Senior Manager, People and Culture

Job summary

About Us

We are an arm’s length body of the Welsh Government, responsible for the strategy, funding and oversight of:

• further education
• higher education including research and innovation;
• apprenticeships
• adult community learning; and local authority maintained school sixth forms.

We work in close collaboration with our partners to enable a tertiary education and research system which is centred around the needs of learners; society; and economy with excellence, equality and engagement at its heart.

Our values really matter to us, they help shape the culture of our organisation:

• Dysgu (to learn; to teach; to educate) - learning is at the heart of everything we do. We believe curiosity fuels innovation and helps expand our horizons.
• Cydweithio (to work together; to collaborate; to co-operate) - we can achieve far more together than we ever could alone.
• Cynnwys Pawb (to include everyone; to involve everyone) - we are passionate about inclusion, seeking to create the right conditions for everyone to achieve their full potential.
• Rhagori (to exceed; to excel) - we have high aspirations for tertiary education and research in Wales and always set high standards for ourselves to be the best we can be.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and accredited as a Living Wage employer.

Location

Our headquarters is in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff, which has been specifically designed to meet our needs. This is where most colleagues will meet to collaborate, both with each other and with stakeholders.

As we operate across Wales, we also have limited office and collaboration space in Welsh Government offices in Llandudno Junction, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil.

Main purpose of the Job

You will work closely with the Head of the People and Culture Team to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to support transformational change across Medr.

You will lead and deliver on high quality and professional organisation-wide people centred priorities, with a focus on delivering our learning and development offer that makes a tangible difference, and which builds organisational capacity and capability.

You will support the development of an exceptional workplace culture based on our values, that enables our workforce to learn, develop and thrive.

You will be expected to organise and prioritise resources effectively and line manage a small team.

Job description

What you will be doing

As part of a small team you will deliver across the full range of people functions including:

• leading on learning and development, and talent management
• culture and engagement
• expert case work and advice
• equality, diversity and inclusion
• policy
• occupational health & workplace adjustments
• health and safety
• management information and systems
• workforce planning and recruitment
• liaising with the payroll team

• You will need to embrace change, nourish and nurture a positive inclusive culture, be happy working in a fast paced environment and committed to your own personal development.
• Operationally translating the People and Culture Strategy into clear, practical actions for teams across the organisation.
• Promoting and embedding Medr’s organisational values (Dysgu, Cydweithio, Cynnwys Pawb, Rhagori) in day to day operations.
• Managing the design and delivery of learning and development programmes, including leadership development.
• Shaping, communicating and helping to implement new people systems, policies and processes.
• Supporting staff through organisational changes, new systems and updated people processes.
• Providing expert people advice to managers and staff, ensuring consistent application of policies, processes and procedures.
• Building positive working relationships across the organisation to support people focused solutions.
• Supporting health, safety and wellbeing activity, ensuring they are embedded into the office environment and everyday operations.
• Working in social partnership with trade unions, supporting the development and implementation of agreed work plans.
• Supporting colleagues across multiple office locations, ensuring consistent people practices in dispersed working environments.
• Collecting, analysing and using people data to identify areas for improvement and inform operational decision making.
• Co-ordinating recruitment and succession planning activities.
• Line managing a small multidisciplinary team, allocating work, providing direction, coaching and performance support
• Promoting and supporting the uptake of Welsh language learning and use in the workplace.

Key Challenges

We published our first Strategic Plan in March 2025. The Plan includes a foundation aim to establish Medr as a highly effective organisation and trusted regulator. You’ll need to:

• align people and culture priorities to the delivery of our Strategic Plan.
• work in a fast-paced and sensitive environment, dealing with complex and shifting priorities
• influence and communicate to build positive relationships
• bring our People and Culture strategy to life
• design and deliver learning and development opportunities building organisational capability to meet our needs today and in the future.

About your team

You will be part of the People and Culture Team, which is a small multi-disciplinary team of six people. You will report to the Head of People and Culture, and you will have responsibility for the line management of up to two people.

This is an exciting time to be joining the People and Culture team at Medr, as we roll out new ways of delivering people functions, including policies, procedures, systems and learning & development.

Your Line Manager

Head of People and Culture.

A new post that is currently being recruited.

Person specification

What you will bring

Attributes

• Act with Integrity – You consistently act in the best interest of the organisation and its stakeholders and take responsibility for your decisions.
• Agile – You drive forward improvements, through collaboration, embracing new technologies and nurturing a culture of continuous learning.
• Drive - You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.
• Motivate – You set ambitious goals and inspire others to strive for excellence, driving a culture of continuous improvement
• Reflective: You critically assess your decisions and actions, seeking to learn from both successes and failures

Experience

• Significant knowledge and experience across a range of HR functions, specifically creating and delivering an impactful and comprehensive learning and development offer.
• Strong problem-solving skills, able to deal with people at all levels within an organisation and have experience of dealing with complex and sensitive people situations.

Technical

• Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent, or willing to work towards this qualification.

Welsh language requirements

We have evaluated that the Welsh language requirements for this post are:

Desirable

Welsh desirable means that while having Welsh language skills is useful for the role, it is not an assessment criterion, so it won’t disadvantage you during recruitment if you don’t currently possess these skills.

Qualifications

Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent, or willing to work towards this qualification.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,301, Medr contributes £14,282 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Your perks and benefits

We recognise the importance of looking after ourselves in work and in life, so in recognition of this we provide:

• 34 days annual leave a year (pro rata)
• An environment that embraces work life balance.
• A culture that celebrates diversity and welcomes everyone.
• Dedicated well-being time to all our people each week.
• A Cycle to Work Scheme to make owning a bicycle more affordable.

Additional Support when you need it

We know that sometimes you may face challenges or life events that mean you need additional support.

• We provide a comprehensive employee assistance programme with remote access to resources and in person support whenever required.
• We have a special leave policy ensuring everyone in the organisation receives the support they need during difficult times.

More than just a workplace

• You will be entitled to take 5 days paid leave per year to undertake voluntary work to support the communities we serve.
• We will encourage you to grow your networks across Wales, the UK and internationally.
• We have an active social committee who offer a range of activities for our people to come together outside the work setting. You can participate as much or as little as you want.

Personal and professional development

• Once you’re offered a post, we will get to know you and work with you to develop a personalised onboarding plan which considers your experience, skills, learning style and knowledge.
• We’ll help you shape your development plans with personalised career conversations and objectives, taking account of delivery goals alongside your career aspirations and helping you own your career.
• We support all our staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills.

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

We are really interested in you as an individual and what you will bring to our organisation.

Our assessment process is designed to help us get to know you better enabling us to appoint someone who will thrive in the role and who shares our organisational values.

If you are interested in working with us, please send us your application and personal statement through Civil Service Jobs.

The following attributes/experience will be assessed at sift stage:

Attributes

• Agile – You drive forward improvements, through collaboration, embracing new technologies and nurturing a culture of continuous learning
• Reflective: You critically assess your decisions and actions, seeking to learn from both successes and failures.

Experience

• Significant knowledge and experience across a range of HR functions, specifically creating and delivering an impactful and comprehensive learning and development offer.
• Strong problem-solving skills, able to deal with people at all levels within an organisation and have experience of dealing with complex and sensitive people situations.

Technical

• Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) or equivalent, or willing to work towards this qualification.

To be fair to everyone who applies, we won’t accept:

• Late applications
• Applications with missing or incomplete information
• Personal statements over 1,250 words

The deadline for application submission is Wednesday 10 June.

Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English.

All applications will be notified of their outcomes via Civil Service Jobs at sift and interview stage.

Candidates who successfully navigate the sift stage will be required to complete an online exercise to enable us to determine their behavioural and personality preferences. Immediately on completion you will be given a report which highlights your strengths plus some development tips to help you prepare for interview. Candidates should note that the online exercise is not intended to eliminate anyone from consideration. Instead, it serves as a tool to aid in the decision-making process.

Following this, you will be required to participate in an interview and a presentation, plus an informal conversation with our Chief Executive, James Owen. Informal conversations will be conducted online on Monday 13 July, and in-person interviews will take place on Tuesday 14 July.

In addition to the attributes/experience assessed at sift stage, the remaining attributes will also be assessed at interview:

Attributes

• Act with Integrity – You consistently act in the best interest of the organisation and its stakeholders and take responsibility for your decisions.
• Drive - You lead by example, showing dedication and perseverance in meeting organisational objectives.
• Motivate – You set ambitious goals and inspire others to strive for excellence, driving a culture of continuous improvement.

We strive for a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. We are happy to discuss any person-centred adjustments required to the recruitment process. Please contact swyddi@medr.cymru

We're looking forward to meeting everyone invited to interview at our headquarters in 2, Capital Quarter, Cardiff. We don’t usually pay travel expenses, but if this presents a real barrier to your attendance in person or if you require a reasonable adjustment, please let us know in advance by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru so we can discuss and agree arrangements prior to your interview.

Following interview we are committed to offering constructive and actionable feedback to support you on your future career journey.

Next Steps

Interested…? Want to find out more?

We know how important it is for you to find out more about us so we will be holding a virtual information session for candidates on Tuesday 2 June at 11:00 on Microsoft Teams. This session will not be recorded.

This will be an opportunity for you to hear more about our organisation; the role and how we invest in our people.

If you would like to attend, register by emailing swyddi@medr.cymru.

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.

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

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 : People and Culture Team
• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Recruitment team

• Email : swyddi@medr.cymru

Attachments

Canllaw i Ymgeiswyr ar Lunio Datganiad Personol Opens in new window (pdf, 112kB)A Candidate's guide to crafting a personal statement Opens in new window (pdf, 113kB)Swydd Ddisgrifiad- Uwch Reolwr, Pobl a Diwylliant Opens in new window (pdf, 296kB)Job description Senior People and Culture Manager- (final) Opens in new window (pdf, 226kB)