Strategy & Planning Officer

This is a key role which brings detail to the big picture. You will be naturally efficient and organised – relishing creating and maintaining order. You will thrive on being tapped into what’s happening in a fast-paced environment – as comfortable running a large meeting as you are creating a new reporting template.

This role is all about coordinating, supporting and facilitating others – providing processes, plans and frameworks that reflect a range of contributions and then supporting others to achieve those plans. You will build and nurture strong relationships to support colleagues to collaborate, prioritise and then keep to deadline. By drawing together multiple inputs into coherent, quality commissions you will ensure clarity of direction and shared understanding.

You will ensure the smooth running of the Strategy and External Affairs Directorate by supporting the Directorto oversee Directorate corporate responsibilities including people, culture, finance, compliance and administration. This role is particularly important as the Directorate is relatively new so existing good systems need to be maintained, processes created where there are gaps, and new strengths built in Directorate culture. 

You will support strategic projects – this could be new areas Acas is developing that need scoping, shaping and project initiation and development before they are handed over to a permanent team; supporting strategy development; reviews of the organisational strategy; or tracking progress against the strategy. 

• Planning and prioritisation: Manage and co-ordinate cross-Acas plans of external affairs, communications and strategy activity. Accountable for monitoring and supporting progress against our plans and ensuring dependencies are managed and change is controlled.
• Directorate management and support: accountable for running the business planning process and tracking milestones through the year; ensuring robust budget management including profiling, controlling expenditure and problem-solving; maintaining the Directorate risk register; oversight of meeting management; compiling compliance returns; Directorate business continuity lead; setting a culture of customer service in the small team. 
• Directorate culture: support engagement by curating engaging meetings, organising and facilitating away days, managing the annual people survey action plan. Manage confidential activity, including the reward and recognition scheme for the directorate and staff training reports. 
• Strategic projects: Accountable for supporting strategic projects as needed particularly producing timely high-quality materials to scope, shape and define projects. This may include: project initiation and scoping, desk research, organising 'discoveries' to marshal internal stakeholder views on the topic and producing recommendations of next steps for Acas. This could relate to supporting strategy development, reviewing the strategy or tracking progress against the strategic ambitions. 
• Set up new processes across all accountabilities as needed and pursue continuous improvement.
• Potential for line management responsibility.

As a member of Strategy and External Affairs Directorate you will: 

• Promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience.
• Be self-aware and role-model continuous self-learning and development.  
• Collaborate with others to achieve the goals of ACAS together.
• Effectively manage resources and budget where required.
• Work flexibly and collaboratively with those across the Directorate and wider Acas.
• Live the Acas values.