Assistant Director - People and Engagement (Castle Point Borough Council)
Permanent, Full Time
From £65,000 to £75,000 per annum
Location: Benfleet
Closing Date: Sunday 1st October 2023
Why Castle Point? Castle Point Borough Council aims to provide high-quality and financially sustainable services while prioritising outstanding customer service, transparency in decision-making, and promoting local democracy. Additionally, the council seeks to transform, modernize, and improve its performance, as well as support and enable the communities within its jurisdiction to be strong, healthy, and thriving.
The Opportunity
Reporting to the Director, Corporate & Customer, this key role will provide clear, authentic and inspirational leadership to the new People and Engagement team. The postholder will be responsible for assessing opportunities to drive value for money, improve customer service, (both internal and external customers) to drive forward the organisational strategy and Member vision for Castle Point.
Core to this role will be the need to lead, support and develop staff to ensure the effective provision of services in your portfolio to enable the delivery of the Council’s agenda, embedding across the team the required culture and behaviours for the council to succeed, whilst driving service development.
The postholder will provide support and advice to the Chief Executive, Directors, Portfolio Holders and Elected Members, ensuring they receive high-quality advice on the development and delivery of the services across the council with specific accountabilities for the services within their remit.
Focused on the transformation of the council and its people-related activity, this role will be at the forefront of organisational development, attracting, recruiting, retaining and developing staff and the delivery of the cultural change required. Supporting the Director, Corporate & Customer to develop multi-year strategies and goals, establish measurement criteria to monitor the performance of established strategies consistently, identify deficiencies, and put in place effective solutions.
In order to achieve this the postholder will have remit to design and establish the People and Engagement team, setting the vision and objectives for that team and developing them to deliver first class services.
Partnering the Directors and Assistant Directors, this is a customer focused role that will enable strategic workforce planning and workforce development for the organisation.
This role is accountable for:
- People Strategy
- Operational HR services, including payroll
- Communications – external and internal
- Health and safety, including Emergency Planning
This role will focus on seeking opportunities to drive improved efficiency and customer service. Identifying opportunities for improvement and innovation.
Working collaboratively with the team of Assistant Directors this pivotal role is at the forefront of the council’s change and organisation effectiveness agenda.
Service/Functional Accountabilities
- Lead on the effective delivery of the Council’s Operational HR (including payroll) and OD service, working effectively with internal and external customers/partners/stakeholders, as required to deliver the objectives of the service in line with legal requirements, best practice, resources and organisational requirements.
- Act as the Council’s principal adviser on all aspects of HR, people management and organisational development, set and monitor standards across the organisation.
- Develop, deliver and maintain an appropriate strategic HR and OD framework for the Council which encompasses:
- Delivering effective and timely HR services to council teams
- Workforce planning (guided by an overall People Strategy and Plan)
- Employee and Trade Union engagement
- Employee and workforce policies, procedures and practices including employee lifecycle, pay and reward, disciplinary, grievance etc
- People performance (appraisal process linked to performance management/development)
- Corporate learning and development
- Organisational development
- Ensure that the Council has an effective corporate health and safety function advising on the relevant legislation and ensuring compliance.
- Lead on the Councils approach to emergency planning/policy encompassing risk management and forward planning to ensure the engagement of services and colleagues across the Council.
The Experience You Will Bring
- A natural collaborator who develops effective relationships across and beyond the Council. This leader displays their passion and determination to deliver high standard of service delivery through bringing in the latest thinking, good practice and challenging the status quo and with the courage to speak truth to power.
- Commercially astute and able to develop concepts into robust propositions.
- Excellent analytical skills and use of evidence, including data led decision making – adept at discerning emerging trends, risks and performance challenges, and developing solutions..
- Evidence of experience of developing effective relationships with senior officers and elected Members and of providing direct advice to senior staff and elected members or members of a board on a range of issues both verbally and in writing on complex issues.
- Embeds a culture of continuous improvement, problem solving and innovation – learning from current good practice inside and outside the organisation to test different approaches to service delivery.
- Relevant professional qualification in one or more of the service areas in portfolio.
- MCIPD or equivalent experience.
- Demonstrable understanding of and experience of delivering whole organisational development and change management.
- Background in a relevant sector, with sound knowledge of local government and the environment in which it operates.
- An understanding and commitment to the achievement of equal opportunities in employment and service delivery.
- Experience of successful resource management across services and whole organisation, together with the delivery and measurement of cost effective, qualitative services within constrained resources.
Please note, the postholder will be required to attend evening and occasional weekend meetings and events.
Castle Point Borough Council is proud to be a disability confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.
As part of employment with Castle Point Borough Council should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Castle Point Borough Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
If you have queries on this role or to request a full copy of the role profile for this position, please email sadie.orwell@essex.gov.uk
Castle Point Borough Council has commissioned Essex County Council to provide recruitment services.