People Specialist

UK Atomic Energy Authority; Abingdon; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK government agency is seeking a People Specialist to lead the development and delivery of its People Plan, supporting divisional growth through people projects focused on change management, talent development, and employee relations. The ideal candidate will collaborate with managers to implement policies and manage day-to-day people activities effectively. Strong analytical skills and experience in organizational design are essential for this role, which is pivotal in enhancing workforce planning and employee engagement.

Qualifications

• Experience in managing people-related activities and projects.
• Strong analytical skills for data interpretation and reporting.
• Proven ability in change management and organisational design.

Responsibilities

• Support the design and delivery of the annual People Plan.
• Research best practices to improve people processes.
• Manage employee relations support and performance management.

Job description

The People Specialist partners with the Strategic People Business Partner to develop and deliver the Directorate's People Plan and support divisional growth. It leads people projects aligned to business priorities, including change management, organisational design, EDI initiatives, talent management, early careers, and leadership development. The role supports managers to apply people policies and performance management processes consistently, while working with People & Culture specialists to deliver talent, succession, and recruitment initiatives. It also manages day-to-day people activities within the Directorate, including employee relations support, onboarding, performance management, exit processes, and handling people-related queries.

Responsibilities

• Support the design, implementation, and delivery of the Division's annual People Plan aligned to business priorities.
• Research external benchmarks and best practice to enhance people processes (e.g. performance, attendance, reward, talent acquisition, onboarding, succession, and career development), sharing insights across the People & Culture community.
• Build and deliver people-related projects that support divisional business plans, collaborating closely with the wider People Department and People Strategy team.
• Provide high-quality people analytics and management information, including data collation, analysis, interpretation, and reporting to support projects, operations, ER activity, and initiatives.
• Support organisational development by embedding culture and behaviours, contributing to change management plans, and engaging stakeholders through effective communication.
• Lead continuous improvement of people processes, policies, onboarding programmes, and employee engagement and wellbeing surveys, including action planning and facilitation of focus groups.
• Partner with leaders and managers to support performance management, talent development, coaching, feedback, and the effective handling of employee relations matters.
• Manage informal employee relations cases and support ER and Policy teams on complex issues, using data-driven insights to proactively reduce ER casework.
• Contribute to talent, learning, and workforce planning initiatives, including career pathways, succession planning, performance reviews, workforce forecasting, and skills development.
• Collaborate with Global Mobility, Skills Managers, and stakeholders to support secondments, early career programmes, and the development and rollout of technical and non-technical competency frameworks.