A little bit about us:
We’re building a railway that connects people and places, making journeys easier and supporting economic growth across the region.
East West Railway Company (EWR Co) was established by the Department for Transport to oversee the delivery of East West Rail, from construction through to passenger services.
East West Rail is a nationally significant infrastructure project that will improve connections between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge. Backed by government investment through the Autumn 2024 Budget and 2025 Spending Review, the programme will help unlock sustainable growth across the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Function:
Our People team look after everything that makes the employee experience feel great. We handle the whole journey - from finding brilliant new people and getting them onboard, to keeping everyone informed, connected and developing. We’re also the safe pair of hands behind the scenes, keeping our people data in good shape and making sure we’re doing things the right way when it comes to employment standards. We create a positive, inclusive environment that makes East West Rail a great place to work.
About the role:
This role will be responsible for leading the delivery of resourcing and recruitment activity across East West Rail, ensuring the organisation has the capacity required to deliver its objectives, whilst remaining actively involved in the recruitment of key and business-critical roles.
Working closely with the Head of People (HR) and leaders across the business, the role provides expert advice and insight on workforce requirements, recruitment approaches and labour market trends to support effective workforce planning and hiring decisions.
The role is also responsible for building and maintaining talent pipelines for critical and hard-to-fill roles, using market insight and workforce data to support proactive resourcing decisions and reduce reliance on reactive recruitment activity.
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Lead resourcing activity across the organisation, partnering with leaders to understand current and future resource requirements and translate these into effective hiring plans.
- Lead the end-to-end recruitment process across the organisation, remaining actively involved in the recruitment of key, specialist and business-critical positions.
- Develop and implement attraction and sourcing strategies to meet organisational hiring requirements.
- Source and attract high-quality candidates through a variety of channels, including direct sourcing, networking, market mapping and targeted search activity.
- Build and maintain talent pipelines for critical and hard-to-fill roles, reducing reliance on reactive recruitment activity and supporting future workforce requirements.
- Proactively lead the hiring process from workforce planning discussions and vacancy briefing through to candidate selection, offer management and onboarding.
- Champion inclusive recruitment practices, ensuring recruitment activity supports organisational diversity and inclusion objectives and minimises bias throughout the hiring process.
- Use recruitment metrics, workforce data and labour market intelligence to identify trends, risks and opportunities and provide insight to support workforce planning and hiring decisions.
- Provide expert advice and guidance to hiring managers on recruitment best practice, market conditions, selection approaches and hiring decisions.
- Manage recruitment agency and supplier relationships, ensuring value for money, effective delivery and compliance with organisational procurement, governance and audit requirements, whilst ensuring recruitment activity is delivered consistently and in line with organisational policies and employment legislation.
- Monitor and report on recruitment performance, including time-to-hire, vacancy levels, sourcing effectiveness and recruitment costs, providing regular insight and recommendations for improvement.
- Drive continuous improvement across workforce planning, resourcing and recruitment processes, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, consistency and service delivery.
- Build effective working relationships with stakeholders across the organisation, acting as a trusted partner on workforce planning and recruitment matters
- Responsible for managing and supporting direct reports including: coaching and developing team members to drive individual growth and operational excellence. Leading continuous improvement, through regular performance management and ensuring compliance with organisation policies and updating relevant systems.
- Take responsibility of your own and others’ health and safety by adopting and working to the EWR Co Health and Safety principles.
- Demonstrates a cost-conscious mindset, keeping tax payers’ money at the forefront of decisions.
- Shows a commitment to innovation by proactively seeking creative solutions to challenges and opportunities.
- Act as a role model for EWR Co’s vision and behaviours, working in ways that are aligned with EWR Co’s Ways of Working, as well as encouraging and supporting others to do so too.
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Proven experience leading end-to-end recruitment, ideally within the public sector or a complex, safety-critical environment such as transport, infrastructure, or engineering.
- Experience developing and delivering workforce planning and recruitment plans to support organisational priorities and hiring requirements.
- Demonstrable experience building and maintaining talent pipelines across a range of role types and seniority levels.
- Experience in leading recruitment teams and designing recruitment strategies.
- Strong experience recruiting for both technical and non-technical roles, using a variety of attraction and sourcing methods including direct sourcing, networking and targeted search activity.
- Experience using workforce data, recruitment metrics and labour market insight to inform resourcing decisions and identify trends, risks and opportunities.
- Strong knowledge of inclusive recruitment practices and experience embedding diversity, equity and inclusion considerations throughout the recruitment lifecycle.
- Familiarity with public sector recruitment practices, government frameworks or Civil Service recruitment principles (Desirable).
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Competitive salary that reflects your skills and experience
- Up to 12% employer pension contribution to support your future
- 36 days annual leave (including bank holidays) plus the option to buy up to 2 extra days
- 2 volunteering days, a chance for you to give back to the community
- Enhanced family-friendly policies to support you and your loved ones
- Life assurance (4x your annual salary) for peace of mind
- Employee Assistance Programme for confidential support when you need it
- Access to Perkbox for a wide range of discounts and wellbeing benefits
- Recognition programme, including on-the-spot and annual awards
- Advanced learning and development opportunities to help you grow.
Diversity and Inclusion:
At East West Railway Company, we’re committed to building an inclusive railway for all. We believe that to do that, we must nurture a diverse team that represents the UK communities that we impact. Our approach is simple - to create an environment where everyone is welcome and able to be themselves. We celebrate diversity and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, encouraging applications from all backgrounds and experiences.
East West Railway Company is a new and exciting venture at the forefront of the changing landscape of the rail industry, delivering substantial fast-paced improvement to modernise the railway.
