Head Of People And Culture

Summary:

We are looking for an experienced and commercially minded Head of People & Culture to lead the People function and ensure ScreenSkills has the culture, capability, leadership and organisational structures needed to deliver its ambitions.

Reporting directly to the CEO and working closely with the Senior Management Team, you will act as a trusted adviser on organisational effectiveness, workforce planning, culture, performance, inclusion and change.

This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role. You will shape the organisation’s People agenda while remaining close enough to the day-to-day employee experience to ensure that policies and programmes translate into meaningful and consistent practice.

 You will lead the development of a high-performing and inclusive culture, strengthen management capability, embed effective performance and talent practices, and ensure ScreenSkills has a robust, responsive and trusted People function.

Responsibilities:

Organisational Effectiveness and Strategic Workforce Planning

• Act as a key adviser to the CEO and Senior Management team on organisation design, workforce capability, leadership and culture.
• Ensure organisational structures, roles, accountabilities and ways of working remain clear and aligned with ScreenSkills’ evolving strategy.
• Lead workforce and resource planning, ensuring ScreenSkills understands its current and future capability, capacity and skills requirements.
• Develop a strategic view of organisational capability through skills mapping, workforce data and talent planning.
• Identify organisational capability gaps and develop practical solutions through recruitment, development, restructuring or alternative resourcing models.
• Support organisational change and transformation, ensuring changes are well planned, clearly communicated and implemented fairly and effectively.
• Ensure people implications and organisational risks are considered early in strategic decision-making.

Culture, Performance and Employee Experience

• Work with the CEO and Senior Management team to define and embed the culture, behaviours and employee experience needed to support ScreenSkills’ ambitions.
• Strengthen organisational accountability and performance by ensuring employees have clear objectives, expectations and regular feedback.
• Own and evolve ScreenSkills’ performance management approach so that strong performance is recognised and underperformance is addressed consistently, constructively and early.
• Equip managers to lead teams effectively, hold high-quality performance conversations and manage difficult issues with confidence.
• Design and oversee employee listening mechanisms including engagement surveys, pulse surveys, exit interviews and other feedback channels, translating insight into visible action.
• Champion employee wellbeing while ensuring appropriate balance between individual support, organisational effectiveness and sustainable workloads.
• Own the organisation’s approach to hybrid and flexible working, ensuring it supports employee experience, inclusion and operational requirements.
• Identify cultural or organisational barriers to performance and work with leaders to address them.

Inclusion and Equity

• Lead and evolve ScreenSkills’ internal equity, diversity and inclusion strategy, ensuring inclusion is embedded throughout the employee lifecycle rather than treated as a standalone programme.
• Review recruitment, onboarding, development, progression, reward and people practices to identify and reduce barriers to opportunity.
• Ensure internal people practices reflect the inclusive standards and values ScreenSkills promotes across the screen industries.
• Lead relevant workforce diversity and pay-gap analysis, translating findings into meaningful and measurable action.
• Provide expert advice to leaders on inclusive leadership, employment practice and emerging EDI requirements.
• Support employee networks, forums and other mechanisms that enable colleagues to contribute to organisational culture and policy.
• Ensure organisational change is designed and implemented with fairness, transparency and appropriate consideration of employee impact.

Talent, Learning and Development

• Develop and deliver an organisation-wide learning and development strategy aligned with ScreenSkills’ priorities and future capability needs.
• Identify organisational and individual skills gaps and design, commission or deliver interventions to address them.
• Lead management and leadership development, strengthening confidence in areas including performance, feedback, people leadership, inclusion and change.
• Develop clear approaches to career development, individual development planning and internal progression.
• Build succession and talent planning for key and business-critical roles, strengthening organisational resilience.
• Ensure new employees experience effective onboarding and induction and understand ScreenSkills’ purpose, strategy, expectations and culture from the outset.
• Evaluate the impact and effectiveness of learning investment.

Employee Relations and Employment Practice

• Lead complex employee relations matters, providing pragmatic, balanced and legally sound advice to managers and leaders.
• Ensure cases involving performance, conduct, grievance, attendance, wellbeing, organisational change and employee relations are managed fairly, consistently and efficiently.
• Build management capability so that routine people management issues are addressed confidently at the appropriate level rather than becoming unnecessarily dependent on HR.
• Maintain strong knowledge of employment law and emerging employment practice and translate this into appropriate organisational policy and decision-making.
• Manage relationships with employment lawyers and other specialist advisers where appropriate.

HR Operations, Governance and Insight

• Lead the HR function end-to-end, including recruitment, contracts, employee lifecycle processes, payroll liaison, reward and benefits, policies, HR systems and employee records.
• Ensure HR policies and processes are legally compliant, proportionate, accessible and regularly reviewed.
• Maintain effective governance around employee data, confidentiality and people-related risk.
• Develop meaningful people metrics and reporting for the CEO, Executive Team and Board/Trustees, providing insight rather than simply reporting activity.
• Use workforce data to identify trends, risks and opportunities and inform organisational decisions.
• Oversee HR systems and processes, identifying opportunities to simplify, automate and improve the employee and manager experience.
• Manage the HR budget and external suppliers, ensuring effective use of resources.
• Ensure the HR function operates with clear priorities, service standards and appropriate controls.

HR Team Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the HR team, creating clarity around roles, responsibilities and priorities.
• Build a responsive, credible and trusted HR function that balances excellent service with appropriate challenge.
• Role-model the inclusive, accountable and developmental leadership behaviours expected across ScreenSkills.
• Ensure the team has the capability and capacity required to support the organisation effectively.

Qualifications:

You will bring:

• Substantial generalist HR experience, including experience operating at senior HR leadership or head-of-function level.
• Strong experience partnering with CEOs, Executive Teams and senior leaders on organisational and people matters.
• Experience of organisation design, workforce planning, organisational change and building organisational capability.
• A strong track record of strengthening performance, culture and management capability.
• Deep employee relations expertise, including experience managing complex and sensitive cases.
• Sound and current knowledge of UK employment law and good employment practice.
• Experience developing and implementing meaningful EDI initiatives that result in demonstrable changes to organisational practice.
• Strong experience of learning, leadership and organisational development.
• The ability to use people data and insight to inform priorities and organisational decisions.
• Excellent judgement, influencing and communication skills, with the confidence to provide constructive challenge at senior level.
• The ability to move comfortably between strategic thinking and practical delivery.
• CIPD qualification at Level 5 or above, or equivalent professional experience.

Experience within a charity, membership organisation, creative industry or similarly values-led environment would be advantageous but is not essential. An understanding of, or strong interest in, the screen industries and their freelance, project-based and geographically dispersed workforce would also be advantageous.

You’ll be someone who:

• Combines empathy and emotional intelligence with sound judgement and clear accountability.
• Is comfortable having difficult conversations and challenging constructively when required.
• Can build credibility and trusted relationships across all levels of an organisation.
• Brings structure, clarity and pragmatism to complex or ambiguous situations.
• Is resilient and comfortable leading through organisational change.
• Is curious, improvement-focused and willing to challenge established ways of working.
• Understands that inclusion, development, performance and culture are interconnected rather than separate HR initiatives.
• Enjoys working in an organisation where strategic leadership and hands-on delivery go hand in hand.

What we offer:

• The opportunity to shape the People agenda and internal culture of an organisation dedicated to building a stronger and more inclusive screen industry.
• The opportunity to work directly with the CEO, Senior Management team and Trustees on organisation-wide priorities.
• Hybrid and flexible working.
• A genuine commitment to professional development.
• Up to 5% matched employer pension contribution
• 25 days annual leave with 3 additional days for between Christmas and New Year.
• Life Assurance
• Reward Gateway – retail discounts, and access to employee assistance programme (EAP)
• Eye care scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan