Jobs

Who we are
We’re a forward-looking People Department that supports our organisation’s Strategy through support for our employees (800) and volunteers (2300) – whether as individuals or as managers. Our organization can seem complex since its workforce is deployed all across mainland and island Scotland, in all sorts of workplaces (from cottages to castles, mansions to mountains, gardens to great estates, cafes, shops, offices – and everything in between), but our work aims to be fair and consistent no matter where and who our people are. We strive to make people processes simple and accessible so that our people can just “get on with the job”, but robust enough to give meaningful management information to help with strategic and tactical development and decision-making. Although the team is dispersed across the country, we enjoy connecting with each other for our work and for social activity: we take our work very seriously, but we like to have fun too.
What this job is about
This job directly supports the People Director by providing daily, administrative support and ensures the People Department’s compliance with Trust-wide business requirements (e.g. finance, data protection, risk management, reporting, audit). It collates, analyses, reviews, and reports on functional data, and people data from across the Trust, to ensure that the Department’s work and impact is tracked against the Corporate Strategy and the Department’s own People Strategy and workplans. This job acts as a department “secretariat”, making arrangements and bringing together the Department’s teams for cross-functional (and inter-departmental) initiatives and activities, and carrying out general administrative duties as required.
What we want you to be responsible for
• Understanding the Trust’s corporate requirements and standards, ensuring the People Department has the correct governance mechanisms in place to fulfil these, and report on these as required. Typical areas are, for example:
o Finance procedures, monitoring and reporting
o Data Protection (as the Department’s “data champion”)
o Risk management
o Cyclical formal papers and reports to Board and Executive Committee (“ExCo”)
o External and internal audit.
• Ensuring that any governance and compliance issues are documented, escalated to the People Director, and tracked to conclusion.
• Collating People Department objectives and activities into a Workplan; monitoring progress against that Workplan; reporting progress, and liaising with senior Department colleagues on remedial actions or changes they need to make.
• Documenting key People work-processes, analysing their effectiveness, and supporting team-Leads with their continuous improvement.
• Supporting the People Director by dealing timeously with paper and email correspondence, telephone enquiries, organisation of meetings, events, lunches, travel, accommodation, diary management, taking/distributing meeting notes or actions, collating data etc. and the coordination and provision of support documents (e.g. files, reports, minutes, meeting papers).
• Maintain the People Team’s calendar (schedule meetings, interviews, HR events, etc.)
• Supporting the wider Department with (for example, but not limited to):
o Financial transactions
o Collaborative team events
o On-boarding, induction, and training of new (Department) colleagues
o General administration.

How we would like you to achieve this:
• We want you to work in a way that is wholly consistent with our stated organizational values and our People Strategy (and Corporate Strategy), and to be overt in making links between the HR operations work you do and those values, so that stakeholders can easily recognize how our work is an essential contributor to the work of the Trust.
• We want you to be customer-focused, supporting the team to always keep in mind how their activities impact on our colleagues across the Trust, but without losing the integrity and efficiency of processes.
• We would like you to build particularly close relationship with the Head of People Policy, Operations, & Advice (who is the People Director’s formal deputy) and the Head of Organisational Development, and also the team “Leads” within the Department, so that you can encourage and support cross-functional working.
• We would like you to use your existing professional network and knowledge to keep us abreast of current thinking in the business and HR fields and build an internal network of other business-focussed colleagues in Trust departments to help foster mutual understanding and collaboration as “One Trust”.
• We like to be kept informed so it is important to us that you keep good records relating to your activities, and be able to use this swiftly to produce meaningful management information that can inform our decision-making. You need to be entirely comfortable and confident with creating and delivering engaging reports, presentations, and activities for different internal audiences (from front-line staff to director/CEO/board level, as well as for external stakeholders).
• You’ll be a daily user of (in particular) the Trust’s finance and people systems, and of Microsoft products (including Sharepoint for collaborative file sharing).
Who you would be working with
• You would be working within the People Department, reporting to the People Director.
• The People Director, Head of People, Policy, Operations & Advice, and Head of Organisational Development (HoOD) collectively form the People Leadership Team (PLT) where strategic and tactical decisions about the direction and operation of the People Department are made. You will be invited regularly to input to their discussions.
• Your role, the Lead Consultants for People Operations & Policy (“POP”), People Enquiries & Advice (“PEA”), and People Organisational Development (“POD”), along with the Consultant for Workforce Equality Diversity & Inclusion (WEDI), form a work group with specific responsibilities for cross-department working.
• You will work particularly closely with other functions across the organisation:
o Legal & Governance
o Finance
o Data Protection
o IT
o PA to the Chief Exectuvie
• Please see the summary organization charts at the end of this document.

The qualifications, experience, and skills you need to have to do this job
Essential
• Significant experience as a business executive or executive assistant, with a particular focus on governance and compliance, data collation/analysis/reporting in an HR environment
• In-depth knowledge of human resources operations and best practices.
• Significant experience of working in a multi-team department, and/or across an organisation with multiple departments and locations
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills – able to interact with wide range of people tactfully and diplomatically, including those with a high public profile – therefore a confident user of the English language (written and spoken)
• Highly organised with excellent data-handling and administrative skills. Hands on experience in using MS Office, databases and HRIS systems.
• The ability to maintain absolute confidentiality.
Desirable
• A recognised entry-level qualification in People (“HR” or Volunteering/Payroll) such as a Certificate in Personnel Practice or Business Administration or similar.
• An empathy for the work of the National Trust for Scotland.
• A current driving licence valid for driving in the UK.

Just so you know…
• The Trust has a set of Values we ask you to work within, and these apply to everybody in the Trust irrespective of their role or job. You can find out more here: https://www.nts.org.uk/our-work/our-manifesto-and-values.
• This means we want you to have:
o The ability and willingness to understand others’ perspectives and to consider the impact of your actions on them and to adapt your actions as necessary;
o The ability and willingness to learn and try new things, to be flexible and step outside of your comfort zone;
o An open and honest way of communicating, ready to ask others for their ideas and to be open to hear and consider different points of view;
o A pro-active approach to taking initiative and to driving forward ideas and projects designed to improve daily operations and deliver an exceptional visitor experience.

Organisational structure summary charts

Summary organisation-wide chart

Summary People Department chart (this role in red outline)

The contents of this document reflect the requirements of the job at the time of issue. The Trust reserves the right to amend these with appropriate consultation and/or request the post-holder to undertake any activities that it believes to be reasonable within the broad scope of the job or his/her general abilities.

Application Deadline: Friday 12/05/2023