Strategic Workforce Planning Manager - 12 Month FTC
Dublin, IE
Canada Life Group is the top-level European holding company for the Great-West Lifeco’s European insurance, reinsurance, and asset management companies, with business operations in the UK, Ireland, Germany, and the Isle of Man.
European Technology sits within Canada Life Group and encompasses the technology community across all European entities - Irish Life Group, Canada Life UK, Canada Life Europe as well as Central Technology Services - Europe. European Technology supports the business strategy and collaboration of technology across all European divisions. There are multiple IT units within European Technology, each of which has its own individual set of technology platforms.
European Technology is at an important stage in its evolution. There is a need to bring market leading speed, agility, cost efficiency and risk mitigation to enable the delivery of strategies across the European businesses. To respond to and meet this challenge a new strategy and enabling organisation is being created.
This role can be based in Ireland or the UK .We have embraced a hybrid working model for most of our positions, which means that you can enjoy a balanced approach of working from home for part of the week and working from the office for the remainder of the week.
Job Purpose
Reporting to the Head of People & Culture, European Technology, this role will be responsible for establishing a workforce planning strategy and implementation roadmap across European Technology. This role will be accountable for leading this key programme to deliver and implement a strategic resource plan to enable accurate IT resource alignments to business and IT strategies across Europe; with the IT resource skills, capability, and capacity in place to match the ambition of the IT and business strategies.
As a foundational requirement for this role, the incumbent will be responsible for establishing the MI and People Analytics required to inform the workforce planning strategy – leveraging the Success Factors suite and identifying enhancements required. This role will have an MI specialist reporting directly to them.
This role will also lead the identification of the current and future skills, gap analysis and talent needs associated with the business and IT strategies and establish a strategy to ensure the European Technology organisation has the right mix of talent, technologies and resourcing models to reach these goals (Build, Buy, Borrow); at the optimum cost and investment level.
To close identified skills gaps they will work closely with the Learning, Development team in European Technology and in jurisdictions to identify upskilling programmes and new sources of talent to complement the existing resourcing model. They will also be responsible for supporting IT Leaders, and work with Finance & Procurement; along with the People & Culture to implement these new sourcing models.
This role will involve significant project management and stakeholder engagement with key roles across the European and global community – including CIOs, Heads of IT and functions, HR & Talent Acquisition partners, Finance and Procurement etc.
Key Accountabilities
• Lead the development of a workforce planning strategy and implementation plan at an enterprise and business unit level where it makes sense to do so, to ensure European Technology continually has the right level of resourcing with the right capabilities, at the right cost, from the right sources needed to propel the strategies of IT and the businesses across Europe
• Proactively address key workforce challenges by prioritizing emerging solutions including opportunities to partner with service suppliers, identifying phases of actions, articulating next steps & owners, KPIs and critical success factors for strategic workforce planning at a European level
• Lead collaboration with European Technology Leadership Team, Technology leaders, HR and Finance partners to develop and recommend methods to optimize business planning and analytics for the planning process
• Identify and leverage supporting tools and resources and data/analytics needed for measurement related to the implementation strategy – including metrics and dashboards, and effectiveness measures (e.g. scorecards/tracking to contribute to the evaluation of the Strategic Workforce Planning process)
• Lead the forecasting and planning process, including scenario planning, modelling, conducting environmental scan, performing critical skill and gap analysis for future requirements, and monitoring and evaluation of the workforce plan across Europe
• Partner with Learning and Development teams across Europe to address skill gaps and prepare the workforce for the future needs & team with HRBPs on career pathing solutions and implementation plans for technology roles across Europe
• Assist in aligning current internal Talent Resource and Acquisition teams to target talent gaps for pipeline growth across technology in Europe
• Understand and translate trends and risks in the labour market demographic and workforce implications for our current employee population to senior stakeholders
• Turn complex business requirements and new business efforts into executable plans to acquire workforce needed – including identification of new sourcing solutions and partnerships to resource technology teams and activities appropriately for current and future needs
• Lead the full project lifecycle from concept through to implementation
• Structure and manage projects or programmes of work to successful delivery mitigating any risks or issues
• Partner with IT Leaders, HR, Finance and Procurement on the implementation of new sourcing strategies; including new partnerships as identified
• Prepare reports on workforce characteristics for key stakeholders leveraging data analytics and internal/external workforce insights and trends.
• Apply an agile methodology to achieving results, soliciting feedback from business leaders to identify, recommend, and develop enhancements to strategic workforce planning process & methodology
• Lead and develop a small team of experts.
• Promote a culture of innovation and related practices and use of emerging technologies across the organization, working closely with local and shared delivery groups
Desired Knowledge / Experience / Skills
• An experienced strategic workforce planning manager, with experience building this capability preferably in a large organization across multiple geographies
• Workforce planning skills, including demand and supply analysis, workforce sizing and shaping, developing actionable insights from workforce data
• Proven track record of managing workforce related projects/ programmes through all phases of the project/ programme lifecycle
• Experience of developing new sourcing strategies and relationships for organizations
• Strong analytical capability primarily in the interpretation of data; comfortable working with and interpreting data
• Be professional, quickly establishing personal credibility and demonstrating expertise
• Demonstrate ability to support the development and growth of business
• Demonstrate knowledge of the region in terms of sector presence, existing networks, or relationships
• Have strong personal impact and resilience, and be able to influence and persuade stakeholders to gain support for changes and key decisions
• Take a practical approach to solving issues and getting buy-in
• Be able to analyse complex problems and to deliver insightful, practical, and sustainable solutions
• Be skilled in facilitating and encouraging collaboration amongst team members and stakeholders, and capable of motivating teams to maximise performance
• Be adept at overcoming issues and barriers
• Be up to date with key technical and functional skills, and with industry, business and leadership skills and knowledge - share this expertise with others
• Experience in a leadership role; managing teams and being accountable for delivery
• A proven track record of proactively managing stakeholders, including providing constructive challenge, influencing decisions, providing robust advice, delivering difficult messages
• Ability to quickly grasp complex business problems and develop appropriate solutions
• Relevant qualification in Workforce Planning related field, or equivalent work or education-related experience. Master’s Degree is a plus
Behavioural Competencies
• Outward focus: Understands the business environment and internal/external customer needs, and identifies business opportunities that create a competitive advantage
• Drive Innovation: Creates an environment that encourages new approaches, challenges the status quo, and inspires creativity and risk-taking while protecting the core
• Develop Talent: Attracts, motivates, and develops talent to build the right team to meet strategic direction and tomorrow’s needs.
• Build collaborative partnerships: Able to foster collaborative relationships across functions and business to facilitate cooperation and information exchanges that improve customer and business outcomes
• Lead the organisation forward: Inspires a vision that adapts to new realities, articulating meaningful expectations, and creating clear pathways to desired outcomes
• Execute for results: Drives results and contributes to change processes that improve organisational performance and creates a culture of accountability
• Functional/Technical: Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to do the job at a high level of accomplishment. Demonstrates active interest and ability to enhance and apply new functional skills
• Risk control and regulatory environment: Understands and effectively manages all potential material risks (to the business and to customers) that are relevant to the role, following agreed processes. Understands the regulatory environment of the business
• Commercial Awareness: Understands and manages business conflicts to ensure the effective utilisation of business resources to prioritise delivery outcomes.
The company reserves the right to draw up a shortlist as part of the selection process. Where Agency assistance is required the Canada Life Recruitment Team will engage directly with suppliers. Unsolicited CVs / profiles supplied to Canada Life by Recruitment Agencies will not be accepted for this role.
Canada Life Group Services is proud to be an Equal Opportunities employer. We have created an environment of inclusion and growth to help people achieve their potential, to ensure they can bring their whole selves to work and to feel valued. We celebrate diversity of thought and perspective and want all of our employees to feel valued, respected and supported. We have built a culture that promotes equality and inclusion for all of our current and future employees and strive to ensure that our behaviours, processes and practices are aligned to this culture.
If you require any accommodations during the recruitment process please contact lifecareers@irishlife.ie and we will be delighted to ensure you are fully supported to be your best.
CLGS supports Equal Opportunity and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland