Job Description
Salary: £32,348 to £34,308 with progression to £42,155 per annum
Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . 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: 26 February 2023
The Role
Do you have a passion for wellbeing? If so, then come join our dedicated Colleague Wellbeing Team and lead on supporting the wellbeing of our University community. Over the last year, our Colleague Wellbeing Team have worked with colleagues to introduce health checks on campus, launched our new colleague wellbeing branding, introduced menopause champions, and co-ordinated a wide-range of wellbeing activities. This is just the start of our exciting journey and we are looking for the right person to come join the team as part of the next phase of development.
Your goal is to ensure that our strategic plan is current and up-to-date with new developments, and that we have an effective communication strategy in place for the agenda. You will lead on the scoping, design, delivery / commissioning and evaluation of a suite of mental and physical health and wellbeing events and activities for colleagues. This opportunity involves working with a range of colleagues in the University and playing a vital role in building knowledge and understanding of mental and physical health and wellbeing issues and support across the University. A measurement of success would be seeing the empowerment of colleagues to embed good practice around health and wellbeing into their daily lives.
We are really keen to hear from candidates who have experience of working in either a Human Resources, Organisational Development or Project Management role, ideally with a background and understanding in the wellbeing space. The ideal person for this role will bring with them experience in leading on projects and using tools to evaluate success along with strong stakeholder management skills. It is important that you have a passion for people and be able to deal with the emotive issues that we support with.
If this is you, please reach out to Paul Britton (Head of EDI and Colleague Wellbeing) at [email protected]
To apply please upload an up-to-date CV and a cover letter outlining why you are a fit for this role, paying particular attention to the criteria set out in the knowledge, skills and experience section of the person specification.
Interviews will be held on 10 March 2023.
We would encourage conversations around flexible working and are currently working with a hybrid model of some campus based and some home working.
Key Accountabilities
- Lead on the development, delivery and monitoring of the Health and Wellbeing Strategic Plan
- Lead on the identification, development and delivery of a programme of inclusive activities, workshops, and events that actively promote positive mental and physical health and wellbeing of all colleagues across the organisation. This will include ensuring all activities are appropriately risk assessed and safeguarding is considered
- Utilise external campaigns to promote the annual calendar of events, raising awareness of important issues, signposting colleagues to support both internally and externally
- Support, develop, and promote the University’s Just Ask volunteers and Wellbeing Ambassadors
- Manage relationships with the provider of the University’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and promote EAP to colleagues across the University, monitoring usage to assess impact and return on investment
- Support relevant committees, e.g. University Health and Wellbeing Committee, by preparing reports, management information, agendas and minutes, monitoring agreed actions to ensure completion
- Work with the Wellbeing team and with colleagues in Organisational Development, Occupation Health and Safety, and Student Health and Wellbeing to embed health and wellbeing awareness and support materials into a range of training and initiatives for managers and teams across the University
- Contribute and support any agreed accreditations or charter marks in order to understand and embed good practice in relation to health and wellbeing and other University priorities
- Continuously engage in research with internal stakeholder groups to understand the concerns of colleagues in relation to health and wellbeing with a view to improving our offer
- Work with the University’s EDI Leads and Networks to understand the potential impacts of EDI issues on health and wellbeing and ensure this is integrated into the design and delivery of wellbeing activities, giving particular consideration to how intersectional factors can affect colleague health and wellbeing
- Identify, capture and utilise, KPIs, qualitative and quantitative data to assess progress against plans, understand impact, inform, evaluate and evolve the colleague health and wellbeing offer
- Contribute to the development of health and wellbeing criteria within the Health and Safety Management Profile (HASMAP) audit toolkit and advise OHSS advisers with this aspect of the auditing programme
- Work closely with colleagues to share best practice and ensure a joined up approach to promoting health and wellbeing
- Monitor the health and wellbeing budget and undertake evaluation to assess the return on investment of activities
- Lead on the development and delivery of a colleague health and wellbeing communications plan, maintain the health and wellbeing webpages, promote the health and wellbeing programme, activities, and signpost to support
- Develop and maintain strong links with colleagues in other universities and external organisations (e.g. NHS, relevant third sector organisations) in order to join up activities, share good practice and ensure colleagues are aware of the range of external support services available
- Keep up-to-date with the latest legislation, emerging trends and best practice in relation to colleague mental and physical health and wellbeing initiatives and identify those that are suitable to adopt and embed in the organisation
- When required, provide advice and guidance to colleagues on where to get appropriate wellbeing support
- Work closely with colleagues leading on the reporting and addressing of inappropriate behaviours to collaborate on the delivery of activities aimed at supporting colleagues who have been faced with hate crime, discrimination or harassment
The Person
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Experience in leading and delivering on strategic projects from end to end, using methodologies to scope, plan, monitor and evaluate to inform future interventions
- Strong data collection, IT and analysis skills, ability to use metrics and data to support critical thinking, service delivery and improvement
- Experience of providing professional advice to colleagues, influencing stakeholders, delivering meaningful written communications, and delivering learning and development initiatives, through excellent communication skills
- Ability to manage budgets
- Ideally an understanding of good practice in relation to physical and/or mental health and wellbeing programmes and how factors relating to equality, diversity, and inclusion can impact colleague health and wellbeing
Desirable
- Experience in the design, delivery and evaluation of training and/or workshops
Attributes and Behaviour
- Ability to think strategically and find innovative and effective solutions to complex problems
- Confidence in dealing with emotive issues, calmly and with balanced judgement
- Understanding of the value of working in partnership with others
- A passion to drive change
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
- Ability to persuade, convince and influence others in order to achieve results
- An advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion
- Displays enthusiasm, integrity and personal and emotional resilience
- Ability to work autonomously as well as being a strong team player
- Awareness of assessing and managing risk that can be applied to the delivery of wellbeing programmes
Qualifications
- Professional qualification in one of the following areas – mental health and / or wellbeing, occupational / organisational psychology, organisational development or demonstrable work experience in either an HR, project management or organisational development space
Desirable
- Qualified Mental Health First Aider
Newcastle is an inclusive global University community 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 Global 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 our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.
The University holds a silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. The University is also a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.
Requisition ID: 25047
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