Senior Organisational Development Advisor

Salary: £33,966 - £36,024, with progression to £44,263  per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 23 June 2024

The Role

We aspire to be a world class, research-intensive university where, through impactful research and research-led education, we can truly tackle societal challenges at national and global scales. To reach our ambition, we need a research environment that nurtures creativity, equips everyone in our research community with the skills they need to realise their potential and career aspirations, and fosters interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative partnerships to increase the reach and impact of our research.

One of the key ‘transformative initiatives’ embedded in our Research Strategy that will help us achieve this is The Research Space (referred to as the Skills Academy). A new and transformative initiative that will enable our whole research community to access co-ordinated and relevant training and career development opportunities through a single online portal. This digital space will catalyse interactions between research students, researchers and academics, and professional services colleagues from diverse backgrounds, and disseminate best practice across our research community. 

This role provides an exciting opportunity to develop and embed The Research Space across the University and help build the capability and capacity of our research colleagues in line with our people-focused institutional vision and strategy. Working closely with the OD Lead for Researcher Development, Dean of Research Culture and Strategy, and Director of Research Strategy and Development, you will ensure that the emerging approach to The Research Space will deliver a step change in how we support skills and career development across our diverse research community, whilst at the same time ensuring that it is values-led and builds a research culture that is collaborative, open and inclusive. The Research Space is one of four priority projects in the Research Culture Programme aimed at effecting positive change at Newcastle University.

You will understand the researcher development agenda in Higher Education and have strong Organisational Development and project management skills to achieve effective change. You will be able to influence across all levels and bring ideas and new thinking to generate enthusiasm and commitment for change. You will excel at building strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders, being sensitive to their perspectives. Close collaboration with others working in this area is essential.

This is a full time, fixed term role, available until 31st July 2026.

If you would like to find out more about this role, please contact Chris Emmerson

Key Accountabilities

• Learning and Development
• Develop a clear learning and development offer and delivery timetable for The Research Space, making recommendations for its effective and sustainable delivery. 
• Develop a communications strategy for The Research Space to promote and build an engaged community that is aligned with the wider Research Strategy and Culture communications plan.
• Utilise data and metrics to understand the impact and value of The Research Space offer and use this to report on progress and recommend improvements regularly.
• Support the implementation of the Researcher Development Concordat Action Plan. 
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the University to ensure we have a clear understanding of the learning needs of our target research communities, understanding priorities and the evolving research landscape. 
• Undertake anlysis of all of the learning and development opportunities available to the research community, identifying duplication and gaps in provision and evaluating the  methods of delivery.
• Working with our researcher community, facilitate the design and delivery of programmes in line with OD best practice (including delivery on programmes as required e.g. Prosper).

IT Infrastructure 

• Work with key stakeholders within the project delivery team and the wider community to deliver an effective technological solution that realises The Research Space's vision and meets our research community's needs.
• Work with key internal and external colleagues to enhance the user experience of The Research Space.

Community and Collaboration 

• Develop and implement The Research Space to help build community and collaboration based on the needs and aspirations of researchers and the wider research community
• Deliver and facilitate events and activities that support the researcher community and promote innovative practice in this area.
• Support colleagues from across the University to share their skills, knowledge and expertise in research with colleagues and students, increasing the quality, impact and reach of our research. 

Colleague Engagement and Experience

• Contribute to our approach to colleague engagement and experience, identifying and conducting any focus groups, research or survey work and data analysis required. 
• Work with colleagues across the University to enhance the quality and integration of data, insight, and intelligence from engagement and survey initiatives, ensuring we collaborate with the Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Colleague Wellbeing teams to understand any prevailing issues.

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of designing and delivering Organisational Development and learning interventions. 
• Understanding and experience of researcher development and the Researcher Development Concordat.
• Track record of managing projects in complex organisations, with a proven ability to deliver on cost, quality and time requirements.
• Experience in influencing culture change and working on projects that have had a demonstrable impact on the culture and values of organisations. 
• Experience of influencing senior stakeholders to achieve effective change.
• Understanding of employee engagement and practical experience of working on engagement activities, in particular the use of engagement surveys and/or focus groups.
• Experience working with IT platforms, including the Microsoft 365 suite, to effectively support work activities. 
• Evidence of and passion for engendering an inclusive working environment.
• Strong data analysis skills, proven ability to use metrics and data to support critical thinking and improvement of the service.
• Knowledge of Organisational Development within a higher education setting would be beneficial. 

Attributes and Behaviours

• Works collaboratively and in partnership with others.
• Promotes and actively drives change taking into account different perspectives.
• Excellent communicator, both verbal and written engaging a wide range of stakeholders.
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to persuade, convince and influence others in order to diplomatically achieve change.
• Active advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion. 
• Displays enthusiasm, integrity and personal resillience.
• Self motivated.
• Effective problem solver.

Qualifications

• Qualifications in any of the following areas - Learning and Development, Organisational Development, Project Management, Change Management, would be desirable but not essential

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27095