HR Product Manager (Synergy Programme)
Department for Work and Pensions
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 27th October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
We’re looking for people who are flexible, intuitive and are comfortable taking high levels of volume, speed and complexity in their stride.
A number of exciting new roles have come up in the Synergy Programme, a cross-departmental group formed in response to Government Business Service’s request for individual departments to group together in ‘clusters’ to drive efficiencies, increase buying power and improve the quality of shared service to our end users – our people.
The Synergy Programme is the largest of five departmental clusters, comprising the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office. The Department of Work and Pensions hosts the Synergy Programme. Your work will impact the procurement arrangements for the next 15 years, impacting over 50% of all Civil Servants – that’s 230,000 people across the four departments and arm’s length bodies.
Success of the Programme is crucial as Civil Servants rely on shared services to provide business critical tools in human resources, finance, payroll, and procurement. It affects everything we do, from joining a department as a new starter, the way we claim for expenses, how we buy goods and services such as our laptops and canteen provisions, to the way we receive our pensions when we retire.
If you’re someone who can use your experience to streamline procurement to drive out error, waste, and duplication we want to hear from you. But most importantly, we’re looking for applications from people who can also demonstrate a passion for our core ambition - delivering a once in a generation, transformed service that Civil Servants will use as a result of the Synergy Programme.
Job description
Drawing upon your knowledge and experience, you will be responsible for supporting the HR Product Lead to deliver HR process convergence and the design, testing and deployment of the new Synergy ERP system and BPS services. As a HR Product Manager, you will be an integral part of the programme and be expected to demonstrate leadership from inception to deployment and throughout the post go-live support period. You will be the custodian for the transformational end-to-end design on BPS services and be responsible for ensuring it is future-focused and transformational for Synergy. This role will sustain throughout the programme life cycle and into live running services. This is an exciting opportunity for people with excellent organisational and interpersonal skills to work in a fast-paced environment over both Change and HR functional disciplines. The role offers the opportunity to use existing HR knowledge to broaden your experience.
Key tasks will include:
- Leading the HR aspects of Business Process Services (BPS) design and elements of the service that cut across functions and programme workstreams. This will include leading a Design Squad dedicated to the Service Management aspects for HR processes, policies, knowledge and content.
- Acting as the lead across all the Design Squads for the BPS impacts of the HR solution design, understanding the dependencies across the functional design and raising any potential risks or issues.
- Communicate business, functional, and technical information across multiple stakeholders, representing Synergy in key forums as required and being able to reach resolutions amongst challenging stakeholder groups.
- Being an advocate of the ‘Adopt not Adapt’ concept of Cloud adoption, challenging established ways of working to realise the transformation aspirations of the programme and move to Software as a Service for Finance processes.
- Own the end-to-end HR Business Process Services and its associated products within the role holder’s area of accountability.
- Work across a ‘product centric’ multi-disciplinary team to design and successfully implement the programme deliverable. This will include working alongside multiple Synergy technical teams, delivery teams, user and business change teams and strategic partners.
Person specification
To be successful in this role, candidates will have:
Essential
- Proven track record of leadership, project delivery and change management of HR transformation at scale. Ability to lead behavioural and transformational change, understanding the factors that drive a positive employee experience (Lead criteria)
- Experience of successful management and change of complex ERP processes and of developing vendor relationships.
- Demonstrable experience and evidence of delivery in at least one HR specialism such as Policy, HR Operations, Learning and Development. This will be underpinned by a broad understanding of the employee lifecycle, HR processes and policies.
- Experience of engaging successfully with a variety of professional teams, including FSSO, BPS, Digital, HR, Operational Delivery as well as external partners.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to tailor messages for the audience, and effectively engage with and influence senior stakeholders.
- Evidence of working on a fast-paced environment by proactively managing and prioritising competing demands to meet challenging and changing deadlines.
- Influencing a wide network of stakeholders and have excellent relationship management skills, with a proven track record in negotiating with senior stakeholders, including other government departments and external stakeholders.
- Have knowledge and experience of Governance procedures.
Desirable
- Understanding of the Cloud ERP market and capability of the potential systems.
- CIPD Qualified (level 5 and above).
- Understanding of Agile delivery practices.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
Benefits
- 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
Location
Applicants should apply for suitable posts where they can travel to and from their home office location daily within a reasonable time.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed.
Some travel to other Hubs/offices may be required as part of this role.
Hybrid Working
This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Benefits
Alongside your salary, the Department for Work and Pensions contributes 28.97% towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave – at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
- Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
- Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
- An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and 1000 word Personal Statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
A CV is requested but will not be assessed, so please put the bulk of your evidence in your personal statement.
Sift
Selection will take place by sift based on the person specification. Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead criteria:
- Proven track record of leadership, project delivery and change management of HR transformation at scale. Ability to lead behavioural and transformational change, understanding the factors that drive a positive employee experience.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview (online via Teams).
At interview, we will select based on both strengths and behaviours. You will also be expected to deliver a presentation, and the details of this will be provided if you are invited to interview. The behaviours we will select on are:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Find out more about Working for DWP
A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
Reasonable Adjustment
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.
We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
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Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Synergy Resourcing Team
- Email : Synergy.Resourcing@dwp.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : dwprecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission.
