Head of Diversity and Inclusion

Job Locations UK-London
Posted Date 4 weeks ago(12/11/2024 12:48)
Job ID
2024-1803
Category
Diversity
Position Type
Permanent Full-Time

Job Scope

To lead on the implementation of the Society’s diversity and inclusion strategy and manage delivery of the associated programmes to implement the Society’s commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion in UK science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by seeking to increase participation from underrepresented and minority groups.

To be the Society’s go to person for advice on diversity and inclusion matters, and to ensure that the programmes fulfil the Royal Society’s objectives and expectations of quality, and that they run effectively and efficiently. The post holder should ensure that Royal Society activities are imaginative, maximise impact with target audiences and reinforce the Society’s position as the UK’s national academy of science.

 

Specifically to develop, enhance or support the following activities:

• Supporting teams across the Society to enable them to deliver their diversity and inclusion activities;
• Providing expertise, guidance and advice on diversity and inclusion matters to the senior leadership team and all sections across the Society;
• Developing a programme of activity designed to support the diversity of applications to the Society’s grant schemes and encouraging leadership aspirations for researchers from minority and underrepresented groups.
• Delivery of the Society’s diversity and inclusion programme including the commissioning of research that helps advance understanding, engaging with key stakeholders, convening thought leadership discussions and implementing the core programmes such as           medals and awards and the support of mentoring programmes.
• in conjunction with the Society’s HR team, designing and delivering the Society’s diversity and inclusion programme for staff including training programmes, provision of guidance and the support of staff networks as identified by the staff;
• Collecting and publishing diversity data on the Society’s activities.
• Supporting the Chair and members of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and its subgroups overseeing particular strands of work.
• Working with internal communications colleagues to identify key diversity and inclusion activities or calendar opportunities to promote the work of scientists from a range of minority groups.

 

The post holder will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.

 

Reports to: Chief Officer – Programmes, Partnerships and Engagement

Line manages: Diversity and Inclusion Manager plus Diversity and Inclusion Officers

Salary: £70,000 to £75,000 pa

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week. (Some travel within the UK, evening and weekend work required.)

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG plus the option for some hybrid remote working
Closing date for applications: 10 December 2024

Interviews will be held: 7/8/9 January 2025

 

Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. 

Responsibilities

The work of the Head of Diversity and inclusion will include:

 

  • ensuring the programmes within remit, specifically those mentioned above, are delivered to the quality required and continue to evolve and improve to meet the Society’s objectives;
  • with the Chief Officer – Programmes, Partnerships and Engagement. contributing to the review and strategic development of the programmes;
  • supporting the Chairs of the Diversity and inclusion and Prize Committees, and other parts of the Governance structure;
  • making contributions, in association with the Chief Officer, to incorporate policy, strategy and business planning;
  • managing and motivating the diversity and inclusion team with direct line management of at least two members of the team, including responsibility for their continuing professional development;
  • developing partnerships including with other national academies, funders, scientific institutions and organisations specialising in aspects of diversity, to generate new ideas and ways to collaborate to contribute to the development of the diversity and inclusion programme;
  • working with the marketing and communications team to ensure that the programme is promoted effectively to key audiences to ensure the broadest possible reach and impact of the programme;
  • collecting diversity data on the Society’s activities and overseeing the publication of annual diversity data.
  • working with colleagues from other Sections, advising them on the diversity and inclusion aspects of their programmes, ensuring activities and future plans support the strategic direction of the Society;
  • specifically, to develop an outreach programme that supports widening participation in the Society’s own grant schemes.
  • taking responsibility for the management, delivery and development of the programme in order to reach agreed goals and deadlines, working across sections as required;
  • managing effectively the Section’s budget;
  • developing appropriate evaluation methods and key performance indicators for all projects within the programme and producing output/outcome reports as required;
  • promoting the work of the programme to internal and particularly external audiences, acting as an ambassador for the programme;
  • ensuring that needs of the target audiences (both internal and external) are met as efficiently as possible, including the preparation of marketing/dissemination strategies;
  • looking for ways to improve the delivery of the programmes, whether the programmes are delivered in person or virtually;
  • ensuring the Society’s operational and financial procedures are met for all activities within their remit to include KPI reporting, risk management and data protection compliance;
  • actively promoting a team and project approach in helping to achieve the outcomes of the Section;
  • managing other projects designed to implement the Society’s policies and objectives;
  • sharing experience and ideas with others in the Section and Society and contributing broadly to the smooth running, outcome-orientated approach of the Society;

Key Knowledge and Skills Required

Education / qualifications / knowledge / interests

 

·      Graduate calibre with suitable administrative or office experience

Essential

·      Excellent knowledge of office systems and procedures

Essential

·      An interest in science, mathematics, technology and its broader social significance

Highly desirable

·      A thorough knowledge of diversity and inclusion legislation

·      A proven track record in delivering diversity and inclusion initiatives

Essential

Essential

 

Experience

 

·      Experience of working in a team environment

Essential

·      Experience of line management

Essential

·      Experience of project management

Essential

·      Experience of identifying and targeting a variety of audiences

Essential

·      Experience of advising teams on diversity and inclusion best practice

Essential

·      Experience of project evaluation

Essential

·      Experience of managing contractors working on outsourced projects

Essential

·      Experience of setting up committee meetings and preparing agendas and minutes

Highly desirable

·      Experience of writing for a variety of audiences

·      Experience of collaborating with a variety of audiences to deliver outcomes

Essential

Essential

 

 

Circumstances

Able to be flexible about working hours, including working evenings and weekends

on occasion

 

Highly desirable

Competencies

 

1.  Self-Management (Strategic)

Key indicators: managing stress, effective and efficient, self-motivated, enthusiastic, confident,
self-awareness

Demonstrations:

·       Identifies difficult situations

·       Recognises stress in others and takes steps to reduce it

·       Controls pressurised situations

·       Effectively enthuses those in the team

·       Proactively sets goals and targets for own work

·       Embraces new opportunities, responds to new risks and takes on new responsibilities

·       Encourages others to seize opportunities

·       Recognises when it is appropriate to resist the objections of others and remain committed to a sound course of action 

 

 

2.  Working with others (Strategic)

Key indicators: collaborative, shares knowledge, giving & receiving feedback, engaging & networking, negotiation, influencing, presentation skills, public speaking, situational and organisational awareness

·       Actively seeks ideas and criticisms from within the team

·       Resolves conflicts within and between teams

·       Embeds feedback processes within the team

·       Seeks out new networks that will create opportunity for the Society

·       Able to present complex issues simply

·       Uses discretion, tact and empathy when negotiating with and/or seeking to influence others

·       Understands the need to manage expectations and to only promise what is deliverable

·       Demonstrates compassion in delivering hard messages

·       Leads and facilitates group discussions, surfaces and clarifies issues and keeps conversations focused, productive and constructive

·       Enlists champions to keep key messages alive and make them real

·       Acts as a role model, continuously demonstrating communication excellence and regard for the value of building shared vision and direction

·      Remains calm in front of challenging audiences, never diminishing others

·      Looks for opportunities to assemble a diverse group to discuss respective views

·      Keeps people at the table by articulating an outcome or goal that engages and encourages active participation

·      Shares resources across organisational boundaries to meet Society needs

·       Uses negotiation skills and adaptability to encourage recognition of joint concerns, collaboration, and to influence the success of outcomes

 

 

3. Resource Management (Strategic)

Key indicators: budget management, organisation, prioritising, results focus, quality focus

Demonstrations:

·       Determines strategy and deployment of resources, balancing cost and benefit; risk and potential for maximum impact across significant business areas

·       Manages complex cross-cutting projects to time, budget and specification

·       Ensures others accept responsibility towards results or quality

·       Sets the quality standards for own business areas in accordance with strategy and contributes to the formulation of quality standards across the Society

·       Sets and monitors priorities

·       Identifies and manages risk effectively

·       Analyses potential for surplus or loss, risks and/or return-on-investment of various courses of action

·       Demonstrates a solid understanding of the culture and recognises limitations in order to ensure that plans, actions and timelines will be effective.

·       Directs the creation of forums and discussion opportunities to generate innovative and breakthrough ideas, exposing others to experts and ideas to stimulate new thinking

·       Translates vision/knowledge to others to enable shared understanding and rapid execution

·       Facilitates the team to assess the viability of ideas based on a number of likely scenarios

·       Has patience and allows time for appropriate planning and engagement to take place in projects and day-to-day deliverables

 

 

4. Critical thinking (Strategic)

Key indicators: accuracy, attention to detail, analytical, decision making, judgement, problem solving, creativity, innovative

Demonstrations:

·       Uses questioning, analytical and probing skills to ‘dig deeper’

·       Knows when enough information has been obtained and adapts presentation of information to the needs of the audience

·       Evaluates the benefits, practicalities and value for money of ideas and obtains feedback

·       Makes sound decisions in a complex or ambiguous environment and is able to gain support and manage challenges confidently

·       Directs the creation of forums and discussion opportunities to generate innovative and breakthrough ideas,  stimulates new thinking

·       Sees issues and mitigates as necessary the implications of a proposal.

·       Justifies key results and procedures, explains assumptions and reasons.

·       Correctly evaluates the credibility of sources and correctly judges the strength of an argument

·       Fair-mindedly follows where evidence and reasons lead

 

5. Adaptability (Strategic)

Key indicators: adaptable, flexible, dealing with new situations

Demonstrations:

·       Actively seeks the input and opinions of others, often outside his/her section and accommodates and incorporates this thinking into any output.

·       Actively seeks new challenges and projects; leads discussions surrounding new ideas, approaches and projects

·       Anticipates need for innovation and seeks new ideas, approaches and solutions

·       Demonstrates courage by deciding and acting in the face of uncertainty

·       Works in a balanced fashion, managing tough calls by being adaptable and flexible to ensure needs of competing stakeholders are fairly and equitably met

·       Acts with foresight to anticipate and analyse many different scenarios

·       Acknowledges ambiguity and works with team to identify understand and manage polarities and other complex situations

 

 

6. Managing people and relationships (Strategic)

Key indicators: delegation, empowerment, motivates others, develops staff, builds rapport, customer focus & stakeholder engagement, discreet, empathetic, diplomatic, managing conflict

Demonstrations:

·       Sets expectations of others and ensures they deliver

·       Demonstrates a positive attitude towards work, celebrating success and instilling confidence, which encourages the same from others

·       Encourages others to share ideas and participate in the discussion and decisions of the team

·       Assesses needs of clients/stakeholders/staff and makes plans to meet these needs

·       Avoids micromanagement by delegating fully and giving latitude to others to do tasks in own way, including opportunity to make and learn from mistakes

·       Acts as a talent builder by challenging people with questions and assignments that will grow their capabilities

·       Coaches and mentors’ others, providing career guidance and perspective

·       Demonstrates compassion in delivering hard messages

·       Establishes personal relationships with customers, building an understanding of broader needs, issues, and aspirations beyond those solely applicable to the Society products or services

·       Uses knowledge to develop appropriate longer-term relationship management strategies

·       Assesses the long-term value of various types of external customers and manages each type appropriately

·       Ensures ‘one-customer’ mindset and offers customer exposure to the full breadth of products and services, as appropriate

 

 

 

Options

Sorry the Share function is not working properly at this moment. Please refresh the page and try again later.
Share on your newsfeed