JOB DESCRIPTION

Job title: Director of Human Resouces
Responsible to: Chief Operating Officer

Overall purpose

Reporting in to the Chief Operating Officer and as a member of the University Leadership Team, the Director of HR will provide inspirational leadership to deliver sustainable, long-term transformation, developing and leading a strategic people and organisational development agenda, complimented by innovative approaches to service delivery and design.

Operating with credibility, experience and confidence you will take the lead in defining the future of work at the University of Northampton and guide us through a period of profound change and development. You will work collaboratively with the University Leadership team to extend our capacity and capabilities, optimise opportunities for effectiveness and efficiency, drive a unified culture of customer service, and develop a truly inclusive environment that enhances the experience of our students and staff, facilitating the growth of a strong, supportive university community.

The role of Director of HR is key to the University’s future performance, growth, differentiation and purpose.

Principal duties & responsibilities

• Identifying new strategic opportunities and risks that create a need for innovation in operating models, organisational design, use of technology, workforce size, shape and capability.
• Evaluating and proposing where new technologies, automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and emergent technology can help the organisation reshape the nature of work, including the design of job roles, work processes and practices.
• Developing a HR/People Strategy to enable the institutional strategy, communicating and consulting with stakeholders and balancing improvements in existing services, supporting departments/ directorates and developing future capability.
• Working with the Head of Equality & Access to develop underpinning equality, diversity and inclusion, and health and wellbeing plans to deliver the HR/People Strategy and enable the success of the institutional strategy.
• Conducting effective business planning and performance monitoring, including reporting regularly against agreed KPIs, developing short, medium- and longer- term plans and monitoring progress against objectives, adjusting plans in response to internal and external factors as required.
• Providing expert, high quality professional advice, support and information to all levels of the University on the planning, implementation and achievement of its people management and development objectives, acting as deputy for the Chief Operating Officer at key meetings or for agreed tasks, where appropriate.
• Providing effective HR, learning and organisational development support to academic departments and professional services directorates, supporting them to develop people plans to enable their strategic objectives and deliver on their business plan through direction of the HR Business Partners. This involves supporting the HR Business Partner teams to develop a comprehensive overview of the people issues and future capability needs across the organisation, deciding how to deliver these and building sufficient capabilityand capacity within the HR team to meet these requirements (including tendering for external suppliers as required).
• Collaboratively leading the development of an effective employment policy framework that is fit for purpose, responds to changes in employment legislation, as necessary, is communicated effectively and supports the University’s culture and objectives.
• Benchmarking practices against appropriate externally recognised standards regularly, and making interventions, as necessary, to ensure that colleagues at UON are managed effectively, fairly, and consistently in line with the University’s values, standards, and statutory responsibilities.
• Ensuring the design of attractive total reward packages that complement the expectations and career motivations of current and future colleagues, developing policies and practices which enable the University to attract and retain colleagues needed to support its development.
• Working with colleagues and stakeholders to define an exciting new value proposition for staff and on the implementation of reward, recognition and development practices.
• Providing inspirational leadership, initiating interventions to bring about positive cultural change – particularly to embed the University’s values at all levels and in all areas.
• Leading and developing the HR team, embedding a sense of common purpose and promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment that in turn improves the overall employee experience.
• Providing the HR leadership team with a source of expert advice and support, including encouragement to identify and try innovative approaches to deliver improved services and outcomes, informed by professional trends and benchmarking.
• Ensuring that the Staff Development Team builds and develops the ability of individuals and teams to improve people management across the University (including through the PDR process), and deliver the University’s aims and objectives, all the while fostering a culture where a high emphasis is placed on continuous improvement through learning and development, and where colleagues are encouraged to embrace and adapt to change.
• Actively contributing to the University Leadership Team and Professional Services Group, chairing or participating in a number of senior committees and presenting regularly at Board level committees on the Professional Service performance and strategic direction.
• Meeting regularly with representatives of the recognised trade unions, UCU and UNISON, fulfilling the information, consultation and negotiation requirements of the collective bargaining unit, and promoting positive industrial relations.
• Maintaining a thorough awareness of developments within Higher Education and in the specialist areas of people/HR management and development.
• Overseeing internal HR reporting, including FOIs, Gender Pay Gap, Equal Pay Audit, Office for Students, UK Visas & Immigration, annual Staff Return to Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and all associated internal and external audits.
• Representing the University on employment- related matters such as employment tribunals, the Office for Students, Home Office (UKVI), Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) and Universities UK (UUK), ensuring all HR policies, procedures, collective agreements, and conditions of service are current, pertinent to the University’s needs, and fully implemented.
• Establishing and leading internal networks and working groups across UON to address specific people issues, and lead external networks, for example, regional knowledge exchange networks.
• Maintaining and developing a programme of health and wellbeing initiatives to ensure that all colleagues feel safe at work, feel included and have a sense of belonging within the UON community.

Core people management duties and responsibilities

• Regularly review the Human Resources directorate staffing to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency is delivered whilst providing high quality leadership and management for all staff in the department.
• Lead, develop and empower the Human Resources leadership team, ensuring the delivery of effective and efficient services and fostering an inclusive and high performing culture that promotes wellbeing.
• Provide strong strategic and inspirational leadership, management and coordination of service provision, ensuring the management standards and activities expected by the University are delivered to direct line reports and the broader directorate.

Generic duties and responsibilities

• The post holder will be expected to undertake other responsibilities and tasks as reasonably requested by the Chief Operating Officer.
• The post holder will be responsible and accountable for ensuring all employment legislative requirements are adhered to including equality and diversity and health and safety issues.
• The job description may be altered at any time in the future in line with the level of the post to meet changing institutional requirements, but only in full consultation with the post holder.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Qualifications

• Relevant professional qualification or training (e.g. PG Dip HRM, MA Strategic HRM or Organisation Development) and evidence of ongoing professional development.
• CIPD membership or fellowship, or equivalent professional membership (e.g., CMI).

Skills, knowledge and experience

• A track record of developing an organisational People/HR Strategy and associated policies and practices which build organisational capability, create and sustain a high-performance culture and demonstrate a clear awareness of key financial drivers.
• A track record of achievement leading at a senior level, which ideally will have included experience of leading within a public sector, unionised environment on complex management and employee relations issues.
• Experience of leading a significant programme of organisational transformation which has involved the use of new technology, systems and processes, and which has led to the redefining of work processes/practices and new organisation design.
• Experience of successfully developing people and culture strategies and of formulating operational plans to achieve corporate goals.
• A proven track record of being part of a senior leadership team in an organisation of complexity and scale, and successfully leading significant change, people and cultural transformation programmes, whilst leading a large and diverse department.
• Demonstrable experience of driving improvements in costs, efficiency and productivity whilst delivering a first class, customer centric, service.
• Experience of building successful relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and working in partnership collaboratively, internally and externally, to achieve results.
• Evidence of leadership in a culturally diverse organisation with evidence of significant achievement in promoting inclusivity, diversity and advancing equal opportunities.

Personal qualities

• Highly visible, capable, positive and confident leadership style with ability to exemplify the University’s values and demonstrate integrity in relationships, decision making and actions.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with people at all levels, establishing and maintaining relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, and adopting a listening and consultative style to identify shared issues and solutions.
• Effective team leader, able to role model positive line management behaviours, set relevant objectives, support development and encourage innovation, and promote a diverse and inclusive culture.
• Strong strategic thinker – outward looking, able to scan for opportunities and challenges, synthesise multiple sources of information and data and then create strong people strategies.
• A commitment to the mission and values of the University, including a strong commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.
• Ability to drive and adapt to organisational change and technological advances in the workplace.
• Ability to navigate a complex policy and institutional environment with a mix of flexibility, strategic planning and clarity.
• Exceptional judgement and emotional intelligence, and the intellectual capacity to operate credibly in a forward thinking university environment.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job title: Associate Director of Communications & External Affairs
Responsible to: Vice Chancellor and CEO

Overall purpose

The Associate Director of Communications & External Affairs is a strategic and influential leadership role working with the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor & Chief Operating Officer and supporting the University Executive and Leadership Team.

Responsible for a small central team, the Associate Director of Communications & External Affairs is a member of the University Leadership Team and plays a key role in ensuring the continued success of the University of Northampton, sharing a collective responsibility for the delivery and success of the university’s strategic priorities.

Principal duties and responsibilities

Strategy and planning

• Provide strategic advice and counsel to the Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor & Chief Operating Officer, University Executive Group (UEG) and University Leadership Team (ULT) on all strategic communications and external relations and brand and reputation matters.
• Develop and oversee a cohesive and integrated strategic communications strategy and framework to advance strategy, brand and reputation.
• Direct, support and manage relations with media, key government contacts, regulatory and monitoring bodies, key individuals. etc, working in close collaboration with members of the University Leadership team. This includes overseeing the delivery of a proactive corporate external media and events engagement plan related to UON’s strategic objectives and interaction with the UK and International media.
• Lead on the development and implementation of an effective communications approach to corporate and public affairs, supporting internal teams and offices.
• As part of an integrated corporate communications strategy and plan, support and oversee the development and delivery of innovative and compelling internal communication and engagement plans to raise awareness, understanding and advocacy of UON’s impact, strategic priorities and opportunities.
• Work closely with the Student Futures directorate to develop UON’s alumni relations strategy, to communicate with alumni to aide student experience, recruitment and reputation building.
• Monitoring events and sentiment domestically and globally, determining responses which are consistent with the aims and values of the organisation.

Leadership and coaching

• Work closely with Human Resources and other aligned business units such as the Change & Transformation Office to develop and support internal communications and messaging.
• Provide communication and engagement advice and counsel to the University Leadership Team to develop UON’s brand and reputation on issues/decisions/activities that impact UON’s reputation and brand.
• Work in partnership with Research & Knowledge Exchange, Library, Learning & Student Services, Marketing & Student Recruitment, and Global Engagement teams to develop communications and brand marketing strategy plans and interventions that showcase and raise awareness of UON’s brand and enhance its reputation.
• Demonstrate and articulate to UON’s leaders the value and strategic need for strategic communications, brand development and reputation management to drive successful outcomes on themes aligned to institutional strategy.
• Establish and have oversight for an operating model that supports the delivery of a ‘One team’ approach to communications across UON, proactively building effective working relationships across the University.
• Be an active member of the sector and communications networks and professional communications leadership communities.

Communication and service delivery

• Manage the corporate communication budget, continuously seeking ways of increasing value for money.
• Set and maintain a high standard for rich and engaging brand communications and marketing content and campaigns suitable for a wide range of different audience groups and which encourage two-way dialogue and feedback.
• Responsibility for all corporate institutional content, ensuring alignment to the institution’s strategic priorities.
• Oversee the development and management of corporate communications channels in partnership with other relevant functions and stakeholders.
• Craft effective segmentation strategies to ensure messages resonate across all stakeholder and audience groups.
• Working with members of the University Leadership Team, both support and lead on the delivery and design of brand and reputation-enhancing campaigns on strategic themes and ensure profile building activities are maximised across the full range of internal and external channels and platforms for all audiences.
• Ensure the effective prioritisation, allocation and focus of team resources; define the institution’s communications resourcing needs, overseeing and approving recruitment and talent planning within the team.

Team and capability development

• Lead a small team of communications staff and their direct reports and prioritise staff engagement and people and talent planning.
• Be an inspirational, strategic and empowering leader for internal and external communication and engagement, setting professional standards and benchmarks, and putting in place frameworks for capability improvements across the institution communications operation, centrally and locally.
• Provide mentoring and coaching to help individuals within the team transform to a new structure and operating model and support colleagues through uncertainty as changes are implemented.
• Embed a performance framework to manage the continuing effectiveness and service excellence of the team, ensure capabilities of team members meet the requirements of the institution and team development needs are identified and acted on.
• Actively promote equality, diversity and inclusion through leadership activities, in accordance with UON’s equality and diversity policies and emerging Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Strategy.

Measurement and evaluation

• Lead on the development and implementation of a measurement framework to continuously analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of communication and engagement activities.

Generic duties and responsibilities

• The post holder will be expected to undertake other responsibilities and tasks as reasonably requested by the Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor & Chief Operating Officer.
• The post holder will be responsible and accountable for ensuring all employment legislative requirements are adhered to including equality and diversity and health and safety issues.
• The job description may be altered at any time in the future in line with the level of the post to meet changing institutional requirements, but only in full consultation with the post holder.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

All of the following criteria are considered essential and will be assessed by application and interview unless otherwise noted.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent. Application
• Relevant professional qualification. Application
• Masters degree or advanced professional development qualification. Desirable, Application

Skills, knowledge and experience

• Significant and demonstrable experience of communication, engagement and public affairs strategies, across a range of traditional and digital channels. Application Interview Presentation
• Experience of working at a senior level in a large and complex organisation.
• Leadership skills with significant experience in managing, developing, mentoring, and motivating teams.
• Collegiate and supportive approach, with experience of providing high-level and strategic advice to senior leaders.
• Proven ability to network strategically and influence at a senior level within and outside the organisation.
• Demonstrable commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Personal qualities

• Able to articulate and communicate a strategy, and ensure stakeholders are suitably informed and engaged. Application Interview Presentation
• Able to establish credibility, respect and build strong working relationships within a matrix structure. Application Interview Presentation
• Adaptable and resilient, with an ability to successfully lead and respond at pace.
• Integrity and professionalism, demonstrating a commitment to ethical standards, confidentiality, and the University’s values of inclusivity, trust, sustainability and aspiration.