Head of Resourcing and People Operations

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

The UK Statistics Authority is a non-ministerial government department responsible for overseeing the Office for National Statistics and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

The People and Places (PPD) Directorate facilitates and enables great people-centred outcomes and is at the forefront of implementing industry-leading, game-changing people practices. Multi-award winning, our commitment to improving people fundamentals is coupled with our drive towards more innovative approaches enabling us to attract, nurture and retain the best. We are committed to the continued development of colleagues in PPD. We are actively aligned to the Government People Function.

Job description

This is your opportunity to lead a critical role: Head of Resourcing and People Operations. Resourcing is central to improving how we work, and this role will be pivotal as ONS prepares for significant growth to deliver Census 2031.

You’ll be at the heart of our Strategic Resourcing team, a group that does far more than fill vacancies. We make sure the right people are in the right roles at the right time, whether that means moving colleagues to priority projects, attracting new talent, or supporting individuals through redeployment. Our work spans recruitment, loans and secondments, contingent labour, and the full joiner-to-leaver life cycle. Everything we do is guided by helping colleagues thrive and enabling the organisation to deliver on its ambitious goals.

As Head of Resourcing and People Operations, you’ll drive sustainable change and innovation to HR processes and systems to improve user experience, while shaping strategies that attract diverse talent, build capability, and deliver tailored solutions for a growing organisation. You’ll collaborate with senior leaders, influence workforce planning, and lead a team that is passionate about making a real difference.

This is a chance to combine strategic thinking with operational excellence, helping ONS deliver world-class statistics and prepare for one of the most significant undertakings in public service as we ramp up for Census delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Recruitment Leadership

• Lead the recruitment strategy for the Office for National Statistics, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and government/public sector priorities.
• Develop and refine recruitment models to attract and retain a diverse workforce, including both our field force and professionals e.g analysts, data and digital specialists.
• Collaborate with senior leaders, and key stakeholders to design tailored recruitment strategies.
• Collaborate closely with ONS People team and senior leaders at all levels, including Director and Director General, to co-lead ONS’ wider strategic workforce planning from a recruitment perspective.

Operations & Process Optimisation

• Oversee people operations, including the HR Advisory Hub service and associated activity.
• Develop and manage people workflows, tools, and technology platforms, ensuring best practices are followed across all stages.
• Develop a series of People Systems improvements to support People and Places Directorate in better utilising technology to deliver effectively and efficiently.
• Oversee the recruitment process end-to-end, from talent pipeline development to onboarding, ensuring efficiency and compliance.
• Implement data-driven strategies to continuously improve processes, enhance candidate and customer experience, and optimise time-to-hire metrics.

Team Management & Development

• Lead a high-performing Strategic Resourcing, People Operations and People Systems team, fostering a culture of excellence, inclusivity, and innovation.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, and development opportunities for team members, helping them grow in their careers while achieving departmental goals.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Experience in talent acquisition, end-to-end recruitment operations, and wider HR operations with experience of using innovative techniques to drive measurable service delivery.
• Proven track record of leading and developing large, dispersed teams, fostering a collaborative and results-oriented environment.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership at Director level and above, within a complex environment.
• Experience of driving sustainable change and innovation to HR processes and systems to improve user experience.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to use data and insights to drive continuous improvement in processes and service delivery.
• Holds Chartered Membership of the CIPD, or willing to work towards.
• Experience with recruitment technologies, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and talent management platforms.

Qualifications

Holds Chartered Membership of the CIPD, or willing to work towards this.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,199, Office for National Statistics contributes £19,757 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

• Security Services records

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

You will be required to provide a 10 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview.

Interviews will be held in person at our Newport office - Government Buildings, Cardiff Rd, Duffryn, Newport NP10 8XG.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield and Darlington.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted w/c 9th March

Interviews will be conducted w/c 23rd March

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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 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

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 : Pamela Hunt
• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)