HR Director - Great British Energy, DESNZ

Department for Energy Security & Net Zero

Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 28th October 2024

 

Details

Reference number

371676

Salary

£76,000 - £90,000
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

SCS Pay Band 1

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

DESNZ - Energy Markets and Supply

Type of role

Human Resources
Senior leadership
Other

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

Aberdeen

Job summary

About Great British Energy

Great British Energy will be a publicly owned, operationally independent energy company, designed to drive clean energy
deployment, boost energy independence, create jobs and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy. Setting up Great British Energy is one of government’s first steps for change and we will do this in a way that means it will have both an early impact and long-term success.

Great British Energy’s mission will be to responsibly accelerate the energy transition - enable and accelerate clean energy deployment, boost energy independence, create jobs and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure,home-grown energy. Through its five functions (Project development, Project investment and ownership, Local Power Plan, Supply chains and working with Great British Nuclear), Great British Energy will speed
up the deployment of mature and new technologies, as well as local energy projects, to support the government’s aim of decarbonising our electricity system by 2030 whilst also ensuring we can meet future demand as we further decarbonise the economy.

To this end and as an example of what it can achieve, we have already agreed a major partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate to accelerate deployment and support UK supply chains.Great British Energy will work collaboratively with industry, local authorities and communities, and other public sector organisations such as the National Wealth Fund, to spread skilled jobs and investment across the country. Great British Energy will be backed by a capitalisation of £8.3 billion of new money over this Parliament.

In recognition of Scotland’s leading role in the UK’s clean energy revolution, Great British Energy will be headquartered and run from Aberdeen.

More details can be found in the Great British Energy founding statement

Job description

About the Role

The HR Director will be a pivotal member of the Great British Energy leadership team, responsible for developing the new organisation and delivering across all aspects of its people agenda. The role requires an individual who has experience in developing a workforce and culture to best enable a new organisation to deliver.

This role will require close working with others in Great British Energy and its partners (such as The Crown Estate) to ensure efficient use of capabilities and clear responsibilities and accountabilities are in place, as well as a close working relationships with the DESNZ policy, HR and sponsor teams.

Roles in what will become Great British Energy will initially be undertaken in shadow form within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. They will then be transferred to Great British Energy when the Great British Energy Bill becomes law and the company has the necessary procedures and systems in place to employ people directly.

Key Responsibilities 

As Great British Energy HR Director your main responsibilities will include:

  • Work with the Interim CEO and DESNZ Director of HR and their team to establish and lead a high performing HR function, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation.
  • As part of the Great British Energy leadership team, shape the development of the company’s strategy, culture, values and operating model.
  • Set direction, lead and drive cultural and organisational change across the organisation, role modelling behaviours in line with Great British Energy’s desired culture and values. Lead Great British Energy’s engagement with our workforce, ensuring people-related communications are effective and punctual to keep staff informed.
  • Act as a key advisor to the Chair, Board, CEO, and the leadership team on HR matters. Deliver expert opinion, impartial robust advice and support on all people related issues including capacity and capability, diversity and inclusion, cultural and organisational change and well-being matters to the Great British Energy and leadership team. Promote and sustain effective compliance with appropriate employment legislation, public sector guidance and other relevant policies throughout the organisation.
  • A close working relationship with Department of Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) will be essential.
  • Provide HR expertise in the setup of the new organisation, utilising best practice to ensure Great British Energy has effective structures, workforce size and shape, culture and capabilities. Set and monitor relevant people targets, ensuring the team delivers against Great British Energy’s strategic objectives.
  • Empower, coach, and manage the team and others to develop organisational capability and promote effective succession planning and talent management across the organisation.
  • Lead and maintain effective oversight of provision of services by third-party suppliers relating to HR services e.g. through our Integrated Corporate Services provider including pay, pensions and employee assistance and welfare programmes.
  • Lead engagement and relationship management with Trade Unions to support positive employee relations environment.
  • Lead on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy for the organisation including reporting and monitoring of progress and engagement with stakeholders.

Person specification

Skills, experience and qualifications (Essential) -It is important through your CV and Statement of Suitability
that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the following:

Essential Criteria

  • A proven track record of successful leadership experience in a HR function and ability to contribute effectively to senior and executive leadership teams that provides organisational leadership, direction and strategic focus.
  • Provides authentic, inclusive, inspiring, and visible leadership of the function and wider organisation, with ability to lead and develop a diverse multi-disciplinary staff through continual improvement and transformational change.
  • Proven ability to influence and build strong credible relationships with colleagues, external partners, and senior stakeholders.
  • Evidence of delivering improved organisational performance and cultural change against a backdrop of innovation and change whilst promoting inclusivity.
  • Passionate about the Company and its policy objectives to deliver clean energy, drive economic growth, create UK jobs and supply chains and provide value for the UK taxpayer. Whilst demonstrating a passion for creating societal impact and value.

Qualifications / Memberships

  • Hold membership of a chartered professional body relevant to the HR Director role (e.g., CIPD) at level 5 or above.

We encourage applications from a diverse (including gender diverse) background. If you have any questions about your suitability or would like further information about the role. Please contact scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

Memberships

Hold membership of a chartered professional body relevant to the HR Director role (e.g., CIPD) at level 5 or above
Alongside your salary of £76,000, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

  • A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
  • Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
  • A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
  • An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
  • Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period. Senior Civil Servant (SCS) staff are expected to aim for closer to 60% of the time at an office or non-home based location over the accounting period.

Selection process details

How to apply

To apply for this post please follow the instructions on the CS Jobs website by no later than 23:55 on Monday 28th October 2024. As part of the application process you are asked to complete the following:

  1. A CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years
  2. A Statement of Suitability (no more than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification. 
  3. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to undertake one assessment as part of this recruitment prior to a final interview panel

A staff engagement exercise: a structured exercise which involves shortlisted candidates facilitating a discussion with a selection of staff from the Department on a given topic.

An Individual Leadership Assessment: a facilitated discussion designed to gauge an idea of your comparative strengths and weaknesses against the requirements of the role. You will be asked to provide specific examples of situations to best understand your style and approach. This will help the assessor put your assessments results into context in terms of your experience and achievements in and out of work.

These assessments will not result in a “pass” or “fail” decision. Rather, they are designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

More information on assessments can be found by visiting https://scs-assessments.co.uk/

Shortlisted candidates may have the opportunity to speak to the vacancy holder, Emma Floyd – Director, Great British Energy. Department for Energy Security & Net Zero. prior to the final interview. This is an informal discussion to allow candidates to learn more about the role, and is not part of the assessment process.

4. Final Interview which will include a presentation exercise.

For further information on the application process and an overview on what to expect, please visit the Civil Service Careers website.

Overview of the Process

Government Recruitment Service will acknowledge your application and advise you of the outcome of the sift meeting. Depending on the number of applications
received there may be a second stage sift.

Applications will be sifted to select those demonstrating the best fit with the post against the criteria set out in the person specification. Please ensure you keep this
in mind when writing your CV and supporting statement.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Arrangements for interview

The final selection panel interviews will be held on or close to Monday 25th November 2024.

If candidates are required to prepare a presentation for their interview, they will be given at least one week’s notice of the subject.

Expenses incurred by candidates during the recruitment process will not be reimbursed by the Department except in exceptional circumstances and only
when agreed in advance.

You will be interviewed against information in the person specification.

Indicative Timeline

Please note that these dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. If you are unable to meet these timeframes, please let us know by contacting scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. Please ensure you quote the job title and reference number in your email.

Interviews will be held in person in Aberdeen. Candidates are asked to note the timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process. The confirmed timetable is as follows:

Advert Closing Date – 23:55 Monday 28th October 2024

Shortlist Meeting– Week Commencing 4th November 2024

Assessments – Week Commencing 11th November

Interviews – Around Monday 25th November 2024

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions. 

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available. 

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section. 

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.
This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

  • UK nationals
  • nationals of the Republic of Ireland
  • nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
  • nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
  • individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
  • Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

  • Name : SCS Candidate
  • Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/

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