About the job

Job summary

Would you like to join one of the Scottish Government’s largest Directorates in a key local delivery role?

 

If you are someone who has excellent communication skills and experience in a customer facing role, can demonstrate strong administrative and organisation skills, while prioritising workloads to meet deadlines then this exciting opportunity to join The Scottish Government could be for you.

 

Our Rural Payment and Inspection Division teams of professional agricultural, customer service and administrative staff are based in a network of 17 offices located around rural Scotland.  These teams manage the implementation of agricultural, environmental and rural policies.

 

As an Administrative Officer in our Elgin Area office, you will play a key role to our business by delivering a high quality, frontline customer service and supporting Area Office staff to provide professional advice to Scottish Ministers, the general public and other colleagues throughout the Scottish Government.

 

Area Offices are the main point of contact with farmers, crofters and other interested parties, being responsible for the delivery of grants, subsidies and other Government policies to the rural community, therefore, having an outward customer focus and communicating effectively with colleagues and customers will be pivotal to the smooth running of the office.

 

This role is part of our busy front office team and you can expect to spend a lot of time on the phone or at our front counter helping farmers with questions about their applications or claims.  When not dealing with customers you will be processing the applications and claims that our customers have submitted to you.

 

Your workload will be varied and, at times, extremely busy.  You will therefore need to plan, organise and prioritise your work in order to meet agreed deadlines, whilst maintaining a high level of quality and accuracy. Working front of office, you will be required to use your own initiative to resolve issues, have a positive attitude, but above all, always treating our customers with dignity, fairness and respect.

 

This role offers and excellent opportunity to grow and develop your skills with a variety of learning and development opportunities.

Job description

• Receipting, data capture, assessment and authorisation of applications and claims submitted under a wide range of agricultural and environmental schemes.
• Dealing with telephone, written and face to face enquiries from both internal and external customers. This would include, but is not limited to, assisting them with registration and maintenance of their business details and submitting applications using SGRPID's online system - Rural Payments & Services (RP&S).
• Using RP&S and other IT systems, make assessments of information submitted by businesses in relation to both themselves and their applications. This includes an element of data capture if information has been submitted on paper.
• General administrative duties, including filing, acknowledgement and onward processing of mail, compilation of inspection files and maintaining spreadsheet information.

Person specification

1. Excellent written and verbal communication skills and experience in using Information Technology systems, in particular Microsoft Office Products – Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams etc.
2. Strong administrative, organisational and planning skills with the ability to prioritise work when presented with competing tasks and deadlines.
3. A proven ability to be a team player who works well with others but can carry out individual tasks when required with the minimum of supervision.
4. Experience in successfully dealing with a diverse range of customers.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,235, Scottish Government contributes £6,813 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Sift and Interview dates TBC
Please apply using the link provided

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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.