Deputy Head of Employee Relations, Reward and Expenses

Do you have strong communication and interpersonal skills?

The Employee Relations, Reward and Expenses Team in Scottish Government (SG) are looking for a new Deputy Head of Employee Relations, Reward, and Expenses who will ideally have expert knowledge and experience of developing reward and/or employee relations strategies and solutions and who will support us to develop and deliver our Employee Deal.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development and delivery of the SG Reward strategy including pay negotiations with the recognised trade unions.
• Support the development and promotion of SG terms and conditions of employment as part of our overall "Employee Deal".
• Leading on specific reward policies and approaches to address issues such as temporary working in a higher grade, market supplements, shift working, on-call, working hours etc.
• Management and strategic development of SG expense policies including travel and subsistence, working overseas, relocation support, excess fares allowances etc.
• Ensure compliance with legal requirements, alignment with ministerial commitments (programme for government) and organisational objectives e.g. Fair Work.
• Provide advice to colleagues across SG, Ministers and other public bodies ensuring appropriate communication channels are in place.
• Proactively build strong and collaborative relationships with key stakeholders and colleagues across People Directorate, Council of Scottish Government Unions and wider Scottish Government including notably Corporate Communications, Finance Pay Policy, Public Bodies Unit and Fair Work as well as HR public / delivery body leads and staff networks.
• Contribute to the People Directorate Transformation Programme by supporting implementation of the employee deal community of expertise ensuring alignment with transformation objectives.
• Provide support for Senior Management Team colleagues including developing and approving lines to take for media and parliamentary queries as required, provision of briefing and coordination of responses to ministerial correspondence and Freedom of Information requests.
• Line management of staff in the team. Role modelling exemplary management practice with direct reports and ensuring their practice reflects this in terms of leading to deliver objectives, supporting the wellbeing of staff, managing attendance and performance. Enable and empower staff to develop and ensure succession plans and personal development plans are in place and regularly reviewed.
• Advocate continuous learning and professional development across the team; demonstrate the value of measuring outcomes and evaluating processes and practice to improve the team's service to the organisation.