People Culture Specialist required for 35 hours per week, home based working in Northwest England

Job Purpose 

AFG has a strategic objective to be seen as a great place to work by our people.  For us this has three supporting sub-strategies for People & Culture: 

• A vibrant, diverse and inclusive culture that creates belonging. 

• A people first organisation that engages, develops and rewards amazing colleagues. 

• Exceptional leaders that inspire, empower and promote the organisation. 

Our People Culture Specialist will play a pivotal role in defining, embedding and promoting our people first culture and in achieving our ambition to be seen as a great place to work..   

Our culture, behaviours, relationships, policies, and practices shape ‘what we do’.  This has a direct impact on employee experience and ‘how people feel’.   

We can only achieve our ambition to be seen as a great place to work if our culture and what we do creates opportunities for amazing employee experiences at work.  

Principal Accountabilities 

• To understand and support the delivery of our People & OD Strategy and priorities of our Annual Business Plan with a particular focus on cultural and people practice development. 

• To act as a culture champion and role model for positive behaviours that contribute to our ambition to be seen as a great place to work. 

• To act as an advocate for change – supporting managers to identify and implement opportunities to develop the workforce, our people, and our practices. 

• To work in partnership with Learning & OD, and Employee Experience teams, to co-create and deliver impactful and engaging solutions to support our people first culture. 

• To develop, update and embed engaging people policies and processes.  These should be legally compliant at all times; align to our business strategy; and promote good practice, accountability, growth, development, quality and to positively contribute to employee experience. 

• To empower and equip staff and managers as appropriate to take personal accountability and ownership for the management of relationships, effective conversations, and the early resolution of employee relations matters. 

• Lead on the definition and development of engaging learning and knowledge sharing resources which promote best practice, improve knowledge, and raise competence for managers on effective people management and employee relations practice. 

• To prepare and deliver a programme of coaching or mentoring development opportunities for managers on the effective and efficient management of employee relations processes such as: 

• Absence & Attendance Management 

• Discipline & Conduct 

• Grievance 

• Capability & Performance 

• Investigations 

• To create and deliver interactive / live learning, listening or masterclass events for operational managers on people management best practices (for example – My Performance Reviews / Effective Objective Setting / Having difficult conversations etc). 

• To undertake observational assessments with operational managers to provide constructive feedback and practice development on people management activities – This could include observational assessment of team meetings, investigation planning meetings etc. 

• Use our people data and analytics to measure the effectiveness of our approach and the impact we make – You will use data-driven / evidence-based insights to inform recommendations to improve our people practices.  

• Leading on the delivery of projects or initiatives in response to identified trends and organisational needs, integrating with other strategic programmes as required. 

• Drive initiatives that enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention. 

• To provide occasional support as required with complex employee relations cases or processes.  This may include supporting with a reorganisation/consultative process, TUPE activities, complex ER matters (including appeals), or litigation cases as deemed necessary by the People Culture Manager. 

• To work closely with the Employee Experience Team to identify opportunities and solutions that contribute to our ambition to be a great place to work. 

• As a people professional, you will be expected to maintain your professional knowledge and competence within this field.   

Qualifications

• CIPD Level 5 – Associate Membership or working towards 

• Formal coaching qualification or willingness to work towards 

We’re Alternative Futures Group, a health and social care charity providing specialist support for people with a learning disability or mental health condition.

We’re proud to have been positively changing lives and enabling people to achieve amazing outcomes for over 30 years.

We have a vision to create a world where amazing people do amazing things every day. Our skilled and experienced teams work with every person we support to create a personalised, outcome-focused plans to achieve their aspirations.

As a ‘values based’ employer, the people that work for us genuinely care about the people they support, and we are seeking likeminded people to join our team.  If you are passionate about working in Health and Social Care and have a real desire to make a positive difference to the lives of the people we support then we would love to hear from you.

At AFG we also recognise the contribution and value that our staff make.  We would not be able to provide the life changing support that we do without people like you!

In return for your contribution we will support you throughout your career and we provide a wide range of employee benefits, career development and lifestyle support services to ensure that you too feel supported, fulfilled and valued from day one of your employment with us.