WHO WE ARE
We’re a forward-looking People Department that supports our organisation’s Strategy through support for our volunteers (2300) and employees (800) – whether as individuals or as managers. Our organisation 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, tearooms, 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.
JOB PURPOSE
This job works with colleagues across the Trust to enable improved performance of individuals and teams. You’ll work on projects across a spectrum of organisational development disciplines (learning & development, engagement, leadership and team development and change management) as well as managing recurring programmes of activity (e.g. the performance review process, the workforce effectiveness survey, managing training suppliers).
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
• Work with leaders across the Trust to understand their areas of work, diagnose organisational development issues, and work with them to create annual plans at a regional / departmental level to deliver improved performance.
• Work with leaders across the Trust to understand bespoke training needs and, where necessary, work with them and external suppliers to build new training interventions.
• Manage all training and development suppliers, LMS and learning tools, to ensure the Trust is able to deliver business-as-usual training.
• Facilitate internal team development and leadership development sessions, tweaking existing tools depending on the situation and – if required – working with the Lead Consultant to develop new ones.
• Manage the planning, roll-out, delivery and reporting of the workforce survey, and support leaders across the trust to implement action plans based on the results and build engagement.
• Review and update existing organisational development processes and toolkits (performance review process, leadership development tools, training provision, etc.), using customer feedback and external best-practice thinking to ensure our products are customer-focused and as effective as possible.
• Work with the Lead Consultant, and with external suppliers, to design and develop leadership development interventions and tools to support organisation-wide development.
• Work across the People function to align OD interventions and recommendations to business- as-usual People processes, and ensure tracking of all OD interventions and processes on the People System.
• Deliver ad hoc People projects to support improved business performance as and when required, which may include managing contractors or suppliers.
• Support leaders in organisational design and change management, using existing trust approaches and adapting these approaches where necessary to enable effective change processes.
How we would like you to achieve this
• We want you to work in a way that is wholly consistent with our stated organisational values and our Corporate Strategy, and our People Strategy, and to be overt in making links between the 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 as participatory as possible at all levels within the organisation to hear, build-on, and guide suggestions “from the floor” that will move forward the level of service the OD team provides at an operational level and inform our thinking and progress at a strategic level too.
• We would like you to use your existing professional network and knowledge to keep us abreast of current thinking in the field.
• We like to be kept informed so it is important to us that you keep good records relating to your activity 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, formal papers, presentations, and activities for different internal audiences (from front-line staff to director/CEO/board level, as well as for external stakeholders).
Who you will be working with
• You will be working within the People Department, reporting to the Head of Organisational Development.
• You will be expected to work cross-functionally within the People Department and across the wider organisation
• You will engage short-term employee resource, contractors, and suppliers to fulfil the differing needs of projects and programmes, and you will be expected to manage these on a “best value” basis.
• Please see the summary organisation charts at the end of this document.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE
Essential:
• Significant experience of a People or HR consultancy role in a multi-site complex organisation, focused on a diverse range of organisational development / organisational effectiveness activities.
• Experience of leading others (including project teams) and influencing across organisational boundaries
• Experience of managing complex projects or programs of work with significant scale and impact.
• Experience of leading the development of new leadership development tools or products, along with knowledge of / expertise in using psychometric tools.
• Knowledge of, and experience in, designing, implementing and maintaining performance processes and approaches.
• Knowledge of, and experience in, managing LMS, LXP, learning tools.
• Experience of using people data (such as workforce survey or workforce planning data) to provide analysis and insight to senior leaders and developing action plans on the back of this.
• Ability to think and operate at both tactical and strategic levels; experience of working with, enabling (and challenging) senior leaders.
• Demonstrable practitioner experience of developing a wide range of organisational development support products (FAQs, scripts, online learning modules, tool-box talks etc).
• Highly proficient user of IT in general: word-processing, spreadsheets, presentations etc.
• Confidence and ‘presence’ to be a highly-visible and highly-effective team member within the Department, across the Trust, and to external stakeholders.
Desirable
• Post-graduate qualifications in business management (e.g. MBA) or HR / organisational development qualifications.
• British Psychological Society qualifications (Level A & B).
Just so you know…
The Trust has a set of Values we would 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:
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;
The ability and willingness to learn and try new things, to be flexible and step outside of your comfort zone;
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;
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.