Operational Support Officer

The Digital Services Directorate Risk and Assurance team plays a vital role in safeguarding the organisation by managing risk and assurance activities. The team identify and assess risks that could impact objectives, develop frameworks and policies for consistent risk management, and monitor and report risks to senior leaders. The team provides assurance that processes, controls, and compliance measures are effective and are working as intended, while supporting audits and governance activities to maintain accountability and transparency. The team ensures risk and assurance information is accurate and reliable to enable confident decision making, helping the organisation achieve its goals. In this essential role, you'll support the team that safeguards our organisation's ability to produce the statistics that matter most to society. You'll be responsible for operational management activities, gathering management information, coordinating meetings and documentation, and ensuring our risk and assurance processes run smoothly.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

The Operational Support role can have a wide range of responsibilities and will require the ability to support the team leads and wider teams in the day-to-day activities. You will be responsible for administrative tasks, operational management, improvement of processes and ensuring effective running of operational services and delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

• Using software and resources as a management tool to support production of MI and informing key stakeholders.
• Completing and reviewing information, to ensure it follows standard operation procedures.
• Responsible for agenda coordination, meeting schedules and distribution of notes & actions, ensuring the key actions are followed up and monitored through agreed systems.
• Build and maintain good working relationships across forums to provide support.
• Coordination of team shared mailboxes and organising the associated SharePoint sites as a site owner.
• Managing and editing user access for systems and SharePoint.
• Cross checking data and information to ensure work is accurate, query resolution where required.
• Assist with implementation and transition to new systems.
• Taking notes and prepare documentation for ad hoc meetings as required.

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.

Visa Sponsorship:

ONS is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are currently in the UK on a time-limited visa, it must have at least 18 months remaining at the point of application.

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements:

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Applicant Support

Number of Stages: 3 stage process

Stage 1: Civil Service Verbal Test

Stage 2: Application

Stage 3: Interview

Stage 1 - Civil Service Verbal Test

Upon submission of Part 1 your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete Civil Service Verbal online tests.

There will be full instructions on how to complete each test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. These tests are not time limited.

If you pass all tests for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application, this is where you will provide information such as your work history, skills and experience and Personal Statement. If you fail a test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

Stage 2 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 3 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales) and Titchfield.

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

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted from Friday 23rd October

Interviews will be conducted from Monday 9th November

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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