Senior HR Policy and Employee Relations Lead

Job summary

We are MHCLG

Are you passionate about developing people policies through meaningful consultation and constructive Trade Union engagement?

Can you navigate complex employee relations issues while delivering policy change that is legally robust and operationally effective?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Senior HR Policy Lead to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!

You will co-lead the review and modernisation of our HR policy framework, working closely with Trade Unions and departmental stakeholders throughout the policy lifecycle. From early engagement and consultation through to implementation and embedding change, you will provide expert advice and leadership to ensure policies are fair, practical and aligned with organisational needs. Your work will help create a policy framework that is accessible, trusted and supports consistent decision-making across the department.

Job description

As the Senior HR Policy Lead your responsibilities will include:

• Leading the end-to-end review, development and maintenance of MHCLG HR policies to ensure they are fit for purpose, accessible, legally compliant, and aligned to best practice, with particular regard to Government People Group (GPG) model policies.
• Leading and managing Trade Union engagement and consultation on all policy reviews and issues, ensuring timely, constructive and meaningful involvement in policy development and change, balancing the needs of your stakeholders.
• Acting as the subject matter expert and single point of contact (SPOC) for HR policy queries, providing authoritative advice and working closely with casework and employee relations teams to ensure consistent application.
• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with a wide range of key stakeholders, including senior leaders, HR Business Partners, operational HR teams, and Government People Group where required.
• Working collaboratively with HR Shared Services to ensure that operational processes, guidance and systems accurately reflect policy intent and are practical to implement.
• Navigating and resolving complexities across formal policy documents, intranet guidance and the employee handbook, ensuring clarity, consistency and alignment across all sources.
• Producing and quality-assuring Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) and related documentation to support policy development and demonstrate due regard to equality duties.
• Providing clear, well-structured and accessible policy documentation and guidance, ensuring content meets accessibility standards and supports effective decision-making.

Person specification

To be successful in the role you will need to be resilient and collaborative, and be able to demonstrate you have experience with drafting and reviewing HR Policies and leading on Trade Union consultation and engagement.You will need to operate with a high degree of autonomy and professional judgement, while also working collaboratively as a senior leader within the HR function to drive continuous improvement.

• HR Policy Development: Demonstratable experience in developing and implementing HR policies

• Employee relations expertise: Experience working closely and confidently with trade union representatives and finding constructive and effective ways to manage through contentious scenarios, ideally in a HR policy environment

• Engaging HR Products: Proven experience in developing and implementing engaging user-friendly HR products that support effective people management and drive employee engagement.

• Working collaboratively: Strong interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to build trusted relationships and work in partnership across HR teams and wider stakeholders to deliver shared outcomes.

• Aligning organisational practice and context to your work: Ensuring products, policies and processes are fit for the organisational environment, tailoring them to user needs and requirements so that they can be used and applied effectively.

• Employment law and HR best practice: Proficiency in interpreting and applying employment law, with up-to-date knowledge of developments in HR best practices.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,230, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £17,448 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).

At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Staff Benefits Scheme, Childcare Vouchers, and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Stage 1: Sift

• Behaviour: Leadership: Tell us about a time you've responded to challenge and conflicting pressures when delivering a new/changed HR policy.

• Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing: Tell us about a time when you've implemented a change to HR policies in response to legislation or employment law. How did you make sure the change was understood by all users and communicated effectively - whilst making sure the policy was accurate.

• Experience: (Lead Element): Tell us about a time when you've led on a new HR policy or a policy change when you couldn't meet all stakeholder views/expectations and outline

There is a 250-word limit per question.

When writing your application, remember:

• the assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially

• do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers

• if talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Communicating & Influencing, Delivering at pace, Leadership

• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 21/09

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 05/10 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)

We are a Disability Confident employer.

We apply a fair and proportionate interview process for all candidates. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to progress candidates who apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and meet the required minimum selection criteria.

However, where high application volumes are received, progression to interview may be limited to those who best meet the role criteria. In these circumstances, the benchmark required to proceed to interview may be raised for all candidates.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a Disability Confident Scheme, Redeployment Interview scheme & Great Place to Work for Veterans employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Internal Fraud Database

• Appeals and Complaints

• Fixed Term Appointments for:

• External Candidates

• Existing Civil Servants (Including Loans)

• Secondments

• MHCLG employees

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

London Office: + CTC

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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 : Jennifer Cowing
• Email : jennifer.cowing@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk