Head of Organisation Effectiveness and Employee Experience

Can you lead transformational people change and improve organisational effectiveness through a systems-thinking approach?

Have you successfully partnered with employees, representatives and trade unions to build engagement and resolve complex people issues?

Are you experienced in shaping reward, employee experience and people policies that drive performance, retention and fairness?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

This role sits within the People and Places Directorate and plays a key role in shaping DVSA’s culture, employee engagement and overall colleague experience. Working closely with senior leaders, HR Business Partners, trade union representatives and wider Civil Service colleagues, the team uses workforce insight and employee feedback to drive organisational effectiveness, support strategic change and improve business performance.

The team leads on employee engagement, culture and capability, employee relations, reward and benefits, and the employee value proposition, ensuring colleagues feel valued, supported and able to perform at their best. Through a systems-thinking approach, the team develops people strategies, policies and services that enable effective decision-making, strengthen organisational performance and help attract, retain and develop talented people across DVSA.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DVSA:

DVSA roles: Working for the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers

In this role, you will translate insight into clear priorities, lead a team of subject matter experts and work across organisational boundaries to deliver practical, evidence-led improvements. Your work will help senior leaders and managers respond confidently to people issues, strengthen consultation and engagement routes, and make decisions that are fair, consistent and aligned to DVSA’s priorities.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Lead a specialist portfolio that connects organisational effectiveness, employee relations, engagement, reward and colleague voice to improve colleague and manager experience.
• Use workforce evidence, colleague feedback, employee relations intelligence, organisational diagnosis and systems thinking to identify patterns, risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Develop approaches that strengthen engagement, colleague voice and visible action from feedback.
• Support constructive employee and industrial relations, including effective engagement with trade unions, representatives and wider Civil Service HR colleagues.
• Develop clear guidance, tools and improvement activity that help managers identify and address people issues early, fairly and consistently.
• Lead work on reward, benefits and the employee value proposition so the employee offer supports attraction, retention, fairness and organisational performance.
• Work with senior leaders, HR Business Partners, trade union representatives and People & Places colleagues to translate insight into clear priorities, advice and evidence-led action.
• Lead and develop a team of subject matter experts, setting clear direction, prioritising work and supporting high-quality delivery.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills set out in the Civil Service Line Management Standards.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

You must hold a CIPD Level 5 Qualification (or greater)

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's qualifications, skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (1250-word count). Please provide evidence of your Experience of the following:
• Leading organisational effectiveness, organisational development or strategic people change initiatives.
• Building positive employee relations in a unionised, representative or consultative environment.
• Applying systems thinking and influencing across complex organisational landscapes.
• Leading employee engagement, employee voice or colleague experience programmes.
• Knowledge of reward, benefits and employment law, with the ability to support fair, compliant and high-performing people practices.

The sift will take place week commencing 02/11/2026

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating & Influencing, Changing & Improving
• Experience
• Strengths

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess your experience. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place from 17/11/2026

This interview will be conducted in person at our Nottingham office (1 Unity Square, Queensbridge Road, Nottingham, NG2 1AY). Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change

Further information on the selection process

We will also hold a 12-month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.