Head of People and Organisational Development

The Head of People is responsible for the leadership, planning, organising and staffing of the central People Directorate, providing HR advisory and partnering; recruitment and talent; HR projects, systems and payroll services across the Trust.

Leading and maximising the team to enable customer-focused service delivery across the entire employee lifecycle, applying exceptional process, change and project management to enable effective and impactful service delivery whilst providing the organisation with meaningful people analytics to enable business and school improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Assess and shape culture to deliver organisational requirements and meet current and future challenges
• Develop understanding of operating context of the organisation and the factors that impact sustainable long-term performance
• Promote the value of engagement, wellbeing and equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the Trust
• Partnering with the Executive and senior leadership
• Support the senior leadership team to anticipate and pre-empt organisation issues.
• Drawing on professional expertise, support and advise senior leaders, presenting constructive challenge where necessary.
• Support the executive team to develop the people strategy, ensuring business insights and data are incorporated and is aligned to the Trust’s overall objectives
• Lead on all senior and executive appointments across the trust in partnership with the executive team
• Work with, and challenge senior managers, to identify change and design improvements and to support the organisation and People strategy.
• Develop a clear and impact EDI plan to make sure we are more representative of the communities we serve

Departmental Leadership

• Ensure People and Talent capability is balanced appropriately across the organisation and professional areas.
• Departmental leadership of People Partnering and Shared Services along with supporting the specific area leads of these functions
• Lead the performance of function in the delivery of People and Talent strategic projects aligned to the Trust strategic priorities
• Deliver maximum impact
• Collaborate across Trust functions to understand the needs of the business and align innovative people focused solutions alongside sound commercial decisions
• Develop key People and Talent KPIs and MI reporting to support improvement strategies; utilising people data metrics and external benchmarking data to support organisational design
• Lead the storytelling of People data, insights and engagement to help drive Trust decisions based on meaningful and clear information
• Engage and involve senior leaders, colleagues, and stakeholders in developing and implementing interventions to meet business plans and priorities
• Ongoing review, assessment of risk and evaluation of operational People delivery plans
• Demonstrate commercial awareness, challenging and providing counsel on people matters where appropriate and offering pragmatic solutions
• Develop and oversee performance management processes to support a high performing culture at an individual and organisational level
• Promote employee wellbeing initiatives to drive improvements in performance, engagement and productivity gathering relevant data to demonstrate the effectiveness of wellbeing programmes
• Assess and review the impact of projects/solutions, staying alert to changes in context, and make appropriate developments to the strategy
• Develop strong and trusted partnerships with the leadership team to provide advice, guidance and challenge.
• Development of equity activity supporting a diversity of thought approach to the organisation and its human capital

Skills, Capabilities & Experience

• Chartered Member of the CIPD (Level 7)
• Education Sector/MAT experience
• Proven experience of delivering a HR/People Business Partnering model
• Sound knowledge of Employment Law
• Ability to develop and embed a People Strategy
• Exceptional communication and leadership skills
• Ability to work and deliver to tight deadlines whilst remaining calm
• Uses emotional intelligence to achieve the best outcomes
• Has a track record of delivering change and transformation projects
• Models a coaching style in line with Trust values
• Able to deliver meaningful MI to drive overall decision making at all levels
• Able to develop strong and trusted relationships with stakeholders

This is not exhaustive.

Please visit our website for further details and to apply.

The closing date for all applications is 10th December 2022. 

Astrea Academy Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Posts are subject to enhanced DBS checks. For further details on the recruitment process, please review our Recruitment Pack. This can be found attached to each vacancy or requested by emailing recruitment@astreaacademytrust.org