Scotland HQ office, 35 hours per week, permanent

Imagine being faced with a world of exciting possibilities that could ultimately enable you to support our members and help shape the health policies of the future. As the UK’s largest trade union and professional body for nursing, we support close to half a million members with unwavering loyalty and total commitment. We represent and develop them, support their practice and lobby on their behalf to make a positive difference to their working lives.

As a trusted adviser, mediator and advocate you’ll be just as passionate about supporting our members, It’s a high pressure role that will require all of your determination and resilience, but it’s also a role that offers genuine satisfaction.

As an RCN officer you’ll use your positive attitude and your knowledge of HR processes, employment matters and the health and care sector’s issues to deliver best practice in relation to our members’ workplace issues through case work, influencing and negotiating.

Our people are our greatest asset, and we want people who can contribute to our purpose in line with our values.

Every day will be filled with possibilities as you find new ways to advise and support our members and our accredited representatives. You will manage your own portfolio of casework, which will include assisting and representing members with employment related issues and processes.

Supporting our valued members will be your primary role, you’ll play a part in member recruitment and you’ll also see the potential and power that our members have collectively. A key part of your role will be to suggest innovative approaches to recruiting and developing representatives within Scotland.

To join us you’ll need to be able to advise and represent our members on matters relating to employment, professional practice, and education. Ideally, you will have a background in health and social care and you will have experience in supporting individuals or groups with work related issues. It would be great if you are a nurse with a valid NMC registration but, we recognise that experience in other professional roles (such as human resources and legal services) can offer transferable skills and knowledge for this role. We offer a robust induction and development plan for successful individuals to enable transition into the role.

You will need to have good communication skills, be able to challenge and negotiate skilfully, with the ability to work with a range of stakeholders across a variety of health and care settings. You will also need emotional resilience and be able to mix compassion and empathy with clear boundaries and service delivery.

To succeed at the Royal College of Nursing all you need to do is think bigger, better and brighter. And with an attitude like that, anything’s possible.

What we offer you

We expect you to look after our members. And we expect you to be rewarded for it. We offer an impressive range of benefits, a broad range of learning development opportunities and an award-winning health and wellbeing programme. We offer annual leave up to 32 days plus bank holidays and three additional days for the Christmas break plus generous maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave packages.

We offer a competitive pay structure with annual pay progression until you reach the top of the salary scale. We normally offer new employees the first point of the salary range, although you may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary depending on your skills, experience and current salary.

We are a diverse organisation and understand everyone has different needs and many of our employees enjoy flexible working enabling them to deliver results whilst having a good work life balance. Our hybrid working model means that at least 40% of your working time will be spent working in person, in our Edinburgh office, or out and about in member’s workplaces.

Our selection process

Please click the ‘apply now’ button to apply and answer the supporting questions online demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this role. You may not be shortlisted if you don’t. Any identifying information in your application will automatically be anonymised for shortlisting purposes.

We want your experience applying for a job with us to be the best it can be. We may hold our interviews and assessments in person or by video call. If you foresee any problems, please let us know.

Equal opportunities for everyone

Equity, diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we aim to foster an inclusive environment so our people can bring their authentic selves to work. This is integral to our mission to enable you to support our members and ensure their voice is heard by all UK governments to get the best outcomes for them and their patients.

As proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities.

Contact details

For more information or for an informal discussion about the role, please contact Ricky Sherriff-Short, Senior RCN Officer via the Patch Administrator on 0131 662 6158, option 3. Please note that this advert may close early if we receive a high volume of applications