Associate Director - Recruitment, Resourcing & Optimisation in Leicester

We are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking Associate Director – Recruitment, Resourcing & Optimisation to provide strategic leadership and operational oversight of recruitment and resourcing services across University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL). This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for shaping and delivering high-quality, digitally enabled recruitment and resourcing services – including temporary staffing and the medical workforce – ensuring the Trust attracts, retains and optimises the workforce required to meet both current and future needs. The post holder will lead large-scale transformation programmes, drive service improvement, and ensure robust operational delivery, financial sustainability and an excellent experience for candidates, managers and staff.

Main duties of the job

• You will be an experienced senior people professional with a strong track record of leading complex workforce transformation in a large NHS or similarly complex organisation.
• You will combine strategic thinking with a strong operational focus and be confident influencing at the most senior levels.
• You will bring:

• Master's level qualification (or equivalent significant experience) in a relevant discipline, with evidence of continuous professional development.
• Extensive senior management experience in recruitment, resourcing, workforce transformation or programme leadership.
• Proven ability to lead large-scale change, working across organisational boundaries and with partners at system, regional and national level.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including experience of managing budgets and delivering efficiency programmes.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, challenge and build consensus.
• A values-led approach, demonstrating inclusive leadership and a commitment to equality, diversity and wellbeing.

Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g. CIPD or CMI) and experience in complex acute healthcare environments would be advantageous.

About us

Our new strategy, developed with the support and feedback of colleagues, patients, and partners, is our compass for the next seven years (2023-2030). We have four primary goals: high-quality care for all, being a great place to work, partnerships for impact, research and education excellence. And we will embed health equality in all we do – taking active steps to reduce the avoidable differences in healthcare that some people face, working in partnership with communities. Our strategy is underpinned by new values and we will work to ensure they are an everyday reality for all: we are compassionate, we are proud, we are inclusive, we are one team. This is an exciting moment as we look to the future with clarity on what we already do well and where we need to focus our energies to make an even bigger difference for the people we serve.

Job responsibilities

What you'll be responsible for:

• Providing strategic oversight and operational leadership of recruitment, resourcing, temporary staffing and medical workforce services across a large, complex acute Trust.
• Leading and delivering Trust-wide transformation programmes, ensuring services are streamlined, efficient, cost-effective and digitally enabled.
• Working collaboratively with senior leaders, clinicians, system partners and external organisations to deliver shared workforce solutions and systems-wide efficiencies.
• Driving service optimisation, ensuring effective utilisation of skills and resources, and measurable improvements in performance and user experience.
• Leading governance, assurance, risk management and benefits realisation across recruitment and resourcing programmes.
• Holding responsibility for budgetary control, financial performance, CIP delivery and contract management.
• Providing visible, inclusive leadership to multidisciplinary teams, supporting development, performance and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Acting as a senior advisor to the Executive Team and Board, providing expert insight, analysis and assurance on recruitment and resourcing matters.

Qualifications

• Master's level professionally qualified in a relevant discipline (or equivalent significant experience to Master's level or equivalent).
• Evidence of professional continual personal development.
• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development member.

Experience

• Extensive experience working at Senior Manager level in a workforce programme management / transformation role in a large complex NHS organisation.
• Able to demonstrate a commercial and business acumen and an understanding of how high-impact People Services can positively impact on the patient experience, quality and efficiency agenda and organisational goals.
• Significant appreciation, knowledge and experience of good people practice within a large complex organisation.
• Leading / working on transformational change programmes and achieving results through working with others who are not under direct management control.
• Proven ability to work across organisational boundaries and in partnership across health and social care.
• Experience of managing improvement-based projects/programmes and having responsibility for the financial implications of change.
• Significant appreciation, knowledge and experience of good HR practice within the NHS.
• Complex acute hospital environment experience at a senior level with partners across health & social care.
• Understanding the financial implications of change and ensuring project/programmes are within budget.
• Demonstrates experience of effectively utilising development methods, techniques and tools for effective project management.

Communication

• Ability to deal with people in complex, confrontational or highly emotive situations and gain engagement in a resistant environment.
• Demonstrate the capability to motivate collaboration amongst different professionals' user groups and partners to improve service outcomes and performance.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills giving the ability to influence at senior levels.

Skills

• Highly analytical and numerate, able to interpret, triangulate, summarise and present a range of different sources of complex information and data.
• Advanced IT skills.
• Presentation skills and ability to adapt style to given audience.
• Strong planning and organisational skills with the ability to work at both the strategic level and with operational teams on the detail to support delivery of plans.
• Ability to develop new ways of working using planning, facilitation, collaboration, capacity planning and continuous improvement skills.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.