Director General – People and Capability

Are you are passionate about making a difference to the lives of millions of people? Are an experienced people leader? If so, we want to hear from you and maybe you’ll be able to join our exceptional team.

Where could you fit in?

DWP is the biggest public service department in the country, and this role is one of only three Director General People roles across Government. We are looking for a dynamic and experienced HR professional with experience of working collaboratively both within and across departments to deliver the people strategy, policy development and delivery for the department to our circa 85,000k colleagues, across 980 sites, whilst managing a budget of circa £168.4m.

You will be a key member of my Executive Team and will play a critical role in shaping our organisation as we deliver unprecedented change to the welfare system, and to our products and services.

It’s an exciting time to join DWP.

Click here to see a message from Peter Schofield, Permanent Secretary, DWP https://youtu.be/2cUFT7s6TYg

What are my responsibilities?

• Lead multi-disciplinary teams in the design and implementation of people policy, change and transformation to achieve the desired outcomes
• Work at a whole system level – with experts and stakeholders – to develop approaches based on a deep understanding of customers, and the levers to effect positive outcomes
• Influence and manage complex senior stakeholder relationships – particularly Ministers and external experts
• Provide visible and collaborative leadership within a complex organisation with an ability to build high performing teams – particularly those which  operate across organisational boundaries, growing confidence and capability, employee engagement, and an inclusive culture

What are my accountabilities?

You will be accountable for both ‘the here and now’ delivery, and future strategy, in particular this year focussing on the Spring statement commitments in addition to the Fraud and Error and Labour Market outcomes.

You will do this by:

• Being future focused, making strategic and informed choices on resourcing and capacity that provide improved customer and employee experience, connecting workforce, workplace, and capability planning
• Keeping colleagues and customers safe while creating a modern and flexible place to work. Changing how and where we work to provide a safe and modern working environment for our people wherever they operate, making the best use of technology and estate
• Building a culture of continuous learning; digital capability and talent pipelines across the organisation which will build capable, confident leaders, role modelling expectations and values
• Maintaining an open and constructive industrial and employee relations with a focus on creating a positive climate during a time of complex, organisational change
• Embedding the DWP values creating an inclusive culture with inclusion built into every working practice. A focus on colleagues achieving their full potential through leadership, engagement, people performance, talent management, recruitment, learning and development.

Essential Criteria for the role which will be used to assess your application.

You will need to be able to show, through your application, that you have the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post, 

You will be able to demonstrate:

Significant experience at Board (Group or Business Unit) level in a large, multi-divisional, multi-site organisation of appropriate scale, where there is interdependence between the different parts of business

• A clear record of success in leading multi-disciplinary teams in the design and implementation of people policy, change and transformation to achieve the desired outcomes
• Experience working at a whole system level (be that Group/Region/Business Unit) with experts and stakeholders at all levels – to develop approaches based on a deep understanding of customers, and the levers to effect positive outcomes
• Strong evidence of successfully influencing and managing complex senior stakeholder relationships – particularly external experts and stakeholders
  A track record of driving the people aspects of technology led, organisational transformation
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to quickly distil large amounts of information from a variety of sources into sound recommendations and communicate complex issues clearly
• Extensive experience of providing visible and collaborative leadership within a complex organisation with a proven ability to build high performing teams – in particular, teams that operate across organisational boundaries, growing confidence and capability, employee engagement, and an inclusive culture
• Our expectation is for continued professional development once in post, and we are looking for the successful candidate to be a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or prepared to work towards it.​

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job contact :

• Name : aine.hurley@odgersberndtson.com
• Email : aine.hurley@odgersberndtson.com

Recruitment team

• Email : aine.hurley@odgersberndtson.com