Career Navigator

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

This role will work within the Devon System and report to the ICS Retention Lead.

The role of the Career Navigator is to ensure that Devon System nursing workforce is enabled to access quality career conversations to identify their potential.

This will include providing individual tailored coaching to staff to ensure they are fulfilled and in control of their careers. Individuals accessing the service may include those who are newly entering the profession, to those seeking a change or to those who are considering leaving the Health and Social Care sector.

A key outcome measure for this post will be the ability to retain the skills of our existing staff within the Devon Health and Social Care sectors.

There is a requirement for excellent personal and communication skills and a keen desire to support staff across the Health and Social Care sectors in the Devon System.

This role will provide a service across the Devon System and there is a requirement to work in collaboration with Workforce Leads, Learning and Development Leads and Clinicians across the Health and Social Care sectors.

It will be essential to develop and nurture key relationships with partners and organisations across the sectors.

The post holder will feel confident in using their skills and experience from working with Health and Social Care to support colleagues to identify the area of work which they are interested in.

The post holder will understand the posts and development pathways which are available across the Health and Social Care sectors within the system in order to offer guidance regarding the completion of job applications and interview techniques for staff.

The Career Navigator will work closely with organisational teams and external training providers across the Devon System, to understand and develop clear, capability-focused career paths in order for staff to know the career pathways available to achieve their route to success. This will reflect both current workforce needs and future workforce planning requirements.

The post holder will need to demonstrate empathy, rapport building, resilience and interpersonal skills required to coach individuals through career transitions.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Conduct outreach activities to ensure participation of registered nurses across the system over the course of the career navigation programme and monitor the progress of outcomes for individuals in that group.

Hold career navigation conversations to understand candidates circumstances and potential on an individual basis.

Proactively gain knowledge of current vacancies across the Health & Social Care Sectors, to include knowledge of hard to fill vacancies within the ICS.

Have an awareness of the system vacancies to support career navigation conversations in an informed and sustainable way.

Hold a case load of career navigation conversations to include job matching advice, application support, interview preparation and interview feedback if appropriate.

Record information as to career navigation outputs and develop an Outputs Dashboard to note the interventions achieved, the specific support provided and the individual outcomes.

Undertake data analysis to provide trend and impact analysis and retention outcomes for participants on the career navigation programme.

Produce presentations and reports to enable programme outputs to be shared and learning to be taken from the programme.

Signpost participants to mentoring or coaching programmes as appropriate if requested.

Undertake any other ad-hoc tasks as and when required.

Travel cross the Devon area for team meetings, meetings with colleagues, stakeholders and any other service needs.

Identify own training needs and ensure knowledge is kept up to date by attending any training relevant to the role

Organisational Responsibilities

Be able to communicate effectively to offer a seamless service alongside other healthcare professionals and across the working of the multi-disciplinary teams.

Apply an empathic approach where required and in consideration to the nature of the project whereby staff anxiety and lack of support may impact on working relationships in some situations.

Instil an enthusiasm and commitment to staff support that is displayed in and out of the team to actively promote the programme and the work.

Contribute to retention across the ICB through the provision of specialist support

Demonstrate safe use of educational resources/equipment

Observe organisational policies at all times and support policies and procedures for the operational management of education and development.

Support e-learning and other technologies and contribute to the development and maintenance of appropriate databases.

Work in partnership to ensure that education is embedded in clinical practice across organisation.

Communication and Relationships

Have excellent verbal, communication, interpersonal skills and the ability to vary the style and level of communication, in order to provide a bespoke approach and style to colleagues seeking career guidance.

Ensure clear lines of communication and work collaboratively with all relevant Health and Social Care professionals including Workforce teams, Learning and Development teams, Clinical leads, Staff Side representatives and Trade Unions across the Devon System.

Have a commitment to and a focus on quality, promoting consistently high standards.

Value diversity and difference, operating with openness and integrity at all times.

Work well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, respects and learns from the contribution of others.

Have an understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships.

Utilise complex information gathered about vacancies and candidates to identify, coordinate, and support candidates to determine roles which may be a successful match for their skillset and career aspirations.

Provide and receive highly complex sensitive and sometimes contentious information in a professional manner including, for example, discussions about complaints for which the individual may need to be signposted to appropriate services or personal experiences which may be sensitive and confidential in nature.

Have the ability to determine through inquisitive and curious conversation the key drivers of individuals in respect of their career, and to provide appropriate guidance, signposting and referrals.

Maintain open lines of communication with wider stakeholder groups to provide regular updates and progress on the programme. This will include providing high level written communication for presentation at a senior level in addition to the ability to present to large groups.

Build and maintain strong working relationships and influence with the wider system to enable and strengthen collaborative working and to improve retention outcomes at a system level.

Maintain knowledge of hard to recruit roles across the Devon system and to work with individuals following career conversations to utilise the staffing to deliver work ready individuals.

Provide guidance to colleagues across the system as to the use of career navigation tools as required, for example through the provision of line management upskilling sessions.

Functional Responsibilities

Analytical responsibilities

Use own judgement, to make decisions on a daily basis dealing with problems/issues as they arise whiles working autonomously.

Maintain appropriate data collection systems for retrieval of information.

Monitor and maintain department standards, analyse systematically and evaluate all data and relevant information.

Monitoring employee experiences and co-creating solutions when broader areas of improvement are recognised as being needed.

Be responsible for escalating or signposting specific concerns which are brought to your attention by participants as necessary, requiring excellent judgement skills.

Research and Development

Undertake audits and reviews to identify trends in Career Navigation outputs.

Research to understand the reasons for these trends and present these insights to the relevant body.

Undertake data analysis to map key groups of colleagues who engage with the Career Navigation resource to determine future groups of focus

Operational Responsibilities

Planning and organisation

Establish a Career Navigation Service pilot to serve the nursing workforce across the Devon system.

Autonomously manage, plan, organise and deliver multiple workstreams as part of the Career Navigation portfolio. This will include encouraging participation from underrepresented groups, arranging career navigation conversations, assessment and development of career pathways, communication with system partners to understand demand, data analysis and production of reporting.

Manage these workstreams which are complex in nature as the post holder will need to create a plan for each candidates career navigation process, considering multiple components and complex information regarding the candidates circumstances and the current system wide vacancies.

Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to co-coordinate elements of the career navigation role to deliver on the wider objectives set out in the project plan.

(Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification attached to this advert for full details of this role).

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Nurse/Midwife with recent experience within the health and social care system
• Educated to degree level, or equivalent
• ECDL or equivalent training/experience to include Word, Excel and Outlook
• GCSE Grade C literacy and numeracy or able to demonstrate equivalent by experience/skills

Desirable

• Coaching Qualification, for example the ILM Level 5, or equivalent

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a health or social care environment
• Working unsupervised and autonomously managing elements of a project or service
• Creating standard operating procedures
• Work with key recruitment partners and stakeholders to develop a strong employer brand.
• Adjusting project plans based on new information and learning.
• Performing within a high pressured project in order to meet KPIs and deadlines.
• Operating within the standard operating procedures of a project
• Independently managing workload to meet multiple vacancy deadlines simultaneously.
• Planning key recruitment workstreams as part of a wider strategy to address hard to fill roles
• Understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships
• Microsoft Office systems including: Outlook, Word,
• Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher
• Delivering career advice, coaching or training
• Plan key recruitment workstreams as part of a wider strategy to address hard to fill roles

Desirable

• Previous experience in similar role in public sector

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge of the Health and Social Care workforce, to include career pathways, routes into nursing and workforce demand positions.
• Knowledge of equality and diversity issues, specifically in relation to recruitment and retention
• Willingness to use technology to improve project delivery.
• Driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Willingness to engage in training required for the role where necessary.

Skills and Attributes

Essential

• Advanced keyboard skills for regular use of computer systems
• Project Management skills
• A good standard of literacy/English language skills
• Effectively manage queries by phone, email, text, Teams and face to face
• Communicate information in a clear and comprehensive way when delivering training
• Communicating complex information regarding multiple vacancies clearly and concisely when communicating with colleagues
• Communicating project updates to various audiences during project development stages.
• Adapting communication techniques to meet the target audience.
• Critical thinking skills and the ability to provide input to strategic plans.
• Ability to explain sensitive information in a manner that is respectful and professional
• Proven ability to influence and persuade
• Proven ability to negotiate
• Able to deal with complex and unpredictable situations
• Create standard operating procedures
• Work with key recruitment partners and stakeholders to develop a strong employer brand
• Adjust project plans based on new information and learning
• Perform within a high pressured project in order to meet KPIs and deadlines
• Operate within the standard operating procedures of a project
• Ability to work without supervision
• Able to work on own initiative, organising and prioritising own and others workloads to changing and often tight deadlines
• Understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and trust Professional, calm and efficient manner
• Positive and flexible approach to work
• Demonstrate initiative and drive to achieve results
• Commitment to continuing professional development

Desirable

• Independently managing workload to meet multiple vacancy deadlines simultaneously.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).