D&I Learning & Development Lead

D&I Learning & Development Lead - People & Culture Directorate (ID: 005584)

The Bank of England is the UK's central bank. Our mission is to deliver monetary and financial stability for the British people.

The Bank of England is a diverse organisation. Each of its 4,000 plus people are committed to public service and dedicated to promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial stability.

In the People and Culture (P&C) Directorate we play a pivotal role in helping to recruit, develop and retain the diverse talent that we need to deliver against the Bank’s mission to promote the good of the people of the United Kingdom.

Our Talent and Development strategy is committed to investing in future skills, building diversity and inclusion, and enabling learning for all colleagues. In July 2021 we published a Review of Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) at the Bank. The review commissioned by the Bank’s Court (the Bank’s Governors and Non-Executive Directors) recognised that we had not made sufficient progress on the important issue of ethnic diversity and inclusion. In order to address this a set of recommendations and actions are being put in to place to embed sustained change. To support the Review’s recommendations a number of new roles have been created, including a dedicated D&I Learning and Development Lead who will act as a centre of expertise, helping to transform our vision in to a lived reality. This coincides with the Bank’s new strategic priority “to build a diverse and inclusive Bank” vision:

“The current global context presents both challenges and opportunities, and the Bank needs to be human, humble and in step with the changing world to respond effectively. We need leaders who embody this ambition, and a truly inclusive culture to enable all colleagues to unlock their potential. We do this because it is the right thing to do and will make us even more effective as an organisation, now and for the future.”

Team Overview

The Learning and Organisational Development Team are part of the wider Talent Acquisition and Development division and sit in the Bank’s People and Culture directorate.  We are responsible for providing the centralised learning offer for our 4000+ Bank colleagues from when they join the Bank and experience our cultural induction, throughout their careers, ensuring that all colleagues have the opportunity to continuously grow their skills and fulfil their potential. The team works closely with colleagues across P&C and the wider Bank in order to deliver this. You will work closely with the newly formed Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Division within P&C who are responsible for spearheading efforts towards building a diverse and inclusive workplace, one of the Bank’s strategic priorities.

Job Description

This new role will have a leading part to play in delivering recommendations from the Court Review and driving cultural change. They will act as a credible adviser with other centres of expertise, such as the newly formed Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Division to embed changes to the D&I curriculum, working towards cultural change across the organisation, embedding a culture of support, feedback and positive behavioural change.

This role has at its core the need to stay close to D&I challenges, aligning these to the Bank’s strategy and delivering training to a wide range of learners from early careers entrants to more senior leaders and experts.

This role is part of a small delivery team, responsible for delivering our central learning offer, which includes delivering technical, cultural and soft skills training to colleagues across the Bank. As the D&I Lead, this role has specific responsibility for leading on relevant parts of the central learning curriculum, such as inclusive recruitment training, and mandatory inclusion training. In many instances you will be building this from scratch whether that be in-house or sourcing great suppliers; as well as working with other programme leads to weave D&I through everything we do. You will also have responsibility for supporting the development of components of the Bank’s Sponsorship programme, which aims to support progression to senior management for underrepresented groups, and is focused on colleagues who identify as women, or as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic or colleagues with disabilities or long term health conditions.

As we embrace hybrid working post covid-19, the successful candidate will need to design and deliver training and other learning interventions using a range of channels whether that be in person workshops, virtual classrooms or creating and curating self-paced resources. 

This role is being advertised as part of a set of new roles which will bolster the central support available for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, strengthening the Bank’s commitment to build a diverse and inclusive Bank.

Role requirements

Essential criteria

• Experience in learning and development theory and application, particularly in the design and delivery of core learning programmes and training and competence principles
• Proven track record of delivering high quality training and materials in both classroom and virtual learning environments to a range of audiences, both small and large groups
• Understanding of D&I learning and training, and the evidence behind it, (e.g. race fluency, microaggressions)
• Strong consulting, engagement and relationship management skills to build and establish positive relationships with key stakeholders, including senior leaders, subject matter experts, project teams, the People and Culture directorate, the wider organisation and external suppliers of training materials
• Powerful, clear and succinct oral and written communication, presentational and influencing skills
• Ability to plan and handle a range of priorities, and deliver projects to deadline, within an agreed/defined standard, and a flexibility of approach
• Proven team player with ability to work seamlessly with different People & Culture and business teams
• Ability to challenge non-inclusive behaviours

Desirable criteria

• Experience driving and embedding cultural change, preferably with a D&I focus
• Experience supporting diversity change programmes
• Coaching experience

Additional Information

The Bank values diversity and inclusion – we want to reflect the society we serve better, we want the best people to work for us and we want our workplace to be inclusive.  We value all forms of diversity, including but not limited to age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation.  One way we support diversity and inclusion is through our staff-run networks, which are summarised here.

We are fully committed to having a diverse and inclusive working environment, and are open to considering how the role might be carried out with flexible working.  This role is therefore open to flexible working patterns. 

We are also committed to making adjustments for candidates and employees where possible, and have partnered with external expert organisations to support us in this.  We are a member of the Disability Confident scheme, summarised here, and people who wish to apply under this scheme should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

We anonymise applications so hiring managers will not be able to see your personal information when reviewing your submission, including your CV. Please fully complete the application form questions as requested, as any incomplete submissions may not be reviewed.

The Bank of England is a distinctive institution and our rewards are one of the things that set us apart. As well as enjoying a competitive salary you will work in a collaborative, inclusive environment, with a subsidised restaurant, flexible working opportunities and plenty of wellbeing initiatives.  

This specific role offers a base salary of £45,900 - £49,000 per annum, along with our comprehensive benefits package as follows:

•    A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
•    A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
•    A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits.
•    25 days annual leave with option to buy up to 13 additional days through flexible benefits.
•    Private medical insurance and income protection.

The closing date for applications is 20th October 2021.

Please apply online, ensuring that you answer the application questions, complete the work history and submit your CV.