Administrative Officer - Army

The Ministry of Defence, Civil Service workforce is diverse, with many different functions and professions ranging from cyber and digital transformation, police officers, security guards, trainers, human resources, teachers, psychologists, storekeepers, and policy secretariat staff to support the British Army.

4 MERCIAN is the Reserve Battalion of The MERCIAN Regiment and comprises more than 400 soldiers from a wide range of backgrounds. The Battalion consists of two Rifle Companies, a Support Company and a Headquarters Company, each with approximately 75 to 100 personnel.

The Battalion includes personnel undertaking a variety of roles, including Infantry, Chef, Human Resources and Combat Medical Technician positions. The Band of The MERCIAN Regiment is also made up of Reserve personnel and is based in Wolverhampton.

This role is varied and rewarding, providing essential administrative and clerical support to the Company. The successful candidate will help manage the administration of more than 300 personnel, including Regular, Reserve and Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel.

The Permanent Staff team is committed to ensuring Reservists can undertake training at the right time, with the correct equipment and all necessary administration completed. As a result, the successful candidate will need to understand the wider operational requirements, work proactively, and be able to resolve issues quickly, often at short notice.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

This position plays a key role in the smooth and efficient running of the Company. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring administrative requirements are completed accurately and on time, whether supporting a single Reservist attending training or coordinating administration for a large group of personnel.

The role is a particularly rewarding one, and at times, fast paced. It requires a professional who will take pride in completing tasks on time, and to a very high standard. A keenness to help out all members of the team is needed, as a certain amount of redundancy and covering of roles for brief periods is inevitable across any given training year.

As the Administrative Officer you will be required to carry out a multitude of administrative tasks with the overall aim of supporting the day-to-day functioning of the Battalion Headquarters. This is an excellent opportunity to work within a supportive environment alongside both civilian employees and military personnel.

Key responsibilities:

• Monitoring of a group mailbox.
• Arranging travel for military personnel via approved channels.
• Assist in the administration of documents and record management in accordance with policy.
• The maintenance of unit SharePoint site.
• Electronic and manual filing systems in accordance with policy and legislation.
• Ensuring all Company personnel are fit to deploy through administrative checks on documents.
• Completion of monthly pay for all Company personnel ensuring all personnel receive pay for the correct number of days worked.
• General office duties including, but not limited to, note taking, drafting letters, scanning.
• Undertake regular compliance and assurance checks on military specific systems – full training will be given.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

At the application stage, you will be assessed against the following criteria, listed in priority order:

• Personal Statement - 500 words demonstrating your relevant skills and experience in line with the essential criteria.
• Behaviour - Communicating & Influencing

Where a large number of applications are received, an initial sift may be conducted against the Personal Statement only. The remaining evidence submitted at the application stage will be assessed only if you are successful at this initial sift.

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following criteria, listed in priority order:

Behaviours:

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Application sifting will be scheduled to take place within 7 days of the application closing date. Interview dates are to be confirmed and will be held in person. We endeavour to keep to these time frames, but these are subject to change around business needs.

Further information:

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.