Head of Workforce Planning

Job summary

We are looking for a Head of Workforce Planning to join us at Companies House.

The Head of Workforce Planning is a pivotal role within the Workforce Planning, Analytics and HR Systems Team, working with the business and broader HR Teams to oversee the collaborative development of workforce planning principles, guidelines and governance in Companies House as well as establishing strategic and operational workforce planning procedures.

You will work with colleagues from across Companies House to ensure our workforce plans match the level of our ambition, and that workforce supply and demand are quantitatively and effectively structured and managed. You are responsible for establishing and maintaining Workforce Planning governance and stakeholder engagement for the development workforce planning principles and guidelines. Doing so, you will lead amongst others on the strategy for and practical application of long-term and short-term forecasting, workload and efficiency/ productivity management, succession planning, the Companies House interpretation and application of the 4B’s model, and engagement with organisation-wide projects and programmes to gauge workforce implications.

You will work closely with Finance, Data and Strategy as well as frontline business departments, you will provide regular updates to the Executive Team and will represent Companies House in Civil Service Workforce Planning forums and networks. You will lead the Workforce Planning team and will continue to build the capability and confidence of the team, ensuring the quality and assurance of services and decisions. You will work collaboratively with the wider team involved in HR systems, data governance, people analytics and reporting.

The work is fast paced, broad and often challenging but will be incredibly rewarding for the right person!

Why choose Companies House?

At Companies house we take a proactive approach to wellbeing by promoting a welcoming culture, healthy work life balance and supporting colleagues to be their best in work because we know people are the key to our success.

Our benefits include:

• Flexible working with no core hours (between 6am and 8pm)
• 30 days annual leave
• 8 bank holidays & 1 privilege day
• Enrolment into the Civil Service Pension scheme, with an average employer contribution of 28%

Find out more about what a great place Companies House is to work.

Job description

Please note:

• You will be aligned to our Cardiff, Edinburgh or Belfast office where you will be expected to attend on a regular basis.
• Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.
• Due to the nature of the role and team structure, this is a full time position and the successful candidate will be required to work a full time working week, however, we can consider applications from those looking to work compressed hours.
• Although this role is permanent, if you are an existing Civil Servant and have the experience and skills we are looking for, we would consider a loan arrangement for a defined period of time.

As Head of Workforce Planning at Companies House, you would be:

• Establishing and leading on the Workforce Planning Steering Group or equivalent senior governance body to oversee workforce planning guidelines and monitoring across Companies House.
• Providing strategic oversight for the development and implementation of long-term workforce planning aims, principles, processes, and stakeholder engagement. This includes guidelines for the application and integration of amongst others the 4B’s model, succession planning, and skills management.
• Providing strategic oversight for the development and implementation of short and medium-term workforce planning aims, principles, processes, and stakeholder engagement. This includes guidelines for the application and integration of amongst others vacancies, temporary promotions, probation, staff turnover, secondments and use of contractors.
• Overseeing the engagement activity and process analytics to establish principles and guidelines for workforce metrics such as efficiency, productivity, employee lifecycle trends, use of contingent labour and non-permanent contracts.
• Setting the roadmap for and drive organisational change within the organisation in relation to workforce planning, working with colleagues from the culture, internal communications and change teams.
• Gauging workforce planning monitoring findings with strategic priorities, organisational value streams and financial budgets.
• Identify and champion recommendations for workforce planning improvement.
• Identify, evaluate and implement innovative data visualisation, analytical and reporting techniques as part of a planned continuous improvement cycle.
• Overseeing the contextualisation and integration of the data reports produced by People Analytics in the overall organisational context.
• Oversee and coordinate the involvement of workforce planning in other organisational change, innovation and development initiatives, ensuring that the workforce planning needs are incorporated and workforce planning guidelines are adhered to.
• Leadership and development of the Workforce Planning team, effectively coaching and mentoring, both on an individual and team level, to drive high performance.
• Work in close collaboration with the HR Systems & Data and the People Analytics and Reporting teams to ensure alignment of services, positive collaborative working, and efficient processes.

Person specification

We’re looking for somebody with:

• Ability to think strategically and apply insights to inform future strategies and plans particularly in relation to organisation-wide resourcing.
• Proven capability to lead organisation-wide cross-departmental change in an organisation of similar size and complexity as Companies House.
• Proven analytical capability.
• Proven ability to collaborate, influence and negotiate at senior level.
• Experience in handling complexity and ambiguity as well as prioritising to manage multiple demands.
• Experience of working within the HR Profession at senior level.
• Strong written skills coupled with the ability to present data, processes and information with clarity and purpose.
• Well-developed business and customer focus.
• Ability to work at pace and manage delivery of processes and products to tight deadlines.
• Well-developed influencing and team working skills.
• Proven ability to lead progress via a formal governance body chaired by the business/ benefits owner.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,531, Companies House contributes £16,956 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We believe that our success is driven by the well-being and satisfaction of our team members at all levels of the organisation. At Companies House we’re committed to providing a comprehensive benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary, ensuring your career journey with us is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. We pride ourselves on offering a quality work-life balance with our employee wellbeing being central to our working practices.

Head to Our benefits - Working for us - Recruitment (companieshouse.gov.uk) to find out more about the fantastic benefits package we have at Companies House.

We celebrate diversity...

As an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate diversity, being committed to ensuring we’re representative of the citizens we serve and creating an inclusive environment. Everyone in Companies House brings something different, and so will you. To fulfil our commitment to recruiting and attracting diverse talent we welcome applications from underrepresented groups. We also welcome applications from Welsh speakers.

We are proud to be a disability confident leader. Our recruitment process is fully inclusive and we can make adjustments as needed through our process. These could include having an interview buddy, extra time at interviews/assessments and receiving interview questions in advance, to name a few.

If you require any reasonable adjustments at application stage, or if you'd like to discuss any person-centred adjustments, please contact us by emailing recruitmentCH@companieshouse.gov.uk.

Read our 'Applying under the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS)' guide to find out how to successfully complete an application under the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS).

Where will you be working?

You will be aligned to our Cardiff, Edinburgh or Belfast office where you will be expected to attend on a regular basis. We are currently using a hybrid approach to the way we work which provides opportunities for you to be adaptable in the way you work so that you can achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life. The degree of choice you have will depend on your role and your day-to-day work activities. Your manager will agree regular patterns of attendance with you, however you may be required to make yourself available to attend the office more frequently when required to meet business needs.

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, Strengths and Experience.

Key dates (dates are indicative only and could be subject to change)

• Closing date - 4th May 2026, at 23:55
• Sifting - 5th May 2026 onwards
• Interviews - 19th to 22nd May 2026, on Microsoft Teams

Communications will be electronic via email therefore it is important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

In your application form we’d like you to:

1. Tell us about your employment history, including any key responsibilities and achievements.
2. Write a personal statement of 1000 words where you demonstrate how you meet the skills required for this role, providing examples to evidence your level of skill. In your personal statement we are looking for evidence of:

• Experience of working within the HR Profession at senior level.
• Proven ability to lead progress via a formal governance body chaired by the business/ benefits owner.
• Proven capability to lead organisation-wide cross-departmental change in an organisation of similar size and complexity as Companies House.

We’re committed to being diverse and inclusive, so please make your application anonymous by removing all identifying personal information (such as names and dates) from your employment history and personal statement.

Your personal statement should aim to make use of the full wordcount and show how you meet the above criteria. Please give clear and specific examples of what you have done personally and the impact it has had.

What will the process look like?

1. Sift

Once the advert has closed we will sift applications - this involves reading through them all, please bear with us as this can take some time. The panel will look at your work history and personal statement and are looking for evidence of the stated points.

We may raise the score required if we receive a high number of applications. We may also choose to take through the highest performing candidates to the next stage. If, after the final stage is completed and roles are unfilled, we will proceed to invite lower scoring candidates to interview.

Also, if we receive a high volume of applications, we may carry out a pre-sift and will look at your application for evidence of: Experience of working within the HR Profession at senior level. Those applications which are successful at pre-sift stage will then progress to the main sift, where we'll read and score the rest of your application.

2. Interview

Successful candidates from the sift stage will be invited to attend a virtual interview, which will conducted using Microsoft Teams. We aim to notify candidates invited to interview and release interview slots on 11th May.

Companies House uses a blended interview technique, allowing us to find out more about you. We use the Success Profile framework and at interview we will be assessing Behaviours, Experience and Strengths.

At interview, we will be asking questions relating to the following:

• Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Leadership, Working Together, Managing a Quality Service
• Strengths: Not shared in advance as we want to see your first, natural response
• Experience, as listed in the person specification

There will also be an activity as part of the interview process.

• This will be a presentation which candidates will need to prepare in advance.
• More information will be sent to candidates who are invited to interview.
• This will assess the below experience:

1. Ability to think strategically and apply insights to inform future strategies and plans particularly in relation to organisation-wide resourcing.
2. Proven capability to lead organization-wide cross-departmental change in an organisation of similar size and complexity as Companies House.
3. Proven ability to lead progress via a formal governance body chaired by the business/ benefits owner.

The lead criteria to distinguish between tied candidates will be the Behaviour: Leadership.

3 . Offer

Once all interviews have been completed, you will be notified of the outcome. Offers will be made in strict merit order.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles (of the same or lower grade). Subject to business need, if a suitable position opens during this time we may reach out to individuals in merit order.

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of recruitment based on fair and open competition with decisions made on the basis of merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.

Sponsorship

Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. Companies House holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship, your application may be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment withdrawn.

Loans (existing Civil Servants)

Although this role is permanent, if you are an existing Civil Servant and have the experience and skills we are looking for, we would consider a loan arrangement for a defined period of time. Prior agreement to being released on loan must be obtained from your current department before starting the application process. The terms and conditions of any loan agreement are agreed between the home and host departments and you (as the Civil Servant).

Pre-Employment Checking

In line with Government guidance, successfully appointed candidates will need to provide documents for our Right to Work checks.

From June 2026, applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). Your personal details (name, National Insurance number, and date of birth) will be checked against the Civil Service Resourcing Extract IFD.

This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued.

If your details appear on this database, you will not be offered employment unless you can demonstrate exceptional circumstances. Companies House, acting on behalf of the vacancy holder, will inform you if your application is refused for this reason.

Please note: You are not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Nationality statement

As part of our recruitment process, it is essential for all candidates to independently verify their eligibility to work in the UK before applying. This includes a thorough check of your right to work to ensure compliance with UK employment laws, being mindful of the recent changes to going rates detailed on GOV.UK.

Please ensure you have the necessary documentation and permissions in place. Our team is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce and encourages applicants from all backgrounds to apply. However, it is the candidate's responsibility to ensure they meet the UK's legal requirements to work.

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.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Jon Shenton
• Email : jshenton@companieshouse.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitmentch@companieshouse.gov.uk

Further information

We welcome applications in Welsh / Rydym yn croesawi ceisiadau yn y Gymraeg. Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact infopoint@companieshouse.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission .

info@csc.gov.uk

Civil Service Commission, Room G/8, 1 Horse Guards Road SW1A 2HQ