People Director

The role of People Director sits at the heart of Acas’s ability to shape our organisation effectively and enable our workforce of approximately 1100 FTE across Great Britain to deliver efficient and impactful services in the face of increasing demand. The role-holder will be central in enabling Acas to attract and retain the best talent and developing organisation capability in the rapidly changing world of work. They will work with the Executive and Senior Leadership Teams to enable Acas to deliver its strategic ambitions whilst building a diverse and inclusive workforce reflecting the businesses and people we serve.

The People Director will also act as Head of Profession for Acas’s HR community and will champion an engaging culture, working with leaders, our Trade Unions and wider workforce, aligning Acas internally with its external best practice messaging. As a member of the Executive Board, the People Director also plays an important part in setting wider organisational strategy, in corporate governance and in leading business and cultural change.

• Set and lead the People and Workforce Strategy; Lead the continued development and implementation of our People and Culture Strategy, ensure the workforce is capable, appropriately sized and structured to deliver Acas’s organisational objectives. Including aligning people priorities with corporate and business plans
• Executive and Board Leadership; Act as a member of the Executive Board and Senior Leadership Team, influencing organisational strategy, governance and major business decisions and risk management. Including providing expert people advice to the Chief Executive and Senior Leaders.
• Employee Relations and Union Partnership; Build and maintain constructive relationships with Acas’s recognised Trade Unions, lead on strategic employee relations issues, consultation and organisational change. Including promoting positive workplace relations and organisational trust.
• Strategic Workforce Planning; Develop and oversee the Acas workforce plan that address current and future capability and capacity needs. Identify and mitigate against capacity and skills gaps and lead talent and succession planning.
• Culture, Engagement and Inclusion; Lead Acas to create an engaged, inclusive and high performing-culture, lead initiatives to improve employee experience, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion. Ensuring that organisational values are reflected in behaviours and leadership practice.
• Exemplar People Practices aligned to Acas’s Purpose; Champion and deliver high HR standards and expertise on workplace relations and the productivity benefits best practice brings. Leading the people directorate to ensure that effective and timely support is given to line managers across the organisation through tailored expert advice, supported by up-to-date HR Policies and practice.
• Promoting Acas’s reputation credibility and influence; Through engagement with key stakeholders and representing the organisation in a range of external for and reporting to the Acas Council on people strategy and employment relations and its contribution to achieving Acas’s strategic aims.

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 and Experience.

Selection Process

Acas has engaged the services of GatenbySanderson, to whom applications should be sent by the closing date of Midday, Tuesday 10 November 2026. Applications can be submitted online at https://www.gatenbysanderson.com/job/GSe137565

In order to apply, please submit the following:

• A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Statement of Suitability – (maximum 2 sides of A4, 12 point font) setting out how your skills, experience and personal qualities make you suitable for the role. Please provide clear evidence, supported by specific examples, demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria, and where applicable, the desirable criteria outlined in the person specification. Please state which Acas office would be your preferred base.
• Diversity Monitoring - All candidates are also requested to complete an online Diversity Monitoring system, which will be found at the end of the application process.

Anticipated Timeline:

Advert closing date: Midday, Tuesday 10 November 2026

Preliminary Interviews with GatenbySanderson: W/C 23 November

Shortlist decision: W/C 30 November

Leadership assessments: W/C 7 December

In Person Final Interviews: W/C 14 December in the Acas London Stratford office, this will include a short presentation.

Recruitment Principles and Candidate Support

Name-Blind Recruitment

Acas operates a name-blind recruitment process. Candidates are required to remove personal information, including their name and other identifying details, from CVs and supporting statements. Applications will be reviewed against the published criteria only.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and Redeployment Interview Scheme (RIS)

Candidates wishing to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme or Redeployment Interview Scheme should indicate this during the application process. Eligible candidates will be identified and tracked throughout the recruitment process to ensure the schemes are applied consistently and in accordance with Acas policy.

Reasonable Adjustments

Acas is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process. Candidates requiring reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process are encouraged to notify the recruitment team and Berwick Partners via scsrecruitment@acas.org.uk and emma.clark@gatenbysanderson.com Requests will be recorded, managed and monitored throughout the campaign to ensure appropriate support is provided.

Please review the attached Candidate Pack for further details.

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