Senior Consultant - Human Resources - 42836 - Grade 9

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 57,000 - 67,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Birmingham is seeking a senior POD consultant to enhance employee capabilities and deliver strategic development initiatives. This full-time position requires expertise in organizational development, excellent facilitation skills, and substantial experience in stakeholder engagement. Join a diverse and inclusive environment at this leading UK university.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday per year

Occupational sick pay

Pension scheme

Flexible working arrangements

Development opportunities

Qualifications

• Relevant degree or equivalent professional qualification required.
• Experience in designing and delivering learning interventions is necessary.
• Excellent facilitation skills with senior-level credibility.

Responsibilities

• Support the development of the University’s workforce capabilities.
• Design and deliver leadership programmes for senior colleagues.
• Plan and manage key POD related project work across campus.

Skills

Facilitation skills

Interpersonal skills

Analytical skills

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent qualification

Tools

MS Office suite

Job description

Position Details

Human Resources

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £57,422 to £66,537 with potential progression once in post to £86,760

Grade: 9

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 18th June 2025

'Open House' Drop In Session:We will be holding an ‘open house’ drop in session at the University’s Exchange building, in Centenary Square, Birmingham, between 10am and 5pm on Friday 6th June 2025. If you’re interested in working at the University of Birmingham and perhaps have a few questions, this is an opportunity to meet colleagues in the Recruitment team. It will be a relaxed and informal event – you can drop in at any time.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, andweare equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here todevelopthrough our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programmewhichprovides allprofessionalservices staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.With almost 5,000professionalservices jobs in a wide-range of functionsin Edgbaston andin our campus inDubai, there are plenty of opportunities foryou to be able to develop yourcareer at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are,and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees andtothe success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer avarietyof flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 dayspaid holidaya year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops,places to eat and drink,our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about thebenefits of working for the Universityof Birmingham

Background

People and Organisational Development (POD) is one of several directorates within the HR function. POD provides specialist support to the University in Organisational Development, Management and Leadership Development, providing 1 to 1 and team Coaching through our coaching academy, and provides management qualifications thought our internally run apprenticeship schemes.

Role Summary

The main purpose of the role is to support the development of the skills and capabilities of the University’s workforce, and act as an enabler to the successful delivery of the University’s strategy. The senior POD consultant, reporting to the Director of POD, provides expertise and specialist advice to senior stakeholders (ULG level) to find solutions to issues involving team, individual and organisational development across University Campus’s

Main Duties

• Act as professional lead, within the remit of POD, for organisational development across the University, ensuring that interventions in the Colleges and Professional Services are aligned and address the priorities of the University.
• Deputise for the Director of POD as required.
• Support the Director of POD with the identification of external suppliers and the procurement of work as required.
• Be an active member of HRLG and take responsibility for cross HR project work.
• Ensure consistency and quality of the POD consultants OD interventions.
• Be a trusted advisor to senior colleagues on all aspects of University wide, team and individual POD challenges / opportunities.
• Plan, design and implement key POD related project work / consultancy support across the Campus, and directly manage key senior stakeholder relationships.
• Facilitate team development sessions / away days/ action learning sets with senior colleagues.
• Design and delivery of various key leadership programmes for senior academic and professional services colleagues.
• Be a core member of the Coaching academy (1-2-1 coaching of academics and professional service’s staff) and actively support its development e.g. co-ordinating CPD events, evaluation, marketing, developing the non-POD coaches.
• Support the growth of talent through bespoke executive development and coaching.
• Support leaders, managers and their teams during periods of significant change.

General

• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Relevant degree or relevant equivalent professional qualification, or substantial relevant experience evidencing the experience required in this role.
• Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness.
• Experienced designing and delivering Organisational Development / learning and development related interventions.
• Excellent facilitation skills with credibility at senior levels (academics and professional services).
• Good knowledge of the whole learning and development cycle, including training needs analysis and evaluation.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information and data.
• Proven ability to meet targets, with minimal supervision to deadlines.
• Substantial experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders.
• Proven analytical and problem solving skills that will help to identify and implement improvements and efficiencies across the project you work on.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
• Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• Ability to influence and motivate others at all levels.
• High level of self-motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Ideally, a coaching accreditation by a recognised body
• Ideally, accredited in at least one of the following psychometric instruments e.g. MBTI, SDI, Hay, Korn Ferry.

Dimensions

Roles at this level provide authoritative professional advice across a range of activities and/or will lead and manage diverse team(s) and resources.You will use your professional skills to resolve problems where the solution is not immediately apparent. Significant evaluation and independent thought is therefore required to resolve ambiguity.You will have wide discretion to decide on direction whilst ensuring activities are broadly consistent with operational policies. You will be able to influence policy through advising on the impact of policy change and implementation in your area of work.You will need to assess the impact of your activities across your area, with related areas and to ensure they fit with the broader objectives of the University.

Planning and Organising

• provide professional expertise, and manage resources and/or a diverse team;
• integrate and co-ordinate work across different parts of the department/university;
• lead and manage staff who are likely to be carrying out diverse duties, and ensure collaborative working to deliver a successful service;
• project manage activities to facilitate major changes;
• develop policy within functional guidelines, and contribute to strategic development within own area;
• be accountable for the quality and professionalism of service delivery, with an appreciation of longer term issues.

Problem Solving and decision making

• anticipate, interpret and assess customer needs, identifying trends, generating original ideas and testing innovative solutions;
• deal with significant people management issues such as change programmes;
• resolve issues which may not have arisen before through use of experience and judgement.

Internal and External relationships

• has an excellent understanding of their own working area and a broad understanding of the contribution other areas make to the success of the University;
• has an excellent understanding of how the University operates, together with an understanding of how academia operates in the UK;
• demonstrates empathy with the academic endeavour and seeks to encourage others to do so;
• use coaching skills to motivate and develop staff;
• proactively and sensitively create a motivating environment;
• influence others (including across the University) to follow a particular course of action;
• represent the department at internal and external meetings/events/network with colleagues in other institutions to share best practice.

Informal enquiries to Kate Crane, email: [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviourshere

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .