HR Communications & Engagement Lead - 12 Months Full Time Contract

As a HR Engagement and Communications Lead, you’ll be essential to enabling HR to deliver its vision. You will play a critical role in guiding the function through long-term change via a thoughtful and compelling engagement and communications strategy. You’ll harness a Barclays Mindset to drive simplification, maximise efficiencies and achieve consistently excellent outcomes for your stakeholders. Collaboration, innovation and talent development are all part of your toolkit.

You’ll oversee a diverse portfolio, including HR people strategy and communications, the HR early careers programme, and annual report disclosures. You’ll be an active member of the HR Function Management team, advancing HR’s strategic priorities with robust controls and governance. You’ll provide critical support to senior leaders, helping them navigate complex challenges. Simultaneously, you’ll shape and execute long-term strategic changes that drive our success.

To be successful as a HR Engagement and Communications Lead, you should have experience with:

• HR Business Partnering or experience in similar stakeholder management roles is desirable but not essential.

• Stakeholder engagement – ability to influence senior HR leaders and ExCo

• Strategic communications – practical understanding of channels and messaging

• Strategic HR engagement – experienced in shaping and delivering people strategy recommendations and projects in partnership with senior stakeholders, with a focus beyond pure communications.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

Your role will be located from our London or Glasgow office.

Purpose of the role

To provide operating and administrative support to senior leaders, simultaneously shaping and executing long-term strategic change, whilst helping to navigate complex challenges in the performance of their roles

Accountabilities

• Implementation of Target Operating Model, business development, and financial and non-financial resource allocation, providing strategic insight and thought leadership.
• Strategic support to and oversight of demand pipeline and the book of work, including assistance in the development and execution of strategic initiatives, projects, research, and analysis to support decision-making.
• Support to and guidance for operational efficiency and colleague/customer/client experience within the organisation, including the identification of areas for improvement, streamlining of processes, and implementation of best practices to enhance productivity, effectiveness and experience.
• Management of of people plan, talent development and succession planning including the identification of high-potential employees, provision of mentorship and guidance, and support to leadership development and diversity initiatives.
• Communication with internal and external stakeholders, management of communication channels and ensuring effective coordination across different departments and teams.
• Participation in compliance activities such as SMR and other regulatory registrations/certifications, as well as support for crisis management and risk mitigation, including the development of contingency plans, coordination of responses to emergencies, and business continuity.
• Management of all organisational/team requirements relating to technology, real estate, people and communications in conjunction with relevant partners across the firm.
• Enablement of oversight of risk management and compliance with internal and external requirements, including internal Governance on critical control activities in partnership with the CCO team, such as Records Inventory and RCSAs.
• Cost control and workforce management of the Business/Function, including involvement in financial analysis and planning, forecasting, and monitoring of financial performance against targets.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.