Employee Engagement

Help shape an inclusive, engaging workplace where everyone can belong, thrive and succeed

We are looking for an experienced, collaborative and forward-thinking HR Service Manager to lead Sheffield City Council’s employee engagement priorities. This is an opportunity to influence the experience of colleagues across a large and diverse organisation, ensuring employee voice, recognition, wellbeing and inclusion are central to how we work and how we deliver change.

Working within the People and Organisational Culture service, you will translate the People Strategy, the Council’s Equality Objective, Future Sheffield ambitions and our core Values into practical engagement programmes that strengthen organisational culture and performance.

What you will do

Lead the strategic development and delivery of the Council’s employee engagement priorities and provide a professional, responsive and continuously improving service.
Champion employee voice, creating effective ways for colleagues to be heard and ensuring feedback informs decisions and improvement.
Develop a culture of recognition aligned with the Council’s values and behaviours.
Design and deliver engagement programmes that support organisational transformation and Future Sheffield.
Use workforce insight, engagement data and service intelligence to identify priorities, measure impact and improve employee experience.
Build trusted partnerships with leaders, managers, trade unions, colleagues and internal and external stakeholders.
Embed engagement, wellbeing and inclusion across services, supporting a culture that keeps people safe, develops, recognises and listens to people.
Lead, support and develop a team of three: two Employee Wellbeing Officers and a Senior Employee and Wellbeing Lead.
Manage performance, resources and risk effectively, maintaining high professional standards and contributing to wider service improvement.

About you

You will be an influential people professional with experience of leading employee engagement, organisational culture, employee experience or a related function. You will bring:

A strong understanding of employee engagement practice and the relationship between employee experience and organisational performance.
Experience of developing and implementing strategies, programmes and service improvements in a complex organisation.
Excellent leadership and people-management skills, with the ability to set clear direction, build capability and create an inclusive team culture.
The ability to analyse and interpret workforce data, trends and organisational intelligence and turn insight into practical action.
Strong project, performance and stakeholder-management skills, with sound judgement and a focus on outcomes.
A track record of building credible relationships, influencing senior leaders and working collaboratively across organisational boundaries.
A visible commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and to the Council’s values: people are at the heart of what we do; openness and honesty are important to us; and together we get things done.

Why join us?

This is a high-impact role with the scope to shape how colleagues connect with the Council, contribute their ideas and feel recognised for the difference they make. You will help bring employee voice to life by demonstrating that we listen, act and respond, while driving engagement with the Council’s employee benefits package and wider offer. You will join a supportive, multidisciplinary team and work across the organisation to create a more inclusive, engaged and high-performing workplace.

Interested?

For an informal 20-minute conversation about the role, please contact James Jackson, Head of Employee Engagement, Inclusion and Wellbeing James.Jackson@sheffield.gov.uk

We welcome applications from internal and external candidates and are committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. If you share our commitment to listening to, recognising and supporting employees, we would be pleased to hear from you.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.