About the role – Director – HR

Director – Human Resources

Trafford, Manchester

Salary: £83,021 -£86,298

Trafford Council is known as a fast-moving, dynamic, innovative and often challenging Council.  It has a reputation in Greater Manchester for pushing the boundaries and taking risks.  This isn’t just about political direction or control, it’s in our DNA.

Trafford Council runs on a historically low financial base, so we have to deliver services in the most cost-effective way.  It’s our passion to deliver the best for our communities, people and businesses that underpins our constant drive for innovation. We want all our senior managers to step outside the usual confines of professionalism, to have an impact on the corporate agenda and be visible, values-led leaders.

As Director-HR, you will be the key professional adviser to the leadership team and members.  You must be well-versed in HR issues and practice, able to develop strategy whilst also providing high-level HR advice.  Your advice, judgement and instincts must be rock solid – and you must be able to hold your ground whilst finding effective ways forward.

This role goes far beyond traditional HR.  You must be able to cover the breadth of this role, bringing commerciality, a strong service focus, a real action orientation to the organisation while making a meaningful contribution to our corporate and strategic agenda.

We’re offering corporate access, leadership and breadth ideally suited to the HR Director ambitious to go further, perhaps to grow into a more corporate role or even a CEO.  We want, someone hungry for results and with the character to shape the future organisational agenda.

There’ll be plenty to go at when you join, almost too much to list.

We’re key partners in the opening of Manchester’s newest University, UA92, likely to be creating a new Local Care Organisation, operate an exciting shared service centre with Greater Manchester police and are working across Greater Manchester to embed more effective partnerships.

Within the Council you’ll be working with Children, Families and Wellbeing to manage the medium and long-term impact of increasing service demands (and hence budget pressures) and we expect you’ll be developing further joint ventures and partnerships.  Within HR you’ll support service transformation, ensure our £15m of traded revenue continues to grow, build on our strong relationships with schools, maintain the refresh of our HR work practices (including exploiting the digital agenda) and ensure our services are effectively aligned to council services.  We see HR as a frontline service, leading the moves to a new type of council.

If your personal ambition and is all about making organisations and places better through people, then you’ll find the environment to thrive at Trafford.  We would love to meet you and share our excitement about the future.

Service structure

There are 5 reporting lines:

Communications and Marketing

Leadership Support

Workforce Strategy (H&S is part of this team)

HR Business Partnering (includes Schools HR)

GMSS (Trafford/Greater Manchester Police partnership)

In total there are circa 150 staff and a direct budget of c.£1.5m. GMSS budget is managed separately as this is a partnership with GMP.