Business Support Manager (Ref: 23942)

Please refer to Job Description

Business Support Manager

Location: National*

Closing date: 18th November

Interviews: Expected in the week commencing 30th November

Grade: HEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer.)

Salary**: London: £40,014 - £42,859

National: £35,335 - £37,847

Working pattern: Full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 4

• We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.

We’re recruiting Business Support Managers here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to work alongside our Digital and Data Cross Function Deputy Director and be part of our warm and collaborative team.

We are particularly interested in someone who is passionate about making work simpler and more effective through technology. You will be confident using digital productivity tools, including AI and automation, and curious about how new and emerging capabilities can improve the way we work. We want someone who can help us make better use of the tools we already have, reducing unnecessary administration, making information easier to find and helping the Deputy Director and wider team focus their time on what matters most.

The Business Support Manager will support the Deputy Director with the task of running a complex, mission-led and nationally dispersed organisation. You will be responsible for the smooth running of their office and help them prioritise their work, often taking on specific tasks of your own. You will also act as a central point of contact for others in the department and be a visible presence for the wider team.

To be successful in this role, you will need strong organisational and planning skills, with the ability to work at pace and juggle competing priorities. You will also need experience of working successfully with senior colleagues and the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships at all levels.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave (increasing to 30 days after five years of service), plus eight bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements, including hybrid working, part-time working or compressed hours, designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks’ leave at full pay, 13 weeks at partial pay and a further 13 weeks’ leave. Maternity support/paternity leave is also available at full pay for two weeks.

You can find more details of the benefits we offer in our benefits guide. To help picture your life at Justice Digital, Data and Science, take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date workforce data, including headcount, vacancies, recruitment campaigns, people transfers and cost centre changes, helping to support payroll and financial alignment.
• Provide efficient, proactive and strategic support to the Deputy Director, helping them manage their priorities and the effective running of their office.
• Proactively manage the Deputy Director’s diary and inbox, prioritising commitments, protecting time for strategic work and ensuring meetings are purposeful and well prepared.
• Act as the first point of contact for the Deputy Director’s office, identifying important communications, coordinating responses and proactively gathering input from colleagues.
• Make effective use of digital productivity tools, including approved AI and automation capabilities, to summarise meetings, capture decisions, track actions and make information easy to find and retrieve.
• Develop and maintain simple, effective approaches to organising information, records, decisions and actions, ensuring important commitments are followed through.
• Help the Deputy Director and wider leadership team make better use of everyday office productivity tools, supporting simpler and more efficient ways of working.
• Commission and coordinate briefings, reports and returns for the Deputy Director, ensuring information is timely, accurate and proportionate.
• Coordinate the Deputy Director’s participation in meetings, events and off-sites, and organise wider team activities such as all-staff meetings, new starter sessions and away days.
• Maintain accurate workforce data and support workforce planning activity, including headcount, vacancies, recruitment and onboarding information.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across the directorate, department and wider government, acting as a visible and approachable point of contact for the Deputy Director’s office.

If this sounds like an exciting challenge and you’re enthusiastic about joining our team, please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential

• Experience providing proactive support to senior leaders in a large or complex organisation, including effective diary and inbox management, planning and prioritisation.
• Strong digital skills, with experience using productivity tools, AI or automation to improve efficiency, simplify processes and reduce administrative effort.
• Excellent organisational skills and judgement, with the ability to anticipate needs, manage competing priorities and ensure important actions and commitments are followed through.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to work effectively with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams and functions.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness and Together. Find out more about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

The Civil Service is committed to attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. To learn more, please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

The base salary for this role is £40,014–£42,859 in London and £35,335–£37,847 nationally.

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
• Experience providing proactive support to senior leaders in a large or complex organisation, including effective diary and inbox management, planning and prioritisation.
• Excellent organisational skills and judgement, with the ability to anticipate needs, manage competing priorities and ensure important actions and commitments are followed through.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to work effectively with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams and functions.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details. Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on 'Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to work effectively with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams and functions' will be conducted before the sift.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Candidates who meet the required standard will be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview, you will be assessed against experience, technical skills and the following behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. If two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the Communicating and Influencing behaviour will be used as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk

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)

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
• Experience providing proactive support to senior leaders in a large or complex organisation, including effective diary and inbox management, planning and prioritisation.
• Excellent organisational skills and judgement, with the ability to anticipate needs, manage competing priorities and ensure important actions and commitments are followed through.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to work effectively with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams and functions.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details. Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on 'Strong communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to work effectively with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams and functions' will be conducted before the sift.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Candidates who meet the required standard will be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview, you will be assessed against experience, technical skills and the following behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. If two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the Communicating and Influencing behaviour will be used as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & ConditionsPlease review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk

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