Head of People Services (Employee Relations and Business Partnering)

Job summary

Contracted to our Wilmslow office, however, we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities. There will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need.

Please note, from Autumn 2026 our head office will move from Wilmslow to Manchester city centre.

Are you ready to help drive the delivery of our Workforce Strategy and lead a high-impact team at the heart of the ICO?

We’re looking for a dynamic and strategic leader to step into the role of Head of People Services, overseeing our Employee Relations and Business partnering functions. This is a pivotal position within the People Services Directorate Senior Management Team, with the opportunity to influence organisational culture, drive workforce strategy, and support the development of our people

Job description

Employee Relations and Business Partnering:

• Strategic oversight of the organisation’s employee relations (ER) casework portfolio, ensuring cases are managed effectively in accordance with relevant legislation and the ICO’s policy framework.
• Managing and escalating risks in relation to employee relations.
• Developing and delivering strategies and plans in response to qualitative and quantitative data which seek to address risks and issues related to employee relations.
• Ensuring the organisation has an effective employment policy framework in place which is constantly reviewed and updated.
• Developing our approach to engagement with and the up-skilling of managers in relation to employment policies and good practice in employee relations.
• Ensuring effective horizon scanning and proactive action to ensure the ICO is best placed to respond to emerging changes in employment law and best practice in people management.
• Overseeing the work of the ICO’s People Business Partners in providing strategic support to the organisation’s senior leaders in the management, development and delivery of local and organisational people priorities.
• Working closely with the Director of People Services to provide strategic oversight to the ICOs Trade Union relationships and management and assurance of the Trade Union recognition Agreement.

Head of People Services:

• Ensuring that the department is equipped with the right skills, tools, and talents necessary for executing their duties and leading on the professional development and coaching of staff within their area of responsibility.
• Conducting organisational diagnoses to determine which people strategies and services are most aligned to the functional governmental standards for People Services.
• Leverages workforce insights and analytics which focus business leaders on relevant people management issues while assessing potential strategies and solutions.
• Acting as the people lead for major projects and drawing on resources and expertise from across the Directorate as a whole.
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with both local and national Trade Union colleagues.
• Providing effective leadership to their own team, ensuring that colleagues are clear about expected standards, motivated and developed to provide effective and efficient services.
• Ensuring that relevant budgets and contracts with third party suppliers are managed effectively, and that the ICO complies with requirements of its sponsor department and with government.
• Acting as an advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
• Championing People Services initiatives across the ICO, influencing and collaborating with senior management colleagues to ensure projects are delivered on time, to required standards and within budget.
• Developing appropriate standards and ensuring that effective mechanisms are in place to produce and monitor key performance indicators through Directorate People dashboards to ensure service delivery is in line with agreed standards.
• Deputise for the Director of People Services when necessary.
• Participate on behalf of the Commissioner/ICO as directed at meetings and events where senior representation is required.
• Acting as Information Asset Manager, with the responsibility of supporting the Information Asset Owner in ensuring good information governance and data protection compliance obligations are understood and applied by staff in the department.

• Participating actively in relevant corporate initiatives, including the business planning process, and undertake a senior management role in matter such as internal investigations

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

• Graduate Member of the CIPD, or equivalent level professional experience.
• Significant senior level experience within a Human Resources role.
• Experience of leading and managing people.
• Experience of leading significant change projects from concept to sign off.
• Experience of working effectively with Trade Unions.
• Proven and successful ability to build, lead, and integrate effective and lasting people management programmes within a business.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of Employment Law and best practice in the field of people management.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

• Ability to convince others into following their direction and to build and maintain strong, trusting, and long-term relationships with others.
• Ability to work on multiple simultaneous projects and meet tight deadlines, be a creative and strategic thinker, work comfortably in group settings, be proactive and go beyond the call of duty, and have an ability to remain calm under pressure and in times of uncertainty, inspiring the same in their team.
• Ability to make complex and timely decisions in line with available evidence, the strategic context and professional values when there are unknowns.
• Capable of leveraging people metrics, drawing insights from plain data and information, which will enable informed decision making, management strategy formulation, and policy formulation.
• Able to conduct performance analyses on existent strategies, procedures, and policies, identifying threats or opportunities for improvement, and developing actionable and sustainable solutions where needed.
• Demonstrates successful experience building awareness on key organisational issues and presenting a relevant solution, guiding departmental heads, management, and stakeholders through a collaborative and shared decision-making process.
• Conveys information and instruction down the line in a clear and concise way to ensure efficient and effective execution of duties by team members and to guarantee high-performance levels by the department.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £72,146, Information Commissioner's Office contributes £20,900 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Please visit ico.jobs for full details, including salary and benefits.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks. Read more about our commitment on our website.

Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk

Closing Date

Please submit your CV and cover letter by 23:59 Sunday 8th February 2026. Your cover letter should be no more than 1,000 words and should clearly articulate how your experience and aspirations align with the specific expectations of this role.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. To ensure your application is considered, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact us at recruitment@ico.org.uk.

In the event of a high volume of applications, we may not be able to invite all candidates who meet the minimum criteria to interview. However, we encourage you stay in touch and apply for future roles that match your interests.

All candidates who meet the minimum criteria and apply in-line with our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled and ethnic minority applicants will be interviewed.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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 : recruitment@ico.org.uk
• Email : recruitment@ico.org.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ico.org.uk