People Director

Job summary

The role of People Director sits at the heart of Acas’s ability to shape our organisation effectively and enable our workforce of approximately 1100 FTE across Great Britain to deliver efficient and impactful services in the face of increasing demand. The role-holder will be central in enabling Acas to attract and retain the best talent and developing organisation capability in the rapidly changing world of work. They will work with the Executive and Senior Leadership Teams to enable Acas to deliver its strategic ambitions whilst building a diverse and inclusive workforce reflecting the businesses and people we serve.

The People Director will also act as Head of Profession for Acas’s HR community and will champion an engaging culture, working with leaders, our Trade Unions and wider workforce, aligning Acas internally with its external best practice messaging. As a member of the Executive Board, the People Director also plays an important part in setting wider organisational strategy, in corporate governance and in leading business and cultural change.

Job description

• Set and lead the People and Workforce Strategy; Lead the continued development and implementation of our People and Culture Strategy, ensure the workforce is capable, appropriately sized and structured to deliver Acas’s organisational objectives. Including aligning people priorities with corporate and business plans
• Executive and Board Leadership; Act as a member of the Executive Board and Senior Leadership Team, influencing organisational strategy, governance and major business decisions and risk management. Including providing expert people advice to the Chief Executive and Senior Leaders.
• Employee Relations and Union Partnership; Build and maintain constructive relationships with Acas’s recognised Trade Unions, lead on strategic employee relations issues, consultation and organisational change. Including promoting positive workplace relations and organisational trust.
• Strategic Workforce Planning; Develop and oversee the Acas workforce plan that address current and future capability and capacity needs. Identify and mitigate against capacity and skills gaps and lead talent and succession planning.
• Culture, Engagement and Inclusion; Lead Acas to create an engaged, inclusive and high performing-culture, lead initiatives to improve employee experience, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion. Ensuring that organisational values are reflected in behaviours and leadership practice.
• Exemplar People Practices aligned to Acas’s Purpose; Champion and deliver high HR standards and expertise on workplace relations and the productivity benefits best practice brings. Leading the people directorate to ensure that effective and timely support is given to line managers across the organisation through tailored expert advice, supported by up-to-date HR Policies and practice.
• Promoting Acas’s reputation credibility and influence; Through engagement with key stakeholders and representing the organisation in a range of external for and reporting to the Acas Council on people strategy and employment relations and its contribution to achieving Acas’s strategic aims.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Relevant professional qualification or knowledge - Chartered Fellow/fully qualified member (Level 7) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent professional qualification or HR knowledge.
• Extensive experience of leading an HR/people function within an organisation of at least comparable size, scale and complexity working in partnership with recognised Trade Unions.
• Visible, inspiring and engaging leader with a proven ability to build the capacity, capability, commitment and culture of an organisation
• Demonstrable experience of successfully leading the delivery of significant people-focused change programmes designed to improve engagement, retention, organisational performance and culture.
• Outstanding interpersonal, communication and influencing skills, with an ability to build credibility quickly with senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience of using digital transformation to drive improvements in the provision of people related advice and services.
• Evidence of operating successfully at board level, influencing the most senior stakeholders in an organisation of at least comparable size, scale and complexity

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We’re big believers in rewarding people for the amazing work they do. Take a look at some of the fantastic benefits we offer:

• Learning and Development
• Health and wellbeing
• Pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Volunteering opportunities

Could you ask for any more?

You’ll have access to a Lifestyle website where you’ll be able to grab savings on a wide range of products, from holidays to your weekly shop.

To find out more, check out:

Working for Acas

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.

Selection Process

Acas has engaged the services of GatenbySanderson, to whom applications should be sent by the closing date of Midday, Tuesday 10 November 2026. Applications can be submitted online at https://www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe137565

In order to apply, please submit the following:

1. A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
2. A Statement of Suitability – (maximum 2 sides of A4, 12 point font) setting out how your skills, experience and personal qualities make you suitable for the role. Please provide clear evidence, supported by specific examples, demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria, and where applicable, the desirable criteria outlined in the person specification. Please state which Acas office would be your preferred base.
3. Diversity Monitoring - All candidates are also requested to complete an online Diversity Monitoring system, which will be found at the end of the application process.

Anticipated Timeline:

Advert closing date: Midday, Tuesday 10 November 2026

Preliminary Interviews with GatenbySanderson: W/C 23 November

Shortlist decision: W/C 30 November

Leadership assessments: W/C 7 December

In Person Final Interviews: W/C 14 December in the Acas London Stratford office, this will include a short presentation.

Recruitment Principles and Candidate Support

Name-Blind Recruitment

Acas operates a name-blind recruitment process. Candidates are required to remove personal information, including their name and other identifying details, from CVs and supporting statements. Applications will be reviewed against the published criteria only.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and Redeployment Interview Scheme (RIS)

Candidates wishing to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme or Redeployment Interview Scheme should indicate this during the application process. Eligible candidates will be identified and tracked throughout the recruitment process to ensure the schemes are applied consistently and in accordance with Acas policy.

Reasonable Adjustments

Acas is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process. Candidates requiring reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process are encouraged to notify the recruitment team and Berwick Partners via scsrecruitment@acas.org.uk and emma.clark@gatenbysanderson.com Requests will be recorded, managed and monitored throughout the campaign to ensure appropriate support is provided.

Please review the attached Candidate Pack for further details.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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

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 : Martyn Brereton - Gatenby Sanderson
• Email : martyn.brereton@gatenbysanderson.com

Recruitment team

• Email : SCSrecruitment@acas.org.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Code and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact us on HRRecruitment@acas.org.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from us, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Acas - People Director - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 372kB)