Head of Organisational Design

Advert

Head of Organisational Design

It is an exciting time to join Cardiff University, following the recent arrival of our new Vice-Chancellor Professor Wendy Larner who took up her position in September 2023. The first woman in the history of Cardiff University to hold this position, Professor Larner’s leadership marks the start of a new phase of strategic development for the University.  To support this new phase of development, we are seeking to appoint to a new role of Head of Organisational Design.

The Role
Working in partnership with our HR leadership and TOM Programme Teams – this role will guide and support the planning and delivery of the organisational design aspects in support of the University’s strategic transformational projects.  The role holder will be a key advocate for change and will take a leading role in the design and development of operating model designs (including organisational charts, capability maps, role titles, functional activities and grades) for all our professional services. The role will also lead on the associated areas of people-related change including employee relations, management of consultation processes, reconfiguration of the workforce, and skills transfer to other members of the HR Team.

The post holder will be experienced in providing strategic and operational HR advice/guidance and be comfortable in exercising a high degree of initiative, self-motivation and professional judgement. They will be willing to challenge convention, and enjoy leading a team through change and personal development. Experience and an ability to forge strong relationships will be key.  This role will form part of a small centre of expertise focused on organisation change and effectiveness, ensuring that change delivers the desired strategic outcomes, while engaging key stakeholders effectively to ensure the change is well received and implemented.

We welcome applications from outside the higher education sector but candidates must bring credibility in their discipline, a strong values set recognising that universities are truly individual institutions that transform lives and an appreciation of a knowledge led environment.

This post is full-time and fixed-term for 2 years.

Salary: £59,241 – £64,914 per annum (Grade 8)

Date advert posted: Thursday, 15 February 2024

Closing date: Thursday, 29 February 2024

Interview date to be held 8 March 2024

Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds.  We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age.  In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Job Description

Key duties

• Responsible for communicating a University-wide vision, strategy and plan for Organisation Design, developing, planning and delivering the conceptual HR aspects of the University’s strategic transformational project, advising the Professional Services Board, and the University Executive Board.
• Design and develop structural models for professional services, organisational charts, capability maps, service blueprints, role titles, functional activities and grades and working in partnership with the HR leadership team, College HR teams and the TOM Programme Teams (includes consulting specialists), undertaking a gap analysis between the current and future models.
• Ensure that target states and blueprints for professional services create an overall organisation design that is evidence-led, sustainable, fit for the future, and which creates and/or supports meaningful career pathways, effective spans of control and reporting lines.
• Design, maintain and deliver a single source of truth for all organisation design activities being progressed within the TOM Programme, leading on the HR-related delivery of those activities to ensure design states are achieved to appropriate levels of time and quality, embedding this approach within all HR teams.
• Lead on the implementation of organisational change programmes/projects working in close collaboration with College and Professional Services Business Partners to deliver people related change
• Engagement with trade union colleagues in relation to organisational design activities across HR.

Delivery

• Lead on the creation, curation and tracking of workforce-related data pertinent to Organisation Design with the involvement of the HR MIS team and Strategic Planning, using these to generate insight and drive practical recommendations in line with the TOM Design Principles across the University’s Professional Services. This will include developing and designing data capture methodologies and develop new approaches from bringing together multiple data strands.
• Design, develop and facilitate workshops and events which ensure organisation design models are co-created with staff and other stakeholders. These events will likely include rapid process improvement workshops and customer experience journey mapping.
• Ensure all approaches conform with the equality aims of the institution, taking this in to consideration in all activities and leading on equality impact assessments as required.
• Develop and lead a new and innovative skills transfer programme with a cross-section of permanent staff roles, ensuring that a full suite of organisation design capabilities exists internally within the institution, over a period of time assessing the success of the delivery.
• Ensure organisation design principles become embedded in recruitment and retention, onboarding, learning and development, communications and engagement, career pathway and succession planning and talent management (including reward and recognition) activities.
• Support the creation and delivery of communications and engagement activities.

Management and Leadership

• Contribute to the leadership and ongoing development of the HR department by active participation and collaboration with colleagues in the HR Senior Management Team, contributing to the development and implementation of strategy, policy and plans.
• Lead cross function teams, personally responsible for the Organisational Design team, and matrix managing across the whole of the devolved HR profession within the University project and implementation teams to successfully deliver on the objectives.
• Act as a “change agent”, a role model of new behaviours and ways of working to ensure people change is managed in accordance with our values and behaviours.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Work Experience

• Significant experience of delivering major Organisation Design programmes/ initiatives in large, complex organisations
• Significant experience of delivering change management projects
• Experience of working at a senior level in a Human Resources role including providing specialist policy/process advice
• Experience of working in a complex organisation covering a wide range of professional and non-professional staff groups
• Experience of leading projects and undertaking reviews of policies/processes, assessing strategic options and developing and implementing new processes/approaches
• Experience of job evaluation methodology and job design

Education/Qualifications

• Educated to degree level
• CIPD qualified

Skills/Abilities

• Excellent communication, workshop development and facilitation skills
• Ability to lead, motivate and develop a team
• Able to resolve complex problems and issues without past precent within the organisation
• Able to lead and take responsibility of complex and technically demanding workstreams within a formal programme framework
• Ability to assimilate, analyse and visualise complex workforce data
• Ability to both self-start and to work productively as part of a multi-functional team
• Strong commitment to issues of equality, diversity and inclusion
• Excellent written skills including the ability to prepare documents and presentations for a range of stakeholders
• An understanding of and empathy with the culture in Higher Education

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in Higher Education
• Experience of advising on or managing formal consultation processes
• Experience of TUPE transition, consultation
• A second degree or professional qualification in a related discipline
• Programme or project management accreditation
• Financial literacy and commercial understanding
• An understanding of the Higher Education policy landscape in Wales

Additional Information

Networks and Co-Working

• Initiate as needed cross institution working groups to involve multiple stakeholders to ensure consistent approaches to organisational design are developed and embedded.
• Actively manage the links between the TOM Programme and the HR BAU activities through effective stakeholder engagement, to ensure change is managed quickly and smoothly whilst ensuring compliance with statutory responsibilities and local Trade Union agreements.
• Engage with stakeholders from board and executive level through to frontline staff (including students where needed), building and maintaining strong relationships with high-interest/high-influence staff to advance organisation design aims, and escalating issues to the TOM programme team as required.
• Establish and lead as needed networks with other external institutions, to gather best practice and models of development within Organisational Design.

General Duties

• Undergo personal and professional development that is appropriate to and which will enhance performance.
• Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity.
• Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.

Job/Functional Purpose

The fundamental purpose of this new role is to work in partnership with our HR leadership and TOM Programme Teams – to guide and support the planning and delivery of the organisational design aspects in support of the University’s strategic transformational projects.  The role holder will be a key advocate for change and will take a leading role in the design and development of operating model designs (including organisational charts, capability maps, role titles, functional activities and grades) for all our professional services. The role will also lead on the associated areas of people-related change including employee relations, management of consultation processes, reconfiguration of the workforce, and skills transfer to other members of the HR Team. 

The post holder will be experienced in providing strategic and operational HR advice/guidance and be comfortable in exercising a high degree of initiative, self-motivation and professional judgement. They will be willing to challenge convention, and enjoy leading a team through change and personal development. Experience and an ability to forge strong relationships will be key.  This role will form part of a small centre of expertise focused on organisation change and effectiveness, ensuring that change delivers the desired strategic outcomes, while engaging key stakeholders effectively to ensure the change is well received and implemented.

We welcome applications from outside the higher education sector but candidates must bring credibility in their discipline, a strong values set recognising that universities are truly individual institutions that transform lives and an appreciation of a knowledge led environment.

Job Category

Human Resources