Head of Business Integration

The Government Property Agency is changing the way the Civil Service works and is at the forefront of Government’s transformation agenda; reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their place of work. The Agency is central to the delivery of key Government policies including moving 22,000 Civil Service roles out of London by 2030 and tackling climate change by contributing to the Net Zero agenda. To do this we are delivering a major change programme across the UK and consolidating our portfolio in order to save £1.4 Bn over 10 years. 

Beyond the bricks and mortar, the GPA is about providing great workplaces for our people. Through programmes like Hubs, Whitehall Campus and Smart Working you will be in the vanguard of creating model working environments and promoting flexible working practices. 

This is an ambitious and exciting task, for which we need innovative people, with strong commercial acumen, who are passionate about visualising and implementing customer needs. Launched as an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office in 2018, we’re a relatively new department and we are growing fast so we also need people who thrive in ambiguity, can adapt quickly to change and are comfortable stepping outside of their remit to drive outcomes.

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.
To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Business Integration Manager – Workplace Services Delivery role is pivotal and demanding, acting as a trusted adviser to the deputy director whilst managing the interface between directorate workstreams, wider departmental directorates and the GPA Executive as well as building relationships with key stakeholders, including at senior levels across government including client teams.

Key Responsibilities:

The role’s principal focus is making time, information and decision-making more effective and customer focussed within the directorate. The role encompasses:

• Being the first point of contact to coordinate and respond to strategic and operational matters for the deputy director and the senior leadership team (SLT) workplace service delivery; deciphering urgency and ensuring that relevant actions are identified and progressed at an appropriate pace.
• Acting as an integrator: connecting WSD and WS directorate teams as an enabling function and other GPA directorate work streams that would otherwise remain siloed to ensure that our clients and customers are put at the heart of everything we do.
• Linking the leadership team and the wider WS team, proactively identifying and getting to the heart of challenging issues and working with the SLT to implement or develop the relevant strategies or solutions where necessary.
• Acting as an honest broker when the deputy director needs a wide-ranging, whole-team view without turf considerations and acting as an advisor to the deputy director, providing support and challenge.
• Providing leadership to, and being responsible for the management of the deputy directors team, ensuring they have the support, knowledge, resilience and skills to maintain the effective operation of the deputy director’s office.
• Coordinate and respond to strategic and operational matters on behalf of the deputy director, deciphering urgency and ensuring that relevant actions are identified and progressed at an appropriate pace.
• Maintain relationships between staff, executives, senior leaders, and ExCo, regarding culture, employee well-being, project updates, proposals, and planning
• Oversee daily operations through collaboration with senior management team and team leaders, ensuring actions are completed and communicated effectively
• Build and develop relationships with all employees for increased efficiency and effective responsiveness into existing operations, and help to define new operational strategies, working with the deputy director and senior management team on special projects
• Serve as a subject matter expert, handling inquiries and developing action plans to address them, and assisting with the preparation and dissemination of communications, including the development and preparation of business cases
• Review, design, and execute on improvements deployed across WSD operations as required by the deputy director, ensuring a coherent and collaborative approach to the integration of change initiatives
• Supports wider engagement as a WSD Senior leadership representative where required
• Any other reasonable and authorised activities issued by the deputy director
• Deputise for the deputy director as required

• Well-developed project and programme management skills: being organised and disciplined, showing attention to detail, and following up doggedly to ensure the right results
• Experience in a chief of staff or similar role
• An expert at building and maintaining strong collaborative relationships
• The ability to see the bigger picture, with a strong understanding of both the business and wider political landscape (including the stakeholder environment) and the impact of both on the delivery of directorate, organisational and government objectives.
• Ability to operate calmly in a fast paced, rapidly changing and complex environment, operating across multiple and varied priorities to enable the delivery of outcomes in order to lessen the pressure on the director and the directorate as a whole.
• A collaborative and inclusive leader with excellent communicating and influencing skills who can identify and build strong working relationships at all levels across the directorate, the wider organisation and with external stakeholders to ensure that the director can deliver on their priorities and communicate in the best way to the right audiences.
• Customer service focussed, working responsively to ensure that our clients and customers priorities are met.
• A proven track record of making a strong personal impact, demonstrating effectiveness and credibility to operate at a senior level.
• An excellent communicator, with the ability to develop and maintain trusted relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including those at senior level.

Desired Qualifications/Accreditations:

• APM Project Management Qualified
• APM Change Management Practitioner Qualified
• Educated to Degree level
• Educated to Masters level
• IWFM or industry qualification

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Customer Perspective
• Commercial Acumen
• Property Market Knowledge
• Innovation

• 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%
• Generous annual leave

Job contact :

• Name : Louis Roberts
• Email : louis.roberts@gpa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gparecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk