People Lead

Role Title: People Lead

Salary: £55k - £75k

Location: London, UK - a mixture of remote and hybrid working

Scope: Full time, permanent

We are Public Digital, a digital transformation consultancy. We help global institutions that matter to thrive in the internet era. We apply the culture, processes, business models and technologies of the internet era to help teams build and run excellent services. Working with senior leadership and delivery teams alike, we operate globally, advising large organisations and governments on six continents.

We’re a values-driven, ethical organisation and we articulate our ten positions on the Public Digital website. We only work with organisations that match our values.

Attitude as much as skill, is critically important to us as a team and we look for entrepreneurialism, initiative, kindness, and a willingness to pitch in. Our theory of change is: Digital. Teams. Work - we fundamentally believe transformation is about people, and that change comes from creating great teams and empowering them.

The business is growing fast, having grown 68% last year alone. We now have people located in the UK, Nigeria, Senegal, Paraguay and Canada, and we anticipate to close this year with 80+ people. Over the past two years, we’ve been steadily growing out the people function at PD to support and enable our ambitious growth.

The Role

We hire exceptional people who have great ambitions and high expectations when joining Public Digital. We pride ourselves on offering a great working environment, where people join us to do purposeful, high impact work and are supported to do their best work and be their best selves.

We are seeking an experienced, highly motivated and innovative People Lead (HRBP) to join our small but mighty People team. This is an exciting opportunity to join us as we move into our next phase of global growth.

Reporting to and working closely with the People Director, you will play a crucial role to enhance our employee experience, drive engagement, championing career development, whilst ensuring EDI best practices. This role requires a people first, process-driven thinker who takes a user-centered, iterative approach to developing processes to achieve an inclusive, high-performing culture.

As we’re still a small team, there is plenty to do and get involved with. You’ll spend your time:

• Supporting the delivery of the people strategy through expert advice, leadership, and engagement.
• Overseeing the end-to-end employee lifecycle, ensuring a seamless and positive experience from onboarding to offboarding.
• Driving initiatives that foster a high-performing, inclusive culture and employee engagement, taking into consideration the countries our people work from.
• Ensuring consistency and compliance with local labour laws and regulations across all regions.
• Acting as a trusted advisor to managers and employees, providing guidance on policies, procedures, and best practices.
• Conducting surveys, analysing people data and metrics to identify areas for improvement. Measuring engagement, including the effectiveness of people programs and initiatives, while advising leadership on follow up actions.
• Partnering with the Talent Lead, Partners and Resourcing Manager in identifying recruitment needs based on client demand and skill gaps.
• Collaborating with the Talent Lead with attraction, recruitment and onboarding
• Working closely with leadership to identify and address talent gaps, succession planning, and development needs across all teams.
• Supporting the design and implementation of training and development programs to enhance skills and competencies, as well as sourcing suitable external solutions for learning.
• Supporting Leaders with career development processes, including coaching support, goal setting, 360 feedback, skill gap and development plans.
• Providing coaching and support to managers in addressing people and team challenges, performance issues and driving improvements.
• Proactively identify areas for improvement and development for our ways of working and processes, with a particular focus on ensuring EDI is prioritised in everything we do.
• Leading or supporting ad hoc projects / initiatives as required.

Requirements

About you

• You thrive in a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and adaptability.
• People first and process driven - you have effectively designed processes that balance the two.
• A trusted advisor to everyone from new managers to experienced senior leaders.
• Empathetic and pragmatic - you have the ability to listen and care deeply, whilst finding practical solutions.
• An excellent communicator, written and verbal with the ability to influence and carefully manage change.
• You are able to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and adapt to changing business needs.
• You use your HR knowledge and expertise to advise and challenge the business and leaders.
• You’re able to roll up your sleeves and get things done, from admin to strategy in all areas of HR.
• You are willing to learn and grow - you might not be an expert in everything, but you have the willingness and confidence to upskill, research and provide recommendations.

Some other things:

• It would be advantageous to have worked on a MacBook.
• Our tools/systems include Google Suite, Slack, Zoom, Trello, Miro, Expensify, CMAP, HiBob, Workable, Deel.
• Ideally you have worked in a professional services or digital/tech business with a good understanding of agile ways of working.
• You are ideally CIPD qualified or working towards your qualifications.

Benefits

What’s on Offer:

Be a part of our amazing work culture, to read more about it please follow this link to our Careers page which gives more details about our culture, employees and benefits.

How you will be assessed:

We would like to understand your background, attitudes, experiences and your motivation in wanting to work with us. We typically do this through the following process:

• A Blind Sifting - To ensure the fairness of the process you will be initially assessed by your anonymized CV and by your answers to any sifting questions which will be blindly reviewed by the hiring managers and talent team. We therefore recommend completing your application when you have time to answer these questions to your fullest ability. Please note that we have seen an increase in candidates using AI Bots to complete their answers, we use tools designed to detect AI generated answers and will reject candidates if we suspect they have used this technology.
• An initial phone interview of up to 30 minutes with the talent team, this call is designed to understand a little more about your experience as well as to understand your motivations for the role, why you wish to join Public Digital and to clarify any details from your application.
• A formal panel interview with the hiring manager and other members of the team. This will likely include a case study sent to you in advance where you will be expected to present on a topic, followed by a Q&A on your presentation as well as more general questions about the role and your experience.
• You may then have a more informal meeting with a peer, discussing topics more like company culture etc.

Important Note: Although this ad lists out what we look for in candidates, it is likely that we are missing other skills that you may have which could make you a great fit for our business. Research shows that female candidates tend to be less likely to apply to roles where they don’t check all the boxes over other genders. What we are therefore saying is if you feel you tick the majority of the boxes we have listed above, we would welcome an application from you as it never hurts to take a chance and apply!

Closing date for applications: 14th July 2024

We encourage early application as we reserve the right, if required, to close this role ahead of the date advertised.