Diversity and Inclusion Partner

Ofgem works on behalf of energy consumers to ensure that every household and business in the UK can rely on a safe and sustainable energy supply. We are playing a vital part in accelerating the transition to Net Zero and a carbon neutral energy system - a goal that everyone wants to achieve. Whatever your role, you’ll be playing your part in creating new energy solutions that are great for customers, and great for the environment.

Diversity and Inclusion are core values of our organisation. We are committed to establishing a workforce that reflects the diversity of the UK population, so that we can harness the full breadth of people’s professional and personal experiences to inform and challenge our perceptions and better understand the needs and priorities of all energy consumers. We now have an opportunity for an experienced Diversity & Inclusion professional to help embed the actions of our D&I strategy into organisational practice. It’s a highly varied role – you can expect to contribute to areas such as learning & organisational development; recruitment; defining the employee experience; and to be an advocate for good practice in all aspects of our work. Effective use of data will be an essential part of your work – drawing on this to set specific and measurable targets to work towards. This is a great opportunity to be part of an organisation that is serious about enhancing its D&I practice.

You should offer practical experience of leading change with a D&I focus. We’re looking for someone who can bring a breadth of perspective to what we do – drawing on experience and an expert professional understanding of your subject matter. You’ll need excellent communication skills (in writing and in person) enabling you to produce high quality D&I content across different platforms and to engage and influence successfully at all levels – enabling you to bring about change in people’s approaches and thinking.

Ofgem has a culture of inclusion that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues. It fuels our innovation and helps ensure we can best represent the consumers and the communities we serve. Everyone is welcome - as an inclusive workplace, our employees are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work.

Ofgem is a non-ministerial government department and an independent regulatory authority. Our objective is to protect consumers' interests now and in the future by working to deliver a greener, fairer energy system. We do this by regulating the sector to ensure security of supply, and protect the interests of consumers, as well as by delivering current and future government schemes to advance decarbonisation and support vulnerable consumers. Other current strategic priorities include enabling investment in low-carbon infrastructure at a fair price; delivering flexibility in how we generate, use and store energy; delivering a future retail market that works for all consumers and the planet; unlocking the benefits of data and digitalisation; and ensuring energy system governance is fit for the future.

We work effectively with, but are independent of, government, the energy industry and other stakeholders within a legal framework determined by the UK government.

In order to deliver our work, and deliver good outcomes for consumers and our planet, we need to ensure that Ofgem is fully harnessing all available talent and want to see the wider energy sector doing the same. Diversity and Inclusion is a top priority for our CEO and Board, and they are keen to see a step change in how we and the wider energy sector operate.

The role will be part of our new and growing Diversity and Inclusion team which is responsible for developing and delivering an ambitious inclusion strategy to champion and promote diversity and inclusion among our workforce, in the way we work, and in the industry we regulate. Through this we aim to:

• 
  Build a diverse and inclusive workforce which better reflects the population we serve
• Make Ofgem’s workplace culture a more inclusive one where everyone can be their true selves and flourish
• Work with, and influence, other organisations across the energy sector to improve diversity and inclusion which delivers better outcomes for consumers

Reporting to the Head of Diversity & Inclusion your day-to-day activities will look something like this:

• Supporting the implementation of our DE&I strategy and ensure there is a wider understanding of the strategy across the organisation https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy-2022
• Provide and coordinate DE&I advocacy across Ofgem to promote opportunities for inclusive best practices, programmes, and partnerships.
• Collaborate other teams across the organisation to ensure DE&I is embedded in all areas of the employee experience.

Guide our employee networks to help maintain, understand, and support the work they do aligns with our overall D&I strategy

• Work in partnership with L&OD to develop and implement a holistic and comprehensive learning and organisational development strategy creating a common language and behaviour around DE&I.
• Work with the Recruitment Team to promote inclusive hiring practices and develop proactive third-party partnerships to ensure diversified candidate pools.
• Ensure a data driven, measurable and targeted approach to D&I, ensuring we capture and monitor DE&I data sharing insights and updates to drive progress and change.
• Keep up to date with the latest developments and market best practice in D&I.

This is a truly exciting opportunity for a forward thinking, confident, passionate, critical thinking, determined and personable Diversity and Inclusion professional who is looking to grow their career and experience. This opportunity will suit somebody who is excited at the prospect of joining an organisation that recognises there is real opportunity to improve their D&I offering, therefore offering the successful candidate the unique opportunity of making a real difference. Paving the way forward for D&I.

Our journey and priorities

In Sept 2022, Ofgem refreshed its (which set out our broader ambition and work programme to ensure a more diverse and inclusive organisation. Through the strategy, we have set ourselves aspirational challenging targets for increased representation of women and ethnic minority employees at senior manager/leadership grades by 2025. We have been steadily working towards delivering against these targets.

Over the last few years, we have:

• Improved our D&I data baselining and reporting
• Improved diversity of our top team (ExCo) – including colleagues from a range of backgrounds and working patterns
• Introduced mandatory D&I objectives for all Senior Civil Servants, linked to performance management
• Completed a series of senior-level reverse mentoring
• Introduced blind sifting and more diverse interview panels
• Continued to update and evolve our recruitment practices
• Launched a year-long EmPowering Women into Leadership development programme
• Begun improvements to several internal policies, including those relating to parental leave, bullying and harassment, transitioning at work and becoming a Disability Confident Employer
• Continued working with our passionate internal staff networks
• Continued a wide range of internal engagement activities, including benefiting from excellent external speakers
• Worked closely with the wider Organisational Design and L&OD teams and to ensure that D&I is embedded at the heart of significant changes to how Ofgem operates day-to-day

Externally we have:

• Made a public pledge on our D&I targets with POWERful Women
• Championed our Power in Pride Promise
• Taken a much firmer stance on not participating in events with all white / all male speaker lists, including signing up to the BBC’s 50:50 initiative
• Supported Energy UK and Citizens Advice with directory for more diverse speakers in the energy sector
• Partner with schools and universities to tackle under-representation in STEM
• We are a key partner in the launch of a ‘Tackling Inclusion and Diversity in Energy (TIDE) Taskforce’ with the wider energy sector.

Looking forward, our priority D&I outcomes this year are:

• Further broadening our applicant pool and ensuring applicants can demonstrate their full potential
• Providing a clearer leadership pathway for women, those with a disability and ethnic minority talent
• Transforming L&OD to raise awareness of D&I more generally and providing targeted support and development where needed
• Supporting and challenging industry in driving a step-change in D&I across the wider energy sector

Key Responsibilities

• Initiate and manage multiple independent projects, initiatives and campaigns to achieve set targets within the D&I strategy and action plan.
• Coach Senior Leaders, advising them on their management and individual D&I objectives, ensuring continuous and focused commitment to their delivery.
• Provide expert advice and guidance to various key stakeholders to realise the Administration’s strategic objective to ‘Embed inclusion, embrace diversity and improve our culture’. This includes, but is not limited to, the employee Networks, the wider HR function, ExCO, the Board and wider organisation
• Deliver quarterly progress updates to the Board, in collaboration with the Head of D&I, on all work undertaken around the D&I strategy
• Direct annual inclusive language audits of HR policies and procedures to embed sector-leading practice.
• Engage with the D&I Engagement Lead to create engaging and consistent communications related to D&I, as well as collaborating with the Communications team to further develop the inclusivity of internal and external communications.
• Interpret equality legislation and identify emerging issues and trends within the sector, to help advance D&I in the energy sector.
• Work with L&OD to expertly design and confidently deliver training sessions, both bespoke and standardised, to colleagues across the organisation if required.

Key Outputs and Deliverables

• Work with Key Stakeholders including the Board, HR function, L&OD, ExCo, Employee Resource Groups and the wider organisation, providing them with quarterly updates, offering them expert advice, actively sharing insights, defining vision and priorities for the D&I agenda
• Ensure a strong set of policies and procedure, including the equality legislation, language audits, HR policies are implemented from top down, setting expectation for consistency, and ensuring they are reviewed regularly
• To support the delivery of the Equality Impact Assessment and ensure the policies, practices and procedures are fair and meets the needs of the employees, ensuring they are not discriminating again any protected characteristics
• Design and deliver coaching programmes for Senior Leaders which includes identifying employee training needs; creating development plans; developing learning objectives; preparing employees for training; facilitating discussions and learning. Delivering the training face to face or virtually. Training session may be required across the business for colleagues
• Working with Internal Communications Team to create internal/external content which will include writing, editing and collating relevant content to inform and engage Ofgem employees across a broad range of topics on diversity and inclusion
• Provide quarterly reporting using data and analytics using diversity, inclusion and equity data to inform the organisation of progress and where further work may need to be done

• A track record for working in diversity and inclusion who brings a wide range of different opinions, ideas, and skills
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills with the ability provide coaching and influencing stakeholders of all levels of seniority with strong engagement capability
• Creativity, passion and vision and a progressive mindset to drive and deliver exceptional results
• Have previously worked in a similar role, with a proven track record of delivering change projects
• Be a confident subject matter expert with experience of the inclusion agenda, with the ability to write diversity and inclusion related content for internal and external purpose

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Developing Self and Others

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Please see Candidate Pack for details.

Job contact :

Name :
Jen Hughes/Ofgem Resourcing Team
Email :
recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk

Recruitment team :

Email :
recruitment@ofgem.gov.uk