Role: Global Reward, Wellbeing & Benefits Director

Location: UK – This can be a UK remote position

Role ID: 2024-2325

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world.

A key member of the Global People Leadership Team.  A change agent with deep functional expertise in Reward, Benefits, Wellbeing & Pensions.

Accountable for building and leading the Global Reward, Wellbeing & Pensions Centre of Excellence within the Ricardo People Function.  Ensuring a data-driven approach to the provision of a competitive package of employee benefits and practices, plus fixed and variable salary components.  A change agent with deep functional expertise in Reward & Pensions; driving process improvement, data utilisation and managing external partnerships, whilst playing a key part in the wider People transformation agenda.

The role has the unique opportunity to shape the CoE (Centre of Excellence) globally during a period of growth and change, to define what a world-class function looks like, playing a key role in showcasing Ricardo plc as an employer of choice around the world.

Key responsibilities

• Take overall accountability for developing and implementing a highly effective global Reward & Pensions function covering all aspects of compensation, benefits and wellbeing.
• Support the global People Function Transformation with specific accountability for leading the Global total reward, wellbeing & pensions agenda, enabling the transition to a new operating model, design and deployment of new Reward processes and ways of working.
• Build trusted relationships across the People function and the business, championing a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Lead and develop a team of Compensation, Benefits and Wellbeing specialists, (or lead a service) with a commitment to excellence and best practice​.
• Provide strategic subject matter expertise to matters pertaining to Reward; act in an advisory capacity to Group People Team & Organisation Director, People Director’s, CFO, CEO & People Partners and other senior stakeholders​.
• Conduct market reviews of employee benefits, with data-driven recommendations and approaches​
• Drive increased rigour in the central management of regional benefits, ensuring an improved cycle of market-based review and renewals​.
• Lead & manage the annual salary review (ASR) and bonus planning process, driving a best-practice approach to merit and variable awards, ensuring a seamless and accurate exercise​.
• Conduct a review of variable pay mechanisms, recommending suitable approaches to bonus and sales and commission schemes​.
• Support the business on the establishment of new regional corporate entities, working to establish market-appropriate employee offerings in new locations, delivering harmonization across the group where relevant.
• Partner with the Head of Talent to conduct equal pay audits, recommending corrective action as required across a range of demographics.​
• Partner with the Internal Communications team to ensure appropriate levels of employee awareness and engagement on Reward matters​.
• Work with third party suppliers for compensation and benefits benchmarking data; be the SME within the wider HR community to promote understanding of practices to support development/ growth of the business​.
• Design and implement approaches to employee recognition.​
• Partner with Global Mobility to drive a consistent approach to international assignments and relocations​.
• Design and implement fit-for-purpose metrics, reports and HRIS capabilities​.
• Partner with Digital Transformation on the deployment of new HCM system from a Reward perspective.
• Input and support on ad-hoc projects, including potential M&A due diligence and integration.
• Management of the Flexible benefits programme.
• Build trusted relationships across all levels across the organisation, demonstrating skill in collaborative working – skilfully partnering with business stakeholders and People Function colleagues.
• Lead, coordinate, motivate and develop diverse teams of individuals across multiple locations.
• Effectively establish, maintain and manage strong partnership relationships with all 3rd party suppliers.
• Provide mentorship, guidance and career development to team members and other colleagues within Ricardo.
• An inspirational role model that lives our values and understands the importance of driving the right culture to achieve business priorities.
• A business partner, team player and change agent.

Key competencies and experience

• Strategic Agility - Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Directing Others - Is good at establishing clear directions; sets stretching objectives; distributes the workload appropriately; lays out work in a well-planned and organised manner; maintains two-way dialogue with others on work and results; brings out the best in people; is a clear communicator.
• Customer Focus - Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Drive for Results - Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Dealing with Ambiguity - Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
• Self-Knowledge - Knows personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits; seeks feedback; gains insights from mistakes; is open to criticism; isn’t defensive; is receptive to talking about shortcomings; looks forward to balanced (+’s and – ‘s) performance reviews and career discussions.

• Extensive experience of working in Senior Reward roles in global organisations, successfully leading functions through transformation and change.
• Extensive experience across the full international compensation and benefits landscape​.
• Experience in applying the latest thinking and industry insights to challenge traditional ways of working and operational standards to improve employee experience.
• Extensive experience in working within a dynamic fast-paced environment, under pressure with frequent deadlines.
• Extensive experience in partnering and influencing at a senior level C suite level​.
• Fluency in English is a pre-requisite; another language is an advantage but not required.
• Experience working in consulting businesses and or engineering/scientific knowledge workers would be an advantage.

Skills and behaviours 

• A strong fit with Ricardo’s culture; commercial, collaborative, low ego and non-hierarchal.
• Resilient and brave; able to make bold decisions with first class communication and relationship building skills and a good sense of humour.
• Always work collaboratively, actively seeking and responding to business input; engaging all key stakeholders; acting as an enabler/facilitator/coach to establish strong understanding, capability and commitment.
• Will ‘think out of the box’ - continually aware of latest trends in all aspects of the SME areas they are accountable to develop to enable the design and implementation of ‘leading edge solutions’ that energise and engages the business.
• Flexible and adaptable; will thrive in a changing environment, readily deal with ambiguity, cope with setbacks, and always seek solutions (rather than problems).
• Demonstrate a genuine interest in others; adapting your style to ‘get the best outcome’ from every situation/interaction, being aware, sensitive and respectful to different cultural needs.
• Energetic and dedicated, will do whatever it takes to get the job done, building strong and trusting relationships at all levels.
• A confident and articulate communicator with personal presence and gravitas, will effectively influence, engage and challenge to gain understanding and commitment for their agenda.
• Resilience, pragmatism, and solutions-focus when faced with ambiguity. 
• A continuous improvement mindset and true knowledge of change management best practice. 

Desirable

• CIPD Level 7.
• Related Degree or post graduate Degree in relevant field.

Working with Ricardo

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place.

We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on.  Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance 

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core to our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. 

Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team via recruit@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach as explained here. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are a recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

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