Deputy Director for HR Strategy and Partnering

The role of Deputy Director for HR Strategy and Partnering is pivotal to the success of DHSC HR and DHSC overall. You will be responsible for a broad portfolio. You will lead the department's strategic workforce planning process, ensuring we have the people and reward strategies, organisation design, and management information to ensure that the department can deliver on its aims. You will also lead the HR business partnering function and as such often deputise for me, offering counsel and advice to the department's Permanent Secretaries and Directors General. As such, this is a uniquely high-profile role within HR that puts you at the heart of departmental decision-making. The successful person will lead a large team based across our Leeds and London sites. You will be a member of my small, but perfectly formed HR senior leadership team, with collective responsibility for the leadership and development of our function. As a team, we take great pride in supporting each other, balancing our professional and personal lives, and working with pragmatism and humour. This role requires an exceptional senior level HR professional, with the experience and capability to lead a confident and expert HR service. I am looking for someone passionate about continuous improvement and delivering a high-quality service and with experience in leading and developing teams. The Deputy Director for HR Strategy and Partnering has overall responsibility for driving, developing, and delivering a wide range of people and HR strategies and plans across DHSC. This is a broad and diverse portfolio, encompassing business partnering, strategic workforce planning, organisation design, a broad reward portfolio and people analytics. It is a uniquely high-profile role: as the lead for HR business partnering, you will often operate on behalf of the HR Director; offering advice, expertise and insight to the Permanent Secretary and Directors General on a regular basis. If you are looking for a role that will allow you the opportunity to develop even further in your HR career and provide you with the chance to shape a truly people-driven agenda this is the role for you. Key Responsibilities As Deputy Director for Strategy and Partnering your main responsibilities will include:

• You will operate as a key member of the HR leadership team, working closely with the HR Director to lead the HR function. The role offers the ability to look outwards both to the wider health system and across the wider Civil Service HR community. You will need to have proven abilities in building and maintaining your network across different organisations and evidence of encouraging your team to connect to the latest thinking and best practice to bring about lasting results.
• You will lead a high-performing team which comprises of c 35 highly effective and motivated HR professionals, but also calls on the capacity and skills of others across the HR function in a matrix way. Given the objectives of the team reach all parts of the organisation you will need to lead the team to operate in a highly collaborative way, equipping them to partner the business on a wide range of strategic interventions including reward, organisational design and strategic workforce planning.
Business Partnering
• You will set vision and direction for a highly effective team of HR Business Partners providing, motivation, and leadership to ensure they reach their maximum potential and deliver timely, high-quality, user-focussed advice and services .
• Critical to success in this role is your ability to maintain and influence relationships at all levels across the organisation and demonstrate your knowledge, expertise and passion. In the absence of the HR Director you will be the first port of call to the most senior leaders across the business for partnering advice.
Strategic Work Force Planning
• You will support leaders to develop workforce plans that reflect agreed priorities and affordability across business areas and underpin future capability needs. You will build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships across corporate services to understand the direction of the department and to lead people elements of fiscal events.
• You will utilise business insight and robust people analytics to steer and direct organisational workforce strategies .
Reward
• You will lead our corporate approach to the reward and recognition of colleagues, and to lead on the strategic engagement with our trade union colleagues.
• You will oversee some of the wider health system pay frameworks and ensure approvals of the most senior health system roles are effectively managed through the departmental renumeration committee.
Organisation Design
• You will have frequent and repeated interaction with the department's Permanent Secretaries, Chief Medical Officer and Directors General advising on organisational design. You will need to be confident to advise and lead organisational design initiatives and transformation across the whole or part of the organisation in complex and ambiguous context.