Head of People – Premiership Rugby
Premiership Rugby

As a Premiership Rugby employee this role provides HR business partnering support to Premiership Rugby and also the United Rugby Championship based from our shared office at 84 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1NP.

At Premiership Rugby our aim and vision is to deliver the best, most competitive, exciting and respected league in world rugby. We are the beating heart of the English game. Our core values are always to be inclusive, respectful, competitive, progressive and professionally excellent in everything we do. Premiership Rugby is a private company, wholly owned by and responsible to its member clubs and CVC Capital Partners. 

We are the organising body of the Gallagher Premiership Rugby league and organise the Premiership Rugby competition, the centralised broadcast rights and other commercial rights for the league. We are also responsible for the governance, regulation, delivery and promotion of the Premiership Rugby Cup, Premiership Rugby Shield and the Under 18s competition. Each of the member clubs is independent of Premiership Rugby, working within the rules of the game and delivering in their local communities.

The United Rugby Championship is a global club rugby league where 16 teams from five powerhouse nations compete across two hemispheres to become the URC champion. The URC is made up of four teams from Ireland, four from South Africa, four from Wales, two from Italy and two from Scotland. The URC mission is to innovate and create new ways of bringing fans closer to the drama, using the power of rugby to create a purpose-driven league that allows our athletes and teams to amaze on the pitch and inspire change off it. We are characterised by our national differences but unified by our passion. Diversity is in our DNA. Respect is inherent in our sport. URC’s ambition is to use the league’s platform to champion for a healthier, stronger, unified next generation, so they can Take on Tomorrow.

We are equal opportunities employers totally committed to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion. We actively welcome applications from across all diverse communities and encourage diversity of thought and lived experience. 

Key Result Areas & Responsibilities: 

• Ensure that PRL and URC have progressive, best-practice, world-class people management and development provisions which are regularly reviewed, clearly communicated and understood. 
• Ensure PRL and URC are inclusive and inspiring employers of choice with clear and compelling employer brands.
• Promote our high-performance approach by ensuring everyone has clear and stretching goals and regular performance reviews to help ensure successful delivery of our strategic business plans. 
• Personally manage all HR activity including legal compliance, employee relations, remuneration, internal communication, inclusive recruitment, induction, wellbeing, continuous learning and development and performance management for PRL and URC.
• Guide, coach and support managers in effectively handling any employee relations needs. 
• Help ensure that we have inspiring, accessible facilities and a working environment which helps our people to work flexibly, productively and collaboratively.
• Lead the development and delivery of a progressive PRL people development strategy and aim to be the highest-ranked sports business of comparable size in the annual Guardian / Sunday Telegraph Great Place to Work Survey. 
• Work closely with the URC team to create and implement their People Plan with a key focus on culture and values and lead on key HR projects which support organisation growth and people development and programmes to ensure positive staff engagement and improved retention. 
• Develop, analyse and report on relevant HR metrics for the PRL and URC executive leadership teams.
• Project manage the seamless implementation and integration of an agreed HR information system.
• Deliver regular employee engagement and wellbeing surveys, providing detailed analysis of trends and insight-led needs for agreeing practical continuous improvement action plans with each team.
• Design and lead the delivery of an annual calendar of engaging and cost-effective internal and external people development programmes to ensure PRL and URC are learning organisations. 
• Nurture a directly-relevant network of mentors and peer group learning programmes and establish inclusive early careers programmes for apprentices and interns.
• Provide leadership to the PRL Home Team in driving forward our Winning Culture programme.
• Be a driving force, positive role model and thought leader in the PRL Clubs HR Director Network.
• Champion mainstreamed best practice equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives and action plans in delivering internal PRL Sporting Equals Charter commitments; and work collaboratively with colleagues and others to promote PRL externally as a wholly-inclusive and open employer and employer brand.
• Lead on the provision of professional advice, support and guidance to the PRL Remuneration Committee on applicable senior executive performance reviews, reward and recognition in conjunction with any agreed external benchmarking and other specialists.

Essential skills and experience needed:

• Chartered Fellow or CIPD level 7 equivalent professional qualification and experience
• A hands-on, proactive working style, with the ability to work at both the strategic and detailed operational level
• Deep working knowledge of employment law and best practice people management
• Proven track record of successfully implementing innovative equality, diversity and inclusion strategies and initiatives and seamless change management
• High emotional intelligence with excellent communication skills and the ability to build relationships, persuasively influence others and collaborate with people at all levels, internally and externally
• Strategic business acumen
• Strong project management skills to facilitate continuous improvement initiatives 
• Creative and action-oriented, bringing a solution-focussed approach to your work.
• Demonstrable success developing close, trusted partnerships with senior leaders across multiple business areas and ability to quickly build a high level of trust with senior stakeholders
• Collaborative and inclusive, able to work effectively with colleagues across the PRL Clubs HRD Network. URC and other key stakeholders to promote collective success.
• Able to effectively prioritise; managing conflicting and competing priorities.

The Executives in Sport Group are retained on behalf of Premiership Rugby to appoint a Head of People. All direct applications and CV’s will be forwarded to The Executives in Sport Group.

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