Our aim is for everyone in the NCIs to feel that they belong and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. We are keen to bring maximum creativity and diverse problem-solving perspectives to bear on the opportunities and challenges as we develop and deliver our work in support of the Church and the NCIs.

This role offers a chance to serve the mission and ministries of the Church of England as it pursues its vision and strategy to become a simpler, humbler, bolder Church that is more diverse. The HR team in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) supports delivery of the Church’s mission through supporting the Dioceses, the NCIs & Bishops’ Staff in three priority areas: our services to the NCIs, including business partnering, recruitment and casework; our strategic partnering services to the NCIs on organisational development including belonging and inclusion, leadership and culture and engagement and wellbeing; and the provision of high quality external advisory service to Dioceses, including training and consultancy, a knowledge sharing hub and supporting a network of HR professionals in Dioceses.

The HR team works closely with the National Ministry Development Team, who have key responsibilities in respect of renewing the ministries of the Church of England, to ensure alignment of people strategies and approaches.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Diversity and Inclusion Advisor to contribute to culture change in a significant national institution. You will take a lead role in delivering key elements of our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy and 2022-25 Action Plan which has been recently launched with the support of our Chief Officers.

This current plan builds on the solid foundations of our first Belonging and Inclusion action plan which began in 2018 and has been widely supported by senior stakeholders and is visible to staff working at all levels and in all of the NCIs. It also addresses the recommendations made by the Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce in the 2020 From Lament to Action report about addressing racism in the Church of England.

You will work with colleagues from the HR team, external Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) experts, those with EDI responsibility in other areas departments, colleagues from data services and the Racial Justice Unit to both shape and deliver projects and initiatives that will impact the lives of NCI staff.

A member of the Organisation Development Team, you will also have the opportunity to input into the areas of Learning and Development, Engagement, Leadership and Wellbeing.

Working closely with the HR Operations Team including our HR and Recruitment Business Partners, you will need to ensure that your strategic plans can be turned into deliverable actions and embedded into the everyday routine systems and processes.

The role could be full time or four days a week and the location is flexible. The ability to travel into London at least once a month for specific meetings and events will be required, Covid restrictions permitting. You will be provided with the equipment and IT support required for home working.

We will be hosting a webinar at 11:30am on Friday 7 October to give you an opportunity to find out more about the role and our Belonging & Inclusion Strategy, and to meet some of the team. We’d love to see you there! You can sign-up online.

The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. This is a priority for the Archbishops. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we particularly welcome applicants from UK Minority Ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities. We also invite interest from those with excellent experience in a number of areas that may not meet every criteria.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Diversity Data

• Analysing, presenting and interpreting HR Diversity data, telling us what the data says, and advising us on what we need to do about it.
• Working with colleagues (e.g. our HR Reward & Analytics Partner and the Data Services Team) to expand and improve the quality of the diversity data we collect from staff, helping to build an increasing culture of trust and openness that leads to increased responses rates.

Recruitment & selection

• Working alongside our HR Operations Team to support an end-to-end review of our internal and external recruitment processes. You’ll draw on the experience which already exists within the organisation, and bring insights and examples of good practice from other organisations.
• Leading on redesigning and delivering the recruitment training provided to managers, and developing a wider pool of interview panel members, with diversity in mind.

NCIs Learning Together

• Evaluating the success of new Inclusion Training (starting November 2022) and working with our external provider to adapt this for new joiners.
• Designing and delivering a targeted development intervention for non-managerial staff which will enable them to make an impact and prepare themselves for internal promotion.

Championing belonging & inclusion across the NCIs

• Working across other NCI departments to deliver on agreed actions from the Church of England’s Lament to Action report (and other future reports as agreed by Chief Officers) in a joined-up way.
• Nurturing a group of catalysts from different departments who are well placed to lead change in diversity and inclusion.
• Offering advice and signposting to managers and leaders about diversity and inclusion in relation to specific needs for support within their teams.

Person Specification

Essential

Skills/ Aptitudes:

• Shows passion and creativity in tackling complex organisational problems.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritise work appropriately, monitor progress and escalate where necessary.
• A self- starter, confident and comfortable collaborating with a dispersed team.
• Confident in communicating with a range of stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Excellent oral and written communication, presentation and facilitation skills.
• Track record of working well with others, both within the organisation and in external networks with the ability to develop ideas with other people.

Knowledge/Experience:

• Knowledge of equality legislation, diversity and inclusion issues, current affairs and good practice and can explain them clearly and simply to others.
• Has a strong understanding of HR good practice, especially in the area of recruitment and selection.
• Has experience of improving how organisations collect and interpret diversity data.
• A track record of leading change which has led to greater diversity in the workplace.
• Experience of designing and delivering training programmes to help equip people to address bias and inclusion.
• Experience of working in a recruitment, HR or learning & development function.

Personal Attributes:

• Committed to continuous learning.
• Comfortable in dealing with ambiguity.
• Personal resilience and high level of self- awareness.
• Ability to overcome challenges and achieve solutions.
• Delivery and stakeholder focused.

Desirable

• An empathy with the mission and ethos of the Church of England.

In the National Church Institutions (NCIs), wesupport the mission and ministries of the Church of England. We work with parishes, dioceses, schools, chaplaincies and other ministries, and with national and international partners including mission agencies, and other denominations and faith groups.-.

Find out more about working for National Church Institutions

Our emerging values

• We strive for excellence
• We collaborate
• We act with integrity
• We show compassion
• We respect others

We welcome everyoneand we accept and value people for who they are and what they contribute, treatingothers in the way we would wish to be treated ourselves. We actively listen to and include others, encouraging and enabling everyone’s voice to be heard in discussions and decisions. When we disagree, we aim to disagree well with respect and kindness.

We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you. If there is anything we can do to support you in your application please get in touch via email to hr.recruitment@churchofengland.org.

• As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.
• We are a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, andwelcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.