Dorset Council UK
People Services Team Lead at Coastland College
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Lead Operational Excellence. Strengthen Compliance. Shape The Employee Experience.
At Coastland College, our people are at the heart of everything we do.
We are investing in our people, culture and capability to create an exceptional place to work, learn and grow. We believe that by supporting our colleagues to thrive, we can inspire excellence in every learner, strengthen our communities and help shape a confident, resilient and future-ready Dorset.
We are looking for an exceptional People Services Team Lead to join our People Team and play a key role in delivering a modern, customer-focused and compliant People Service across the College.
About The Role
This is an exciting opportunity to lead the operational delivery of People Services at Coastland College.
The People Services Team Lead will be responsible for leading and developing the People Services Team, ensuring the highest standards of customer service, compliance, accuracy and operational efficiency.
You will oversee the delivery of employee lifecycle administration, safer recruitment, safeguarding compliance, workforce administration, policy implementation and payroll-related processes, ensuring managers and colleagues receive an excellent service.
This role is central to strengthening governance, improving processes, embedding consistency and creating a People Service that supports both organisational success and an outstanding employee experience.
What You'll Be Doing
As the People Services Team Lead, you will:
- Lead, coach and develop the People Services Team, creating a culture of high performance, continuous improvement and excellent customer service.
- Oversee the delivery of employee lifecycle processes, ensuring all contractual changes, probation reviews, onboarding, fixed-term contracts and leaver processes are managed accurately and efficiently.
- Ensure all payroll-related employee changes are processed accurately, fully authorised and submitted within agreed payroll deadlines.
- Take operational ownership of safeguarding compliance, including the management and maintenance of the Single Central Record (SCR).
- Lead and monitor safer recruitment processes, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and College policies.
- Support the implementation, communication and ongoing review of People policies, procedures and guidance.
- Drive service excellence by continually reviewing customer service standards, operational performance and the overall employee experience.
- Monitor compliance, workforce administration processes and audit requirements, ensuring records remain accurate, compliant and audit-ready.
- Identify opportunities to improve systems, processes and ways of working, supporting a modern and efficient People Service.
- Produce and analyse workforce metrics, compliance reports and management information to support operational decision-making.
- Build strong working relationships with People Partners, Finance colleagues and managers across the College to deliver a joined-up approach to people management.
- Support the development of a positive, inclusive and high-performing culture that reflects the College's values.
- Oversee the management of the HR and Recruitment inboxes, ensuring colleagues, managers and candidates receive a responsive, professional and customer-focused service.
- Establish, monitor and continuously improve service standards, ensuring enquiries and employee lifecycle transactions are completed accurately and within agreed timescales.
- Oversee the coordination of induction programmes, mandatory training requirements and workforce compliance activities, ensuring colleagues are supported from day one.
- Lead operational compliance activities and support internal and external audits, inspections and quality assurance reviews.
- Act as the key operational contact for People Services, ensuring consistency, professionalism and high-quality service delivery across the College.
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About You
We're looking for someone who is passionate about people, operational excellence and delivering a high-quality service experience.
You'll Be Someone Who
- Has experience leading, supervising or coordinating a People, HR, customer service or operational administration team.
- Has a strong understanding of employee lifecycle processes, workforce administration and People Services operations.
- Has experience working within a regulated environment and understands the importance of compliance, safeguarding and safer recruitment requirements.
- Is highly organised, able to manage competing priorities and consistently deliver high-quality outcomes.
- Has excellent communication, relationship-building and stakeholder management skills.
- Is committed to delivering outstanding customer service and creating positive experiences for colleagues and managers.
- Can identify opportunities to improve processes, systems and service delivery, using innovation and continuous improvement to drive better outcomes.
- Has excellent attention to detail and takes pride in producing accurate, high-quality work.
- Has experience of managing or improving operational processes, administrative functions or service delivery models.
- Is confident using HR systems, workforce data and management information to support operational decision-making and improve performance.
- Builds positive and collaborative working relationships with colleagues at all levels.
- Demonstrates initiative, resilience and a proactive approach to problem solving.
- Shares our values and is committed to creating a positive, inclusive and supportive environment where colleagues and learners can thrive.
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You'll Particularly Succeed In This Role If You
- Enjoy leading and developing people.
- Thrive in a fast-paced environment where no two days are the same.
- Have a passion for compliance, accuracy and getting the detail right.
- Are motivated by improving processes and delivering excellent service.
- Can balance competing priorities whilst maintaining a calm and professional approach.
- Take pride in supporting others and making a positive difference to the employee experience.
Making Your Application Stand Out
The supporting statement is a very important part of your application.
When completing your application form, please provide clear examples of how your experience, skills and knowledge meet the criteria outlined in the Person Specification.
We Would Particularly Encourage Applicants To Demonstrate Evidence Of
- Leadership and team management experience.
- Managing operational HR or People Services processes.
- Compliance, safeguarding or safer recruitment experience.
- Improving services, systems or processes.
- Building positive working relationships with managers and stakeholders.
- Delivering excellent customer service.
- Managing competing priorities and deadlines.
Applications that provide specific examples and evidence against the Person Specification are more likely to be successful at shortlisting stage. Tell us how you improved a process, strengthened compliance, managed a complex workload or led a team through change.
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