Roster Team Leader

The Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team (HSOT) is contracted through Palladium by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to provide support services and an operational team delivering advice and assistance on humanitarian disasters, conflicts, and emergencies. The Roster Team Leader position sits within the Deployments and Roster Management Team (DRM), one of five capabilities in HSOT.

The Roster Team Leader is responsible for ensuring the rapid selection and contracting of HSOT’s pool of deployable experts on behalf of OCSM and HRG and the responsiveness of the rosters to the client’s requirements. The OCSM and HRG Rosters of experts are central to HSOT service provision globally, and therefore a primary mechanism for strengthening the impact and reputation of the organisation. The Roster Team Leader is responsible for managing, maintaining, and optimising the rosters and the HSOT Rostering Team to ensure efficient and effective use. The role involves coordinating with various stakeholders to monitor resource availability and the balancing of workloads to meet operational needs. The Roster Team Leader must ensure compliance with company policies, UK tax laws, and contractual objectives while working to address issues and concerns.

You will build on the positive reputation of HSOT deployments to date, understand the importance of pro-active client management, and harness the HSOT Roster as a tool to develop and promote the HSOT service offer to FCDO. In doing so, you will raise the profile of HSOT deployments within current clients and other external audiences.

You will be outcome-led, ensuring the Roster Team fully comprehend and consistently follow HSOT processes and SOPs in response to ongoing demand, trends, and client feedback. You will foster a collaborative relationship between the Rostering Team and the HSOT Programme Management function to ensure processes are streamlined and functional. With the Deputy Director for Deployment and Roster Management, you will work to establish and demonstrate a culture of continuous improvement with respect to the roster function.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Work with client counterparts to develop terms of reference (ToRs) with feedback from internal technical teams to ensure the TORs are an accurate reflection of the tasks to be undertaken.
• Carry out Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) assessments for each role to determine the task modality and advise the client accordingly.
• Advertisement and review of suitable candidate profiles with HSOT technical counterparts to present the most suitable candidate to the client.
• Delegation, coaching, and mentoring of the Rostering Deputy Team Leaders (x2), ensuring they are fully familiar with their functions (with particular focus on relevant IR35 legislation) and feel confident to carry out CEST assessments.
• Through engagement and analysis, provide recommendations (and associated actions) for curating and right-sizing the current roster.
• Review the skills available on the roster and produce gap analysis to work with HSOT technical teams and clients to define recruitment needs to the roster.
• Reflect on feedback on consultant performance and lessons learned and develop an approach to embedding learning into roster management.
• Develop and deliver a methodology and process for the removal of experts from the roster where skill sets are no longer aligned to needs or engagement is sub-optimal.
• Establish relationships, clear interfaces, and opportunities for working with and sharing information across HSOT to ensure roster recruitment strategy and priorities are up to date and informed by team experience and operational/contextual reality.
• Work on demand forecasting and planning in recruitment selection, anticipating the needs of our clients and adapting the recruitment approach accordingly.
• Establish close working relationship with FCDO clients to improve the quality and effectiveness of the HSOT service offer through improved systems and processes which anticipate/predict future demand and emerging trends.
• Provide inputs as required into Deployment Team training and onboarding with respect to roster functionality/processes and associated client management.
• Lead the approach to roster onboarding within HSOT, relevant to skill set and deployment profile, and develop an approach to refreshing current Roster experts with respect to HSOT selection, contracting, and deployments.
• Participate in HSOT’s robust risk management process, including ensuring delivery of mitigation measures and tracking and reporting issues from the Rostering Team.

Client Relationship Management: Responsible for developing and managing relationships with FCDO and its partners, both in Whitehall and overseas as needed, promoting and developing roster and deployment capability. Foster a team culture of excellent customer service and client engagement. Pro-actively escalate issues/opportunities, seek client feedback, and evaluate developing needs; directly contributing to improvements to HSOT roster systems and processes and/or direct action with respect to Roster recruitment priorities as required.

Financial Management: Ensure all deployable experts on the roster have agreed fee rates in line with agreed HSOT contractual margins. Ensure all roster-related activities, such as inductions or engagement days, are forecast accurately and costs are managed according to HSOT processes.

Business Development / Other: Develop and manage a roster communication strategy, in coordination with HSOT Deputy Director for Deployments and Roster Management and others, to raise awareness and demand for HSOT services within current FCDO client base; identify and develop new clients within FCDO and potentially across other Whitehall departments; increase engagement with, and quality of, potential candidates for the roster. Ensure compliance with company policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), guidelines, and client rules and regulations. Fulfil the role of on rotation Duty Officer, providing out-of-hours monitoring and surveillance function on behalf of FCDO. Work collaboratively with internal stakeholders to support effective transition to successor programme. Other duties as required.

Required Qualifications:

• Experience of working with internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience of working within the humanitarian sector will be preferable.
• Understanding of UK employment and IR35 legislation.
• Team Management experience.
• Experience of managing end-to-end recruitment process including drafting JDs, carrying out CEST assessments, and strong candidate management.
• Ability to work to tight deadlines managing competing priorities.
• Previous experience of engaging with and managing candidate database will be preferable.
• Applicants must have the right to work in the UK, as Palladium does not sponsor work applications and must have 2 year residency in the UK to meet the compliance requirement.

The closing date for the advert is 6th Jan 2025.

Our company provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics.