Talent Acquisition Manager

The West Midlands Combined Authority is delivering ambitious plans for the region, and our ability to attract, secure and retain great people is critical to making those plans happen. You’ll be part of our People & Culture Services playing a key role in helping WMCA become the best place to work and belong, making sure we have the skills, capability and capacity needed to deliver meaningful results for the West Midlands.

As Talent Acquisition Manager, you will lead the operational delivery of recruitment across WMCA, ensuring we can attract and secure the permanent, temporary and contingent talent needed to meet workforce priorities. This role is about more than filling vacancies, it is about building an inclusive, effective and insight-led talent acquisition service that supports workforce planning, improves candidate and hiring manager experience, and helps position WMCA as an employer of choice.

What you’ll be doing.

• Lead the operational delivery of Talent Acquisition across WMCA, translating agreed talent acquisition strategy and workforce priorities into clear delivery plans, team objectives and service standards.
• Lead the Talent Acquisition team, maintaining delivery, productivity, performance, appropriate cover and an effective, customer-focused and candidate-focused service.
• Build effective relationships with senior stakeholders, recruiting managers and People colleagues, providing advice on recruitment delivery, service risks, labour market information, resourcing options and future workforce capability requirements.
• Build talent pipelines and develop diverse attraction strategies aligned to workforce planning, using labour market insight, skills and values-based hiring approaches and appropriate routes to market to address critical organisational skills gaps.
• Ensure effective, inclusive and compliant recruitment services across permanent, temporary and contingent recruitment, delivering a first-class candidate experience from initial interest through to offer and onboarding and supporting hiring managers to recruit to high standards.
• Monitor recruitment demand, workload, time to hire, cost per hire, service outcomes, candidate experience and pipeline activity, using recruitment performance information, systems, data and reporting to allocate resources, maintain delivery and drive continuous improvement.
• Manage recruitment expenditure, supplier performance, procurement compliance and contingent workforce governance, while maximising the responsible and inclusive use of technology, recruitment systems and AI-enabled tools in line with employment legislation and recruitment best practice.

What’s essential.

• Ability to translate recruitment strategy into action plans that meet business objectives.
• Experience leading a Talent Acquisition or resourcing function within a complex matrix organisation.
• Demonstrable evidence of creating and implementing resourcing interventions that have a visible impact on organisational success.
• Experience leading professional recruiters, including allocating work, coaching, mentoring, managing performance and developing teams.
• Ability to shape and deliver whole of market Talent Acquisition strategies in line with organisational objectives and market trends.
• Ability to build relationships, manage stakeholders and communicate at all levels.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and represent the organisation at external forums and networks.
• Evidence of implementing change in a complex and changing environment.
• Ability to analyse recruitment data and labour market trends to inform strategy.
• Understanding of workforce planning techniques, processes and engagement.
• Experience embedding inclusive hiring practices and measurable diversity, equity and inclusion outcomes.
• Experience producing strategic reports and presenting insight to senior leaders.
• Evidence of delivering improvements to candidate experience, recruitment service and recruitment systems.

For a full list of duties and essential criteria, please refer to the job description attached to this advert.

Location.

The location for this role is 16 Summer Lane, Birmingham, B19 3SD with 2 days a week spent in the office.

How to apply.

Applying for a role with WMCA is straightforward. Follow these steps to get started.

Please note, we reserve the right to close any vacancy from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications from which to make a shortlist. Please apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Anonymised Applications.

Your uploaded CV won’t be visible after submission. Our process is anonymised, and only the information in your profile is used for shortlisting. Be thorough in each section. It’s your chance to showcase your skills and experience.

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We cannot stop anyone from using AI to help write application content. Used right, it can be a great tool. If you choose to use AI, then use it as a helper rather than relying on it wholly to write your application.

Applications that rely too heavily on AI may be rejected during shortlisting. For help on how to write a supporting statement, please visit the FAQs section of our careers site.

Reasonable adjustments.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the application or recruitment process, please get in touch with our Recruitment Team ([email removed]).

Salary and benefits.

We advertise salary ranges, with new appointments typically starting at the lowest salary point. In exceptional cases, the salary point may be adjusted to secure the best candidate. This approach allows for potential year-on-year salary increases, offering progression and appropriate rewards to employees. Requests for salaries above the maximum advertised range will not be considered.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Local Government Pension Scheme (one of the most generous pension schemes in the UK).
• Shared Cost Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme where you can build an additional pot of money alongside your pension with contributions exempt from Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs).
• 28 days paid annual leave (with an option to purchase more) + Statutory days.
• EV car benefit scheme
• Healthcare plans.
• Discounted gym membership, will writing, and mortgage advice.
• An option to buy a bicycle, including e-bikes and adapted pedal cycles, at a discounted rate.
• 3 days of paid leave each year to volunteer.
• Interest-free financing through SmartTech to buy the latest technology
• Discounted shopping with over 2,000 big-name retailers, and more. You can now also obtain a Costco membership through the WMCA.
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