Organisation Change Business Manager

Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to improve quality of life, by bringing people together to get the most out of life.

SWR is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier. FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.

About the job

This role supports the SWR purpose by ensuring that the structure of our organisation and the design of jobs allow our colleagues to work together effectively and to deliver the best service for our customers through high levels of engagement in their duties.

The purpose of this role is to manage the development and delivery of all people change aspects associated with designated change programmes and restructuring schemes, including in designated functional schemes. This role is responsible for aligning overall business objectives with any proposed change schemes. This role will advise project and line management teams, ensuring that colleague engagement is at the heart of any proposed changes. An agent for change, this role is responsible for the creation and delivery of internal communications, recruitment and training strategies, with particular emphasis placed on building constructive relationships with our trade union colleagues. This role influences a variety of internal stakeholders to ensure that all planned change builds organisational and people capability.

Your main responsibilities will be:

Evaluation 

Works closely with business functions to understand the required HR support and suggests the best way to gather and present the information:

• Able to evaluate and interpret the people risks and issues associated with the relevant change schemes and present these to those responsible for delivering the change in an impartial and balanced way 
• Ensures all people change is managed within scope and to time, taking into account cost and quality requirements 
• Delivers regular progress reports on change projects to the People and Culture teams 
• Monitors progress against the relevant people plans associated with the change schemes 

Specialist Insight and Input 

• Advise on contractual and procedural elements of organisational change
• Advise on internal communications matters to ensure clarity of messages and appropriate opportunities for feedback when communicating with colleagues on contractual or procedural matters, monitoring and continuously improving any communication plans implemented.
• Scopes and creates “People Plans” to cover the lifecycle of projects, highlighting key business milestones and dependencies, with particular focus on consultation and implementation processes
• Develops and costs organisational change proposals in conjunction with other key specialists within the business
• Support senior managers in effective design of teams, creation of role profiles and organisation of work within designated functions
• Supports the development of a recruitment strategy to align with the associated change schemes, ensuring adoption of the strategy by all relevant stakeholders
• Work in partnership with colleagues to deliver the most efficient and productive changes for the business, administering and advising on employee lifecycle systems changes for designated functions
• Support line management teams in completing job descriptions, including converting management job descriptions to the current template when required
• Contribute specialist input to business case papers for change, working with finance and modelling teams to deliver robust proposals which generate accurate costings and risk profiles for all proposals.

Stakeholder Management 

• Establishes and prepares for key internal and TU meetings, taking minutes and action points to share with attendees
• Creates and maintains an active partnership with line management and project teams in order to facilitate excellent people orientated change
• Has an internal customer centric approach and seeks opportunities to understand the wider business context of any proposed change schemes
• Maintains a strong relationship with other People and Culture colleagues to ensure close links between wider business HR context, risks and issues and the content of the change work being delivered
• Understands the SWR industrial relations climate and previous agreements, and advises project and line management teams accordingly
• Coach and advice line managers in matters involving people change and contractual changes, including consultation skills and how to encourage engagement in changes.

As a minimum, you will need to have:

• Relevant and significant experience of applying project methodologies and in the successful management of major and/or complex change projects 
• Broad experience of managing organisational change programmes e.g. Organisation re-design, terms and conditions and restructuring programmes 
• Educated to degree level or CIPD equivalent in a HR Discipline
• A solid understanding of how people go through change and the change process 
• Excellent communication skills, with evidence of ability to liaise with and deliver complex information to a broad range of stakeholders 
• Able to manage a high workload and deal with constantly changing priorities whilst delivering objectives to deadlines.
• Good team worker, able to assist complex projects and manage own projects.
• Strong current knowledge of employment law
• Experience in practicing in a heavily unionised environment
• IT proficient in a range of Microsoft programs

Desirable

• Formal project management qualifications
• Strong data analytical skills and ability to present this information in a compelling way
• Experience of internal communications 
• Detailed knowledge of the business environment and direct business experience of the culture and structure of SWR. 

About the location

South Western Railways HQ is based on the 4th Floor at South Bank Central, a stone’s throw from the River Thames and a 10 minute walk from our busiest station, Waterloo. It is local to many well-known attractions, restaurants and retail facilities and is easily accessible by public transport. 

Working pattern

Working an average of 37 hours per week over 5 days 

Office hours

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Large range of exclusive retail offers
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. FirstGroup’s vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

Neurodiversity Definitions and Different Types

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/

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