Director of People in Southampton

Life Insurance

25 days holiday FTE, increasing with length of service up to a maximum of 30 days

Celebration leave

Option to purchase additional annual leave (up to 10 days per annum)

Employee Assistance Program with Health Assured

Cycle to work scheme

100% discount on nursery fees

Refer a friend scheme

Day camps discounts: 1 week free and 1 week at 50% per child per annum

Campsite and activities discounts at YMCA Fairthorne Manor

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver an inclusive People Strategy aligned to the organisation’s vision, purpose and values.
• Act as a trusted advisor to the Board and Executive Leadership Team, providing clear insight, assurance and constructive challenge on people matters.
• Provide executive leadership as a member of the ELT, modelling values-led, collaborative and accountable leadership.
• Provide oversight of people-related governance and risk, including workforce capacity, retention, safeguarding culture, wellbeing and skills scarcity, with shared accountability across the ELT.
• Deputise for other Executive Leaders as required.
• Act as an ambassador and external people leader, strengthening the organisation’s reputation as an employer of choice.
• Lead the development of the Employer Value Proposition (EVP) and support talent attraction in a competitive labour market.
• Build external networks and partnerships to share best practice and enhance organisational capability.

Culture, Capability & Organisational Development

• Lead organisational culture and engagement, ensuring values and behaviours are embedded throughout the people lifecycle.
• Provide executive ownership of employee voice and listening mechanisms, ensuring feedback is systematically gathered, acted upon and informs decision-making.
• Build change leadership capability across the organisation, enabling managers to lead people confidently and consistently through continuous change.
• Ensure people policies and practices are applied consistently, fairly and in line with organisational values.
• Lead strategic workforce planning, ensuring the right skills, roles, structures and capacity are in place to support growth and long-term sustainability.
• Identify and mitigate risks relating to critical roles, high-risk vacancies and skills gaps.
• Oversee succession planning and leadership pipeline development for key roles.
• Shape and commission learning, leadership and organisational development activity to build future capability and support ongoing change.
• Ensure core HR processes, policies and practices are fully embedded into operational areas across the charity and are fit for purpose, clearly documented and consistently applied.
• Provide clear ownership of HR systems, people data and data quality, ensuring accurate, reliable and timely information.
• Use people metrics, insight and feedback to inform decisions, track impact and identify emerging risks.
• Optimise our digital people systems, embedding capability and improving efficiency and quality.
• Maintain an awareness of current digital trends within the people space and ensure the charity takes advantage of these trends to further its impact.
• Act as lead advisor on complex employee relations matters.

Financial Stewardship & Impact Measurement

• Lead financial planning and resource allocation for the People function, ensuring effective use of budgets and alignment with organisational priorities.
• Ensure investment in people, culture and capability delivers measurable value and impact.
• Develop and monitor People KPIs to demonstrate contribution to organisational performance.

Personal Attributes

• Excellent problem solver who enjoys finding creative solutions to routine problems.
• Genuine enthusiasm for the work of the charity.
• Flexible approach and a ‘Can Do attitude’.
• Reliable, organised, and resilient.
• A lifelong learner with natural curiosity.
• At all times uphold the charity’s leadership behaviours – act with honesty, integrity and in line with YMCA values and behaviours in all that we do.
• Own our emotional responses and aim to seek the right time to have conversations.
• Maintain open and transparent communication with fellow ELT members.
• Foster a culture of openness and encourage both the giving and receiving of constructive feedback.
• Take full responsibility for our decisions and actions and hold ourselves accountable for our commitments and deliverables.
• Encourage and support each other, respecting diverse perspectives.
• Hold each other's confidences and use our time together as a safe space.
• Always appear as a united team across the charity, even if we may disagree with each other.

Qualifications and Experiences

• Significant HR experience working at a senior level, dealing with the full breadth of matters in the employee lifecycle.
• Degree level qualification and chartered/fellow CIPD membership.
• Excellent IT and organisational skills such as time management and the ability to prioritise competing demands.
• Communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of the organisation and display a high level of emotional intelligence.
• Commercial acumen and financial management skills.
• Able to present and articulate information in a simple and concise way, with exceptional professionalism.
• Up to date working knowledge of employment law and best practice.
• A proven pragmatic and commercial approach to HR and people leadership.
• Ability to coach and mentor the People Team and others.
• The ability to influence stakeholders and develop effective working relationships to enable excellent service delivery.
• Experience of leading on People change projects such as Organisation change and Development, TUPE and People policies.

Successful applicant will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure via Disclosure and Barring Service. We are an equal opportunities charity with commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace. A copy of this policy will be made available on request. Please apply now for this rewarding position and be part of an amazing charity who continue to support and achieve wonderful things within the community.