Are you a visionary leader passionate about people and culture?

Can you drive transformation and inspire excellence?

Will you join us in shaping the future at Companies House?
 

Job description

We are looking for a passionate leader in people and organisational culture, who values diversity and aims to make a meaningful impact in public service.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in senior leadership roles, showcasing innovation and driving transformation. As the Director of People and Place, you will play a crucial role in strategic workforce planning, ensuring we anticipate future needs and have the talent to deliver our goals. You will lead the People and Place Directorate, managing around 70 staff and overseeing various organisational priorities, including a review of our operating model to support our future strategy amidst rapid growth. 

Responsible for the following teams: (for more detail please refer to the attached candidate pack)

• HR Operations
• Strategic Workforce Planning & People Analytics
• Organisational Development Team
• Place teams

Responsibilities - include but are not limited to: (for more detail please refer to the attached candidate pack) 

• Drive a culture that aligns with Companies House principles, fostering long-term success and efficient ways of working.
• Ensure strategic workforce planning supports our transformation plans and legislative reforms.
• Provide strong leadership within the People and Place directorate, focusing on innovation, outcomes, and valuing people and customer service.
• Lead, engage, and inspire staff to deliver key transformations swiftly.
• Advise the Executive Team on complex people issues, ensuring leaders are equipped to support major changes.
• Implement the new operating model and use Organisational Development interventions to respond to changing priorities.
• Champion diversity and inclusivity throughout the organisation.
• Lead the Cardiff office relocation project, ensuring strong relationships with the Government Property Agency and securing a suitable future office site.
• Manage Trade Union relations, focusing on pay, reward, and ways of working.
• Act as Board Champion for wellbeing and mental health.
• Lead the reaccreditation process for Investors in People.
• Model exemplary behaviours and live the Companies House values as a key Executive Team member.
• Contribute to the overall success of Companies House by providing leadership, vision, and drive.

Person specification

The successful candidate will evidence the following essential minimum criteria skills, experience and qualifications:
 

• Have the ability to broker strong stakeholder relationships, influencing and negotiating in a context of uncertainty and change to obtain buy in and engagement across the organisation
• Be able to instil confidence in your people through clear advice and consistent delivery
• Have the ability to effectively manage and motivate people, developing a cohesive team of HR and Estates professionals, coaching and developing to engage individuals and deliver high performance.
• Instil trust, maximising relationships and gaining the confidence of others through integrity, authenticity and effective communication
• Understand the drivers of an organisation’s strategies, aligns and translates them into key HR initiatives
• Be experienced at a senior level, in public or private sector, of delivering organisational transformation
• Be a strategic thinker who can take a broader view, participate in setting and driving  long term strategy
• Be able to clearly articulate vision and strategy 
• Be experienced in HR and Organisational Development as a tool for culture change advocating and capturing how it grows an inclusive and engaged community within the workplace
• MCPID or equivalent experience 

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions Benefits

Alongside your salary of £76,000, Companies House contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We believe that our success is driven by the well-being and satisfaction of our team members at all levels of the organisation. At Companies House we’re committed to providing a comprehensive benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary, ensuring your career journey with us is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. We pride ourselves on offering a quality work-life balance with our employee wellbeing being central to our working practices. 

Head to Our benefits - Working for us - Recruitment (companieshouse.gov.uk) to find out more about the fantastic benefits package we have at Companies House.  

We celebrate diversity... 

As an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate diversity, being committed to ensuring we’re representative of the citizens we serve and creating an inclusive environment. Everyone in Companies House brings something different, and so will you. To fulfil our commitment to recruiting and attracting diverse talent we welcome applications from underrepresented groups. We also welcome applications from Welsh speakers. 

We are proud to be a disability confident leader.  Our recruitment process is fully inclusive and we can make adjustments as needed through our process. These could include having an interview buddy, extra time at interviews/assessments and receiving interview questions in advance, to name a few. We will be happy to discuss any person-centred adjustments, please contact us by emailing recruitmentCH@companieshouse.gov.uk 

 

Where will you be working? 

You will be aligned to our Cardiff Office, where we are currently using a hybrid approach to the way we work. Our approach to hybrid working provides opportunities for you to be adaptable in the way you work so that you can achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life. The degree of choice you have will depend on business need, your role and your day-to-day work activities and will be discussed at offer stage.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

In your application form we’d like you to provide the following:

• A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where applicable of budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years
• A Statement of Suitability (no more than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role,  with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

We’re committed to being diverse and inclusive, so please make your application anonymous by removing all identifying personal information (such as names and dates) from your employment history and personal statement.

We understand that you might use AI and other resources for your application; however, please ensure all information you provide is factually accurate, truthful, and original and doesn’t include ideas or work that isn’t your own. This is so that your application is authentically and credibly your own.

Key dates: (for more detail please refer to the attached candidate pack) 

• Closing Date: 01st December 2024
• Sift/Shortlist: w/c 9th December 2024
• Fireside chat: w/c 16th December 2024
• Engagement panel: w/c 6th January 2025 Interview: w/c 20th January 2025

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of recruitment based on fair and open competition with decisions made on the basis of merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. 

 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

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 security 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.

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).

Apply and further information

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 :Katriona Du Preez Email :kdupreez@companieshouse.gov.uk Recruitment team

Email :recruitmentch@companieshouse.gov.uk