Senior Organisational Development Adviser

Salary: £33,966 to £36,024 with progression to £44,263 per annum
Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.
Closing Date: 14 January 2024
The Role
We are about to embark on an ambitious research project, bringing together a multidisciplinary academic and professional services team to work in partnership with our research community with the aim of improving, recognising, and rewarding leadership practices that build psychologically safe and inclusive research cultures.
Our work programme co-creates two targeted organisational interventions with our research community to effect changes in our leadership practice; a contextualised Leadership Development programme; and, aligned Reward and Recognition processes, including the exploration of a ‘values-led’ recognition system to facilitate changes in leadership practices.
This is where you come in…
We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced Senior OD Advisor to support the 30-month fixed term project. This is a unique role giving you the opportunity to help develop and pilot:

• contextualized, sustainable and scalable Leadership Development interventions that build leadership practices and behaviours promoting psychological safety
• adoption of a Participatory Research (PAR) approach to ensure our work is co-produced with our research community and responsive to the complex needs of our own context
• creation of physical and digital learning tools, facilitator guides and team-based resources to support the long-term development of psychologically safe and inclusive research cultures

We would particularly welcome applications from candidates who have the confidence to work with leaders at all levels, both individually and in group settings. Experience of facilitating and delivering learning and development activities with a passion for building inclusive and psychologically safe workplace environments are key requirements for this role.
To have a chat about this opportunity, please contact Lisette Nicholson at or Jo James at .
We will be holding interviews on 1 Februar 2024.
Key Accountabilities
You will work closely with the core project team members and broader PAR group members to support the project design, delivery and evaluation across a prioritised set of activities that will be identified through the PAR approach. You will engage with a range of stakeholders across the University at all levels to help deliver a step change in how we understand and reward leadership and how we support the development of psychologically safe environments.

• Work collaboratively with colleagues within the project delivery team, PAR group and across the University to ensure we have a clear understanding of the learning and support needs relating to leadership and building psychological safe environments
• Carry out an analysis of the learning and development provision currently available to support this agenda, identifying duplication and gaps in provision
• Commission, co-create, deliver and evaluate agreed programmes, activities and interventions, including online provision
• Support and actively monitor the operational plan that translates the agreed high-level priorities and actions into a deliverable, resourced, timebound and measurable plan
• Identify opportunities to ensure the provision can be delivered in a sustainable way beyond the project funding
• Analyse data to understand the impact and value of learning and development activities
• Contribute to and support an overall communication plan for the project
• Identify appropriate people data and information to understand impact, in particular support the development of an appropriate question strategy as part of the university colleague surveys to inform the project and its outcomes
• Ensure there is join up between the ongoing colleague survey action planning and prioritisation and the work of the project, to avoid duplication and increase the effective use of resources
• Investigate where data and insights that relates to colleague behaviour is currently held and reported, working with relevant areas of the University to identify any improvements to enhance transparency and increase the understanding of impact in relation to support and interventions

The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Track record of delivering projects, with a proven ability to deliver on cost, quality and time requirements
• Knowledge of leadership, leadership development and organisational culture theory and frameworks and application of these theories and frameworks in practice
• Knowledge of practices to support culture change processes such as coaching, facilitating team development, reflective practice, facilitating diversity, inclusion and belonging
• Experience of designing and delivering across Organisational Development and / or learning interventions, ideally focused on leadership behaviour
• Skilled in facilitating group process, group dialogues and adult learning approaches
• Evidence of your passion for engendering an inclusive working environment
• Proven track record on innovation; you keep yourself up to date and can demonstrate continued professional development
• Data analysis skills with ability to use metrics and data to support critical thinking and improvement of processes or services

Attributes and Behaviours

• Credibility and presence when working with groups
• Works collaboratively and in partnership with others
• Promotes and actively drives change
• Excellent communicator, both verbal and written
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to persuade, convince and influence others in order to achieve results
• Active advocate and role model for equality, diversity and inclusion
• Displays enthusiasm, integrity and personal resilience

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or demonstrable work experience in a similar role
• Qualifications in one of the following areas – Leadership development, Training, Human Resources, Organisational Development, Occupational Psychology, Project Management or Change Management would be desirable
• Chartered member of CIPD or equivalent work experience

#positiveculture
Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.
We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.
At Newcastle University we hold a silver award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.
In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.
Requisition ID: 26508
#LI-LF1