HR Communications & Engagement Lead - 12 Months Full Time Contract

Barclays Bank Plc; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in the UK seeks a HR Engagement and Communications Lead to drive strategic initiatives and enhance stakeholder engagement. The ideal candidate will have experience influencing senior leadership and delivering HR strategies. Responsibilities include overseeing HR communications, talent development, and compliance activities. A strong strategic mindset and the ability to foster collaboration across departments are essential. The position is based in London or Glasgow.

Qualifications

• Experience in HR Business Partnering or similar stakeholder-management roles is desirable but not essential.
• Ability to influence senior HR leaders and ExCo.
• Understanding of strategic communications channels and messaging.
• Experience in shaping and delivering people-strategy recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Oversee HR people strategy and communications.
• Implementation of business development and financial resource allocation.
• Support operational efficiency and colleague experience.
• Talent development and succession planning duties.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic communications

Change and transformation

Business acumen

Risk and controls

Job description

As a HR Engagement and Communications Lead, you will play a critical role in guiding the function through long‑term change with a thoughtful and compelling engagement and communications strategy. You will harness a Barclays Mindset to drive simplification, maximise efficiencies and achieve consistently excellent outcomes for stakeholders. Collaboration, innovation and talent development are part of your toolkit. You will oversee a diverse portfolio, including HR people strategy and communications, the HR early careers programme and annual report disclosures, and be an active member of the HR Function Management team, advancing HR’s strategic priorities with robust controls and governance.

Responsibilities

• Implementation of Target Operating Model, business development, and financial and non‑financial resource allocation to provide strategic insight and thought leadership.
• Strategic support to and oversight of the demand pipeline and the book of work, assisting in development and execution of strategic initiatives, projects, research and analysis for decision‑making.
• Support for operational efficiency and colleague/customer/client experience, identifying improvement areas, streamlining processes and implementing best practices to enhance productivity and satisfaction.
• People planning, talent development and succession planning, identifying high‑potential employees, providing mentorship, and supporting leadership development and diversity initiatives.
• Communication with internal and external stakeholders, managing communication channels and ensuring effective coordination across departments and teams.
• Participation in compliance activities such as SMR and other regulatory registrations/certifications, supporting crisis management and risk mitigation, including contingency planning and emergency response coordination.
• Management of organisational and team requirements related to technology, real estate, people and communications in partnership with relevant firm partners.
• Enabling oversight of risk management and compliance with internal and external requirements, including governance on critical control activities in partnership with the CCO team.
• Cost control and workforce management of the Business/Function, including financial analysis, planning, forecasting and monitoring performance against targets.

Vice President Expectations

• Contribute to and set strategy, drive requirements and recommend change; plan resources, budgets and policies; manage and maintain policies and processes; deliver continuous improvements and raise policy breaches.
• If managing a team, define jobs and responsibilities, plan future departmental needs, counsel employees on performance and contribute to pay decisions; lead specialists to influence operations in alignment with strategic and tactical priorities, balancing short‑ and long‑term goals and ensuring budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements.
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, demonstrate clear leadership behaviours to create a supportive environment: Listen and be authentic, Energise and inspire, Align across the enterprise, Develop others.
• For an individual contributor, serve as a subject‑matter expert, guide technical direction and lead multi‑year assignments, train and coach less experienced specialists, and provide information impacting 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 to support the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability in managing risk and strengthening controls related to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of organisational functions to contribute to achieving business goals.
• Collaborate with other areas for business‑aligned support, staying current on business activity and strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought, selecting complex alternatives and applying interpretative thinking to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt outcomes of extensive research in problem‑solving processes.
• Build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

Qualifications and Experience

• 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 – experience shaping and delivering people‑strategy recommendations and projects with senior stakeholders, beyond pure communications.
• Key critical skills: risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking, digital and technology, and job‑specific technical skills.
• Location: London or Glasgow office.

Key Values

All colleagues are expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship, and the Barclays Mindset – Empower, Challenge and Drive – which guides our behaviour.