Senior Manager - Financial Transparency & Organisational Change

Purpose of job:

This role is accountable for the delivery of the elements of the new finance operating model organisational design as they pertain to the British Council finance shared service network that will contribute to the delivery of financial transparency by 1st April 2018. It includes effective working with:

- members of with the Shared Service Network HR team

- the global organisation design team (team OD)

- the programme People & Organisation Workstream team

- the other programme workstream teams where their deliverables will impact on the way process, control or data related activities are done in the shared service centre or on roles and responsibilities.

- the programme change management and Learning & Development teams

- the regional and Group finance teams.

The organisational change manager will provide people and organisation subject matter expertise, particularly as they related to - soft- and behavioural skills and be responsible for working with the wider finance community to ensure that outputs are fit for purpose and meet the requirements of the wider organisation. The role holder must ensure that the changes are managed in a consistent way and in line with British Council Policy & Values. This role will work closely with the SSC Workstream lead to ensure that specified outputs do support the delivery of financial transparency by 1st April 2018 and that these are embedded into the wider Business As Usual (BAU) environment.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:

The British Council is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and welcomes applicants from all sections of the community. We work to ensure that people are not unjustifiably discriminated against on the basis of gender, including transgender, marital status, sexual identity, religion and belief, political opinion, race, work pattern, age, disability or HIV/AIDS status, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, on the basis of having or not having dependants, or any other irrelevant grounds.

Context and environment:

The Financial Transparency programme is deemed to be of the highest priority by the Chief Financial Officer and other Executive Board members, supported by the Board of Trustees, as the current systems, processes and organisational design are recognised to be inadequate for an organisation of this size and complexity, despite improvements being made in the last couple of years. Furthermore, there is pressure from some external stakeholders for the British Council to address the limitations in its financial data which were highlighted in the 2014 Triennial Review. Specifically, the project needs to enable the delivery of financial data by 1st April 2018 to enable the organisation to do the following:

- continue to make informed financial and strategic decisions about its current and future operations by product, product area and geography

- demonstrate to external stakeholders that as the British Council increases in size and complexity it can justify its financial position by activity area, particularly in relation to the transparent use of grant-in-aid for eligible activities

- Ensure that the statutory reporting of entities around the world continues to be consistent and compliant with local regulatory requirements.

The programme will be delivering significant improvements to the current finance data model by 1st April 2018 and make changes to processes, governance and organisational design to support this. Specifically:

- People & organisation - ensuring that the organisation has the right people, skills and competencies in the right locations to enable the other workstreams. This includes the use of the shared service centre network to deliver transactional and other activities efficiently, effectively and in line with defined service level agreements.

- Processes & controls - consistent, documented processes to enable the data and data governance streams

- Data & Data governance - finance and other governance of SAP master data and accesses to ensure that the data model remains consistent and uncorrupted going forward

The project is now moving into implementation. The focus for this role over the period of the programme is:

Accountabilities, responsibilities and main duties:

For this role, the specific responsibilities will include:

- Oversee the implementation (including possible detailed design finalisation) of the SSC operating model as it pertains to the finance shared service centre network.

- Ensure that the finance shared service centre network operating model changes connect with other changes across the programme including process, systems, skills, roles and capabilities.

- Work with the all the members of the finance shared service network as well as key finance customers in the regions and Group finance to ensure that the overall implementation plan for the shared service network organisational change correctly reflects the full global change and is understood by all relevant stakeholders.

- Responsible for ensuring that the right resources are in place to support the transition of activities into the finance shared service centre network in line with the new finance operating model (including adherence to the new finance role profiles).

- Responsible for ensuring that the necessary training and support is provided to all members of the finance shared service centre network so that they can undertake their roles effectively. This will include - hard- skills such as accounting knowledge or understanding of how their activities fit into end-to-end processes as well as - soft- skills such as behaviours including initiative, customer orientation, holding colleagues accountable etc. Ensure, through training, excellent line management and clear roles & responsibilities that the right behaviours are displayed by all finance shared service network employees regardless of their seniority or role.

- Ensure that as organisational changes take place in the regional finance organisation (i.e. outside the shared service centre network) that these are well understood by the necessary people in the shared service centre and roles and responsibilities are adapted in a timely way to enable effective global working.

- Responsible for working closely with HR, programme and finance resources both in the shared service network and in the wider organisation to deliver the necessary changes consistently, on time and to quality.

- Responsible for working with other programmes which impact the finance shared service centre network constructively to deliver accordingly for the overall benefit of the British Council. Taking account of other interdependencies and impacts on the ability of business areas to absorb the change (e.g. BAU activities such as financial year end, holiday periods or other change initiatives, particularly relating to English & Exams and Education & Society activities, systems and structures).

- Responsible for working with the programme Change Lead to ensure that the necessary change initiatives are in place to support the change (training, communications, change agents etc.,), that their effectiveness is monitored and lessons learnt are taken into account for future changes.

Essential Desirable Assessment stage

Behaviours Creating Shared Purpose (MORE DEMANDING): Creating energy and clarity so that people want to work purposefully together.

Shaping the Future (MOST DEMANDING): Changing the nature of what we do and the benefits we gain by thinking and planning with creativity.

Connecting with others (MORE DEMANDING): Actively appreciating the needs and concerns of myself and others.

Working Together (MOST DEMANDING): Working with others to achieve shared benefits/common goals.

Short listing and interview

Skills and Knowledge

- Strong knowledge of organisational change, particularly where behaviour changes are required

- Very good people management skills.

- Good communication skills

- Experience in working in a programme environment