There is more to the RCN than you might think. We’re a professional body and a trade union with a membership of over half a million nurses, midwives, nursing associates, nursing support workers and students. We work collaboratively with our members to influence governments and other bodies, improve their working conditions and campaign on issues to raise the profile of the nursing community. We support their practice, represent them, lobby on their behalf, and develop them. We exist to make a positive difference – to the working lives of our members and ultimately to standards in patient care. Our employees are drawn from many walks of life – we are nurses, marketers and communicators, administrators, IT professionals, policy and finance experts, lawyers… together we are so much more.

We couldn’t do what we do without our people. We're accredited with Investors in People Silver Standard. Our people are our greatest asset, and we want people who can contribute to our purpose in line with our values.

As our Chief People Officer, you’ll lead and deliver a range of innovative strategies to enable the RCN to achieve its organisational vision and goals, providing overall strategic direction to drive business transformation and cultural change shaping a modern, high-performing and future-fit workforce by aligning and driving positive change in behaviours, performance and structure in support of business objectives – driving a culture which is staff and member centred; with equity diversity and inclusion as a bedrock of RCN.

You’ll look to maximise staff capacity, capability and competence through effective strategic human resource management, organisational development, organisational design, workforce planning, learning and development as well as maximising staff empowerment, engagement and accountability in the achievement of the RCN strategic plan in support of our members.

You’ll deliver progressive and fair employment policy, practice and procedures to ensure the RCN is a first-class, modern employer of choice.

You’ll provide strategic leadership to all aspects of service delivery and expertise in people management, organisational development and equity, diversity and inclusion. You will support the RCN elected Council, General Secretary & Chief Executive, and Executive Team on staff, opportunities, and issues and you will develop and maintain effective partnership working with recognised trade unions.

A chartered member of the CIPD, you will have experience of developing and leading on the successful implementation of organisational strategies in human resources, organisational design and development. You’ll need experience of promoting and embedding successful organisational change as well as developing practical organisation-wide solutions that are creative/innovative.

Negotiation and partnership working and the ability to foster strong professional relationships and encourage close collaboration between departments is at the heart of this leadership role.

To succeed at the Royal College of Nursing all you need to do is think bigger, better and brighter. And with an attitude like that, anything’s possible.

What we offer you

We expect you to look after your customers. And we expect you to be rewarded for it. We offer an impressive range of benefits, a broad range of learning development opportunities and an award-winning health and wellbeing programme. We offer annual leave up to 32 days plus bank holidays and three additional days for the Christmas break plus generous maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave packages.

*We offer a competitive pay structure with annual pay progression until you reach the top of the salary scale. We normally offer new employees the first point of the salary range, although you may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary depending on your skills, experience and current salary.

What we deliver for our members is wide and varied so when it comes to how we work one size doesn’t fit all. We also know that to empower our people to do their best work, they must be able to balance the demands of work and home. We are a diverse organisation and understand everyone has different needs and many of our employees enjoy flexible working enabling them to deliver results whilst having a good work life balance.

Our selection process

Please submit a supporting statement demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this role. You may not be shortlisted if you don’t.

We want your experience applying for a job with us to be the best it can be. We may hold our interviews and assessments in person or by video call If you foresee any problems, please let us know.

As a proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme4 we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities.

Contact details

For more information or for an informal discussion about the role, please contact Nicola Ranger, RCN Chief Nurse via Anne Damasus, EA to the Chief Nurse at anne.damasus@rcn.org.uk

For more information about the recruitment and selection process, please contact recruit@rcn.org.uk

Closing date: 11.59pm on 3 December 2023.

Assessment & interview date: 14 December 2023