16400 - Human Resources Business Partner in Wetherby

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is responsible for everything that goes into running the UK's criminal and civil justice systems, creating the foundations for a safe, fair and prosperous society. We are one of the largest government departments with over 88,000 staff based across England and Wales. We are responsible for 500 courts and tribunals, 122 prisons, the policies underpinning the system and much more.

MoJ People and Capability supports the organisation by enabling its people to be the best that they can be. We are continuously reviewing and enhancing the services we provide to ensure the delivery of high-quality services for our customers. MoJ People and Capability has over 1,400 committed and capable professionals delivering people services across the Justice family. At the heart of delivering these services is our people.

This is an exciting opportunity to provide strategic HR partnering to senior leaders in HM Prisons and Probation (HMPPS). You will be critical to ensuring HMPPS meets its aims in protecting the public and reducing reoffending, and will gain unique experience which will enable you to progress in your career. This role sits within the HR Business Partner (HMPPS) Team which is the front‐facing arm of the People & Capability Function supporting a number of business units across HMPPS.

The post holder will partner Governors within the Prison Service and equivalent senior leaders within the Probation Service or National Services, dependent on the customer groups. It’s an interesting time to join the team with a huge amount of opportunity to be involved in supporting business change in a complex environment.

Working in partnership with senior leaders, this role will be responsible for supporting the business to deliver against people priorities. The postholder will operate as an implementer, facilitating access to central services and working alongside the business to execute innovative people initiatives.

The post holder will be required to partner customer groups in various locations and may be called upon to support regional or national projects across areas of the business.

As a qualified (or aspiring) HR professional, the post holder will use a combination of generalist knowledge, personal skills and experience to advise and partner senior leaders on how best to align the people and business priorities. Most roles require line management responsibility.

The post holder will bring together the people priorities for their prison and probation customer group or National Services at a senior level, and support on the underpinning activities to enable:

• Solving: Provide strategic input on HR topics and help leaders develop effective people solutions.
• Connecting: Help the organisation draw on appropriate People Function Services and shared service support.
• Coaching: Coach leaders on how to manage people issues and drive the people agenda effectively.

With links to the wider HR specialist functions within MoJ People and Capability, the post holder will facilitate access to the right services to deliver relevant people initiatives.

Key Delivery Strands

• Change Management: Understand the business and the drivers for change to support the people elements of change implementation. Support the business through reorganisation, restructures, and redeployment.
• Resourcing & Retention: Work in partnership with the business and finance to understand the current and predicted workforce picture based on attrition and recruitment forecasting. Support the execution of interventions to address resourcing and retention challenges and facilitate access to the right services across MoJ People and Capability. Provide support and advice on resourcing vacancies, ensuring compliance with Civil Service Recruitment Principles.
• Management & Leadership Capability: Understand the line manager and leadership capabilities within the business unit, support the business to access centrally run learning through the Learning and Development team and/or help develop the right learning interventions. Support senior leaders with the development of their leadership teams.
• Attendance & Performance: Help build management confidence and capability in managing absence, performance, conduct and grievance cases ensuring the right advice can be accessed. Work with the business to understand the casework picture and support senior leaders to drive action to progress cases within policy timelines, supporting access to advice. Work between HR and the business to ensure the policies are understood and embedded. Understand the role of unions and support managers with union engagement related to people activity.
• Employee Experience and Staff Engagement: Work with senior leaders to analyse and identify the right people priorities through the annual Civil Service People Survey, bringing in other workforce and people data as required to enable the business area to bring together an appropriate engagement delivery plan. Support the stakeholder group to implement the right employee engagement interventions, accessing the right support from within the people group drawing on best practice and central offers.
• Inclusion & Well-Being: Ensure diversity and inclusion runs through all people strategies and action plans. Facilitate access to products and services to help support networks to improve delivery. Support the business to access the necessary wellbeing services for staff. Bring together all that is available through the People Function to provide the right wellbeing package or service depending on the need.