Human Resources, (HR) is often your first experience of an organisation, and your last. Your employment journey is shaped by your interactions with HR, and we realise the valuable part we play in the employee journey. Our role is to enable people to do their best work, with processes that bring our values and behaviours to life.
You will have the opportunity to lead a collaborative service that cares about gaining the best outcomes for employees and for the council. You will lead a team that will work tirelessly on crucial activities ranging from the implementation of pay awards to meet tight deadlines, through to travelling across Dorset to support managers to grapple with difficult employee relations meetings, from supporting the recruitment of a Harbourmaster, (and any other of 450 services) through to how we transform our approach to agency staff. No two days will be the same.
We are ambitious and brave, having already transformed from a support service to a value-added partner to the organisation. We’ve delivered and supported projects across the council, from our employee benefits framework, to supporting services to transform with new roles and structures. We keep people management practices relevant in a constantly changing landscape and provide essential support to schools and academies within Dorset.
However, the biggest challenge is yet to come. We recognise that to support a fast-paced, diverse, and future-focused organisation, we need to be more strategic and forward-thinking.
We aspire to maintain the best employee experience, underpinned by technology and efficient processes. We are working towards being a digital service, led by data intelligence continuing to keep people at the heart of what we do and enabling them to achieve great things.
You will be responsible for leading and managing the HR Service across Dorset Council and the external partners. To work with the Chief Executive, Executive Directors and other Corporate Directors in shaping the HR Service to lead and deliver modern, high performing, effective and efficient People Management to enable the Council to be an employer of choice.
The Human Resources Service includes a diverse range of customer focussed functions all with a common purpose of ensuring the council and our external customers can deliver their aims and ambitions by creating and maintaining an environment that provides a positive employee experience, enabled through the delivery of effective people management practice and ensuring legal and regulatory compliance.
The Service plays an integral role in supporting the council in delivering all of its council plan priorities by ensuring we have effective people management practices in place that enable services across the council to recruit quality people into the council, effectively manage the performance of its workforce and ensuring a safe and supportive working environment.
Over the next two years you will lead, co-ordinate and implement changes to address areas highlighted as part of a recent external HR review. Considering the way we shape and deliver services to our employees to enable reduced costs, increased efficiencies, better use of data and, importantly, making a huge impact on the lives of the people in Dorset.
You will have strong employment law knowledge and be a fellow of the CIPD or have equivalent experience.
You will have experience of working with Trade Unions and other employee representative bodies and previous experience of transformation of an HR function to meet the needs of the organisation.
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.
At Dorset Council we:
- provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
- have ambitious aspirations
- are excited about our future
- care about Dorset and all the people who live here
- know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:
- have access to a range of employee benefits
- be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
- have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression
We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.
We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.
We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.
If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.
This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.
We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.
For further information please email recruitment@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk.
Interviews will be held on 14th April 2023.