Strategic Planning Group Manager

at  Information Commissioners Office

ABOUT US

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent regulator of information rights. In a data-driven world, we provide advice, guidance, and support to organisations enabling compliance with their obligations, as well as protecting individuals and their personal data.
As an employer, we are passionate about making a positive difference to the lives and careers of our people, and we empower you to be curious, impactful, collaborative and respectful.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The way the ICO plans and allocates its resources is critical to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation.
To deliver relevant and quality regulatory services that are value for public money, the ICO needs an integrated and modern planning framework. A framework which provides: robust realistic plans, clear priorities, is values-led, and delivers in a transparent and impactful way. There should be a good understanding of regulatory outcomes and monitoring of performance against them. The ability to identify new priorities and reshape plans in an agile and flexible way is important.
The purpose of the Strategic Planning Group Manager role is to take forward the ICO’s approach to strategic business planning and to deliver the best outcomes and services in relation to our priorities and statutory responsibilities.
This post advises the senior management team on how to improve planning and performance, advises on priorities, resource impacts, performance criteria, presents information for workshops, drafts and presents reports against the performance plan, carries out evaluations and recommends areas for review for successes and failures in the organisation. This post will work collaboratively with many teams and therefore requires an adaptive and flexible approach. It requires experience of business planning, strategy development, and a proven ability to develop practical solutions to complex problems.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Understand the ICO business direction and needs, including market dynamics, social and demographic trends, and growth projections. Assist and contribute to strategic planning by analysing trends and forecasting and facilitate MB/ET/SLT group discussions and planning workshops
• Assist with solutions, roadmaps and assessment of potential business impacts, providing insightful analysis that enables senior management to make sound and informed decisions around the future direction of the business.
• Own the responsibility for defining, developing, and implementing the business planning processes, coordinating cross-functional teams to improve business planning methods.
• Work closely with the Planning and Performance Group Manager to define, develop and implement the ICO’s approach to performance management including developing measures and criteria to evaluate the organisation’s performance, carrying out evaluations to establish reasons for success and failure in the organisation, setting up reporting structures to SLT/ET/MB, and publish a performance plan.
• Provide clarity to the business on what measures are KPIs, performance indicators or management information, and where they should sit in the performance reporting hierarchy, ensuring a robust business definition and supporting logic is defined, documented and kept up to date for each KPI.
• Consult with service users and stakeholders and compare the planning and delivery of services by the ICO with delivery in other regulators and similar sized and nature organisations, and assess its effectiveness.
• Work closely with the Planning and Performance Group Manager to monitor and evaluate organisational performance to identify patterns and trends to seek improvements in service delivery. Advise senior management on the strategic and operational performance of the organisation. Lead and feed performance information into the ICO’s Annual Report.
• Work collaboratively and build strong relationships with multiple areas of the business, including Finance, Risk, PMO, Economic Analysis and Delivery to develop and implement best practices and learning plans to meet business objectives. Manage and co-ordinate cross-functional operational teams for planning and performance work.
• Inform and respond to external and internal requests around planning and performance management. Prepare position papers, briefings and presentations in response to questions from senior managers and others in accordance with legislation and company protocols ensuring a modern and engaging communication style.
• Participate in management meetings, prepare for and actively contribute within meetings in a clear, concise and relevant manner, ensuring decisions and actions are communicated to appropriate personnel.
• Add value to the wider operation of the ICO by setting clear parameters and providing specialist advice to assist with the planning and performance framework.
• Required to lead and manage a cross-functional task team on both planning and performance matters.