MBS Joiners – Talent Acquisition Lead – Contingent Workers

Job Title: MBS Joiners – Talent Acquisition Lead – Contingent Workers

Salary: The starting salary is £59,839, which includes allowances totalling £2,928.

The salary is broken down as £56,911 basic salary, which will increase annually until you reach the top of the scale £69,342. Plus, a location allowance of £1,928 and a non-pensionable allowance of £1,000.

Location: Kennington, Kilburn, Westminster

Met Business Services (MBS) is a new way for the Met to deliver enabling services to all of our officers and staff. MBS is a front-line focused services organisation that sets our people up to succeed, reduces admin, and provides a single source of truth for all HR, Finance and Commercial data, providing a critical cornerstone to fix our foundations.

MBS will help every person and supplier working with the Met by:

Building a modern and efficient industry-standard business services directorate, building and pooling key specialist capabilities, strengthening HR, Finance and Commercial functions whilst removing functional silos;
Designing end-to-end services, building them around the needs of the users rather than in functional process silos and seamlessly integrating them regardless of how they are delivered; and
Providing easy-to-use interfaces and ‘one-touch’ services for end-users that leverage the potential of contemporary technologies like automation and low-code workflows.

This is an exciting time to be part of MBS – we are building new capabilities and new ways of working that will directly help the frontline to focus on what matters and make a real difference to London. The Met as a whole is transforming to deliver on our goals of More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards, and being part of establishing this new organisation puts you at the heart of that journey with tremendous potential for growth both within the team and across the Met. The value and purpose of MBS is wired into the heart of the Met, with opportunities to collaborate across the organisation, drive innovation to get the right outcomes and support our people in policing London.

Role Description

As MPS delivers its strategic plans and priorities, MBS will be a key enabler in ensuring services delivered are frontline-focused and inclusive. The Talent Acquisition Lead plays a critical role in directing services towards achieving effectiveness, efficiency, exceptional customer experience, and optimal value for money.

The Talent Acquisition Lead for Contingent Workers will be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing Talent Acquisition strategies, governance, and reporting to ensure high-quality, reliable, cost effective and efficient MBS recruitment of temporary staff and contractors. They will lead a team of two to oversee end-to-end service outcomes, foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability in a supportive and inclusive workforce.

This role will be responsible for leading resourcing for a specific group of non-permanent roles and contractor extensions. Working as a close partner to the Outsourced Providers but remaining closely engaged with the wider Joiners community, in order to shape a consistent strategic narrative on non-permanent recruitment that is in line with Met priorities.

The Talent Acquisition Lead will make a direct contribution to:

Maintaining optimal capacity levels across the organisation: working collaboratively with colleagues across MPS (L&D, Vetting, ICF etc.) and other key partners to ensure that resourcing plans meet corporate workforce planning requirements.
Designing and building a structure and process for the recruitment and monitoring of contractors within MPS.
Supporting leaders across the MPS in their non-permanent hiring requirements, driving improvements to the Met’s performance, culture and behaviours.
Building the Met’s talent pipeline to ensure we have high quality internal and external candidates to fill key positions.
Building positive relationships with potential candidates and suppliers, providing high levels of customer service to secure talent attraction in a competitive and demanding environment.
Improving levels of representation across the organisation (particularly in respect of female and BME staff).

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team of the Met Business Services, the Talent Acquisition Lead plays a pivotal role in cultivating best-practice GBS behaviours across MBS.

Key Responsibilities

What does the average day look like? Your core duties will include (but are not limited to):

Manage end-to-end Joiner’s process for Temp Staff and Contractors:

Manage Approvals: Manage approval process for new hires and extension, assessing the need for a contractor or temporary staff member and challenging where more commercially viable options should be considered.
Partner with Hiring Managers: Work closely with hiring managers throughout end-to-end process, providing guidance and updates on recruitment process.
Attraction strategy: Manage strategy for non-permanent hiring, sourcing contractor and temp resource
Talent pooling and direct sourcing: Identify, engage, and nurture talent through MPS talent pool technology. Facilitate internal mobility through identifying internal talent for roles prior to releasing vacancies to the market.
Maintain candidate records: Ensure talent pool and candidate pipeline is updated with accurate information throughout the attraction and hiring processes, ensuring all systems correctly represent the contractor workforce.
Ensure compliance: Manage all activity related to IR35 compliance; Maintain contractor rate card; Tenure management.
Analyse contingent workers metrics: Analysis of key operational data pertaining to non-permanent workforce – particularly relating to rates, tenure, contract status. Work collaboratively to discuss service health and performance of service, understand reasoning for problem areas and develop improvement opportunities.
Build and maintain candidate pipelines: Well developed understanding of supply pipelines and organisational requirements, providing forecasts, escalating risks as appropriate.
Management of the non-permanent staff extension process: Manage approvals process to extend non-permanent workers, adhering to policies relating to tenure, rate and IR35.
Manage continuous improvement: Manage projects that deliver ongoing efficiency and improvement across the end-to-end joiner’s process, ensuring competitive time-to-offer timescales and exceptional non-permanent candidate and hiring manager experience. Conduct post implementation evaluations to ensure that interventions are properly realised and deliver the requisite benefits.
Undertake horizon scanning: Continual horizon-scanning to identify potential opportunities, trends and risks in recruitment of temporary and contracted staff across industry and applying that knowledge to MBS.
Query and escalation management: First point of escalation for resourcing issues, complaints and advice to shared services provider regarding recruitment decisions on non-permanent staff lines.
Strategic reporting and governance: Implementing strong governance mechanisms and structures to effectively monitor and review performance in line with GBS best-practice, ensuring reports and presentations are strategically aligned with goals and drive business success.
Collaborate with cross-functional MBS internal and external stakeholders: to define ownership, roles and responsibilities and ensuring clear accountability for quality and integrity purposes.

People Management & Culture:

Line management with dual focus of day-to-day duties alongside a proactive approach to upskilling both direct and indirect reports
Foster a culture of high-performance, innovation and continuous improvement embracing MPS values
Provide guidance, support and mentoring to their team; including career development and ensuring professional GBS accreditation for key positions
Foster a culture of high-performance, innovation and continuous improvement embracing MPS values
Foster a data-driven culture throughout MBS, providing training on talent acquisition techniques
Act as a conduit to ensure the talent acquisition capability within MBS grows and matures in line with GBS best-practices
Drive cultural change to remove silos, set corporate standards and promote inclusivity
Working effectively in diverse teams within an inclusive team culture where people are recognised for their contribution

Additional Information

You may from time to time be required to undertake additional duties necessary to meet the needs of the Met; such duties to be commensurate with the responsibilities and grading of the post.

How to apply

To begin your career at the Met, please click the "apply now" button below. The application process requires a comprehensive CV, a Personal Statement, and an online application form. In your Personal Statement, you should explain your interest in the position and illustrate how your skills and experiences make you a suitable candidate. Please note that you should not submit two copies of your CV and ensure that your documents are saved in either PDF or Word format, clearly labelled as CV and/or Personal Statement.

Completed applications must be submitted by 23:55 on 2nd June 2025.

Once received, your application will be reviewed against eligibility criteria, following this, your application will be reviewed by the hiring manager. The application review for this vacancy will commence date to be confirmed.

Following application review, successful candidates will be invited to interview. Interview dates will commence date to be confirmed.