improve the full employee life cycle from talent acquisition, recruitment strategy, onboarding to overseeing health and wellbeing initiatives and managing exit processes.
Work closely with management to identify and deliver resource requirements, ensuring adherence to the recruitment process and good practice and promoting diversity and inclusion.
Regularly review of staff salary scales and compensation and benefits package to ensure services remain competitive and make recommendations as appropriate.
Work with Senior Management Team to agree the annual pay reviews and manager the annual performance appraisal outcome process.
Work with and support the EDI manager to proactively develop and drive our commitment to delivering EDI improvements across the organisation including promoting positive relations and practices towards our diverse staff and members, helping to identify the barriers and solutions to overcome challenges to our progress in this area.
Work closely with management to deliver training requirements, undertake succession planning and review organisational design to ensure best fit
Ensure all HR operations are organised, effective and efficient and aligned to service level agreements.
Ensure accurate and timely payroll information is provided to Finance on a monthly basis for payroll processing and payments.
Improve HR systems and processes, where possible utilising technology.
Ensure all HR policies are compliant in law and legal requirements are met in all HR activities.
Ensure awareness of the organisations approach to learning and development (L&D) and support the implementation of training on a range of important topics including diversity and inclusion (EDI), Cyber Security, GDPR.
Develop and produce standard and ad hoc reports on HR data to the Director of Corporate Services, Senior Management Team, GOC Committees, GOC Council and external stakeholders as and when required.
Measure employee satisfaction through the staff survey working closely with management to identify areas that require improvement.
Manage financial aspects of the department, setting the budget in agreement with the Director and manage overall performance within the agreed budget limits.
Essential skills/Experience/Qualifications

Proven success within a Senior HR role, coupled with experience of influencing at CEO and Director level. Working closely with the Director of Corporate Services on the strategic growth of the organisation and associated projects
Experience of managing a HR team in an HR service centre setting
Strong relationship builder and communicator at all levels
CIPD qualified or equivalent – essential
Excellent understanding of current employment law
Good knowledge of HR principles, practices, and procedures
Experienced at managing budgets
Project management experience is desirable
Closing date for this role is 16 April 10am, please note we reserve the right to close this role early dependent on number of applications.

Please note your application will not be accepted without a covering letter, exampling how you meet the essential criteria of this role, no more than 2 A4 pages.

REF-(phone number removed)