Bristol, Darlington, Liverpool, Manchester, Wolverhampton
Job Summary
The People Capability & Change (PC&C) Directorate provides direction, drives change and delivers support on the Department’s people issues. We are an exciting, fast-paced place to work and we operate as a single team, working flexibly across themes as required, to use our combined knowledge and expertise in the most effective and efficient way.
We expect our people to be curious and engage positively with other Government departments and external stakeholders across the public and private sectors to understand the wider context of our work and to identify current and emergent best practice. We promote closer working across Government to meet the challenges of the future and we invest in our continued professional development.
The Head of Resourcing & Onboarding is a key leadership role within the HR Operations team. We are seeking a dynamic and strategic leader who will drive our end-to-end resourcing and onboarding function. This pivotal role ensures the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government attracts, selects, and onboards colleagues efficiently and inclusively.
Job Description
- Strategic Leadership: Develop and deliver a forward-thinking resourcing and onboarding strategy aligned with organisational goals and strategic workforce planning priorities. Lead and inspire a high-performing Resourcing and Onboarding team to deliver the full resourcing and onboarding lifecycle. As team leader, you will have strategic oversight and ownership of the full spectrum of resourcing – recruitment, redeployment, contingent labour. As the team leader, you will set direction, manage competing priorities and support an excellent team. Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion across all recruitment and onboarding practices.
- Operational Excellence: Drive a culture of creative recruitment practices and embed continuous improvement in recruitment and onboarding processes, policies, and metrics – whilst maintaining compliance with CSC principles, Leading and delivering creative recruitment design for specific skill sets. Collaborate with hiring managers and senior leaders to forecast talent needs and build talent pipelines – collaborating closely with the Strategic Workforce Planning and Capabilities team.
- Digital services and change management: Align resourcing processes with the Government Shared Services model, ensuring compliance with centralised standards and frameworks. Lead a review of the resourcing and onboarding services and technology systems – working with colleagues across Government to align and manage the business change. Lead our commercial engagement and budget management for the resourcing and onboarding team. Lead and own the resourcing and onboarding aspects of the Government Shared Services agenda – providing expert subject matter expertise to the Unity cluster and leading the Departmental change to the “to be” model.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders. Build strong relationships with the Civil Service Commission and Public Sector Resourcing colleagues – ensuring that our approach complies with the recruitment principles and IR35 legislation. Represent the organisation in cross-government resourcing forums and working groups. Provide expert advice and insights to senior leadership on talent acquisition trends and innovations.
- Strategic Leadership: Develop and deliver a forward-thinking resourcing and onboarding strategy aligned with organisational goals and strategic workforce planning priorities. Lead and inspire a high-performing Resourcing and Onboarding team to deliver the full resourcing and onboarding lifecycle. As team leader, you will have strategic oversight and ownership of the full spectrum of resourcing – recruitment, redeployment, contingent labour. As the team leader, you will set direction, manage competing priorities and support an excellent team. Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion across all recruitment and onboarding practices.
- Operational Excellence: Drive a culture of creative recruitment practices and embed continuous improvement in recruitment and onboarding processes, policies, and metrics – whilst maintaining compliance with CSC principles, Leading and delivering creative recruitment design for specific skill sets. Collaborate with hiring managers and senior leaders to forecast talent needs and build talent pipelines – collaborating closely with the Strategic Workforce Planning and Capabilities team.
- Digital services and change management: Align resourcing processes with the Government Shared Services model, ensuring compliance with centralised standards and frameworks. Lead a review of the resourcing and onboarding services and technology systems – working with colleagues across Government to align and manage the business change. Lead our commercial engagement and budget management for the resourcing and onboarding team. Lead and own the resourcing and onboarding aspects of the Government Shared Services agenda – providing expert subject matter expertise to the Unity cluster and leading the Departmental change to the “to be” model.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders. Build strong relationships with the Civil Service Commission and Public Sector Resourcing colleagues – ensuring that our approach complies with the recruitment principles and IR35 legislation. Represent the organisation in cross-government resourcing forums and working groups. Provide expert advice and insights to senior leadership on talent acquisition trends and innovations.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
- Experienced HR leader with a people focused and inclusive leadership style – with ability to motivate and lead a team effectively through change.
- Experience of working creatively and autonomously within a recruitment delivery or talent acquisition role and understanding of Civil Service Recruitment Principles.
- Experience of delivering significant digital changes to support service delivery and improvement.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills. An ability to use organisational insight and data to drive continuous improvement, quality services and innovative solutions.
- Excellent in managing priorities and your own time in a fast-paced environment, with an ability to plan and collaborate to achieve sometimes challenging deadlines.
- Driven, with strong judgement, a hands-on attitude and flexible but strategic approach.
- Strong team player, adaptable and flexible, adjusting to the requirements and priorities of the team and wider HR function as required.
- CIPD qualified or willingness to work towards this.
Alongside your salary of £56,167, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £16,271 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
- Learning and development tailored to your role.
- An environment with flexible working options.
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
Selection process details
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
CV Declaration
As part of our pre-employment checking process, we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage.
Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).
Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to each question rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.
Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.
When Writing Your Application, Remember
- the assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially
- do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers
- if talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)
At sift, we will be assessing
Experience (Lead Element): What experience would you bring to the role of Head of Resourcing & Onboarding?
Behaviour 1: Leadership
Behaviour 2: Changing and Improving
There is a 250 word limit per question.
In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview. Please also note feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following Success Profile elements:
Behaviours: Leadership, Changing and Improving
Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description
Technical: We will test technical knowledge, through an exercise/presentation. At the start of your interview time, you will be sent a short hypothetical "problem statement" and have 30 minutes to prepare your response. After 30 minutes preparatory time, you will then join the interview panel and you'll be given 5 minutes to tell the panel how you'd tackle the problem. You should be prepared to answer follow up questions.
Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.
In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile elements:
Behaviours
Experience
Technical
Strengths
We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs
Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.
Grade 7 Salary
- The salary for this role is £56,167 (National).
- For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.
Benefits
Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:
Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
For further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.
Location
- Bristol
- Darlington*
- Liverpool
- Manchester
- Wolverhampton
There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.
- Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.
For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.
Sift and Interview Dates
The panel will be sifting and interviewing as they go, with interviews to be held remotely via videocall.
Reserve List
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list.
Security Clearance Requirements
CTC Clearance (Counter Terrorism Check)
All MHCLG colleagues must meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. This is a series of basic security checks to confirm identity and employment history. In addition to the BPSS, successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. CTC security checks requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the MHCLG Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC).
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by MHCLG. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database.
Candidate Pack Information
Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. The candidate pack contains information about the CS Commissioners appeals and complaints procedure.
Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules
Internal Fraud Database
The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.
For more information please see - Internal Fraud Register
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact
- Name : Jennifer Cowing
- Email : Jennifer.Cowing@communities.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk
