About the job

Job summary

The Civil Service embraces equality, diversity, and inclusion. At HSE, your personal qualities are as important as your professional experience. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Our approach is to recruit “on merit on the basis of fair and open competition”, in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. As such, our thorough selection process ensures that you and every other candidate receive equal and fair treatment.

We have several exciting opportunities for Administrative Support Officers to join our growing and dynamic business across our Inspection and Investigation Division (IVD), Chemical Regulations Division (CRD) and Building Safety Division (BSD), which potential opportunities arising in other areas in the business in future for candidates placed on the reserve list.

Job description

This is a brigaded campaign, which means we are recruiting into a number of departments within HSE. Candidates who apply will be considered for roles within:

• Inspection and Investigation Division (IVD)  / Divisional Support Unit (DSU) - Chelmsford
• Chemical Regulations Division (CRD) - Liverpool
• Building Safety Division (BSD) - Any HSE office listed. As part of your role you will be required to occasionally travel.

On your application, you will have the option of choosing up to 3 location preferences. Please ensure that your 2nd and 3rd choices are feasible as there is a possibility you may be offered locations.

An overview of each department is below:

Inspections and Investigation / Divisional Support Unit - Working within the Divisional Support Unit, Operational Support teams are responsible for supporting frontline colleagues, aligned to the Inspection, Investigation and Specialist Divisions, responsible for operational delivery across a range of industries including Manufacturing, Construction and Agriculture. You will contribute to the yearly delivery plan through a range of established and developing internal processes and procedures. The role involves triaging potential visits, for which you will create inspection packages for use by regulating teams, processing gas cases, preparing litigation files, and the triage of RIDDORS. You will be proactive in self-development and collaboration within your teams and across the cross-divisional network, with an ability and passion to deliver at pace. Candidates joining IVD should be able to commit to a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Chemical Regulations Division - You could be working in a team supporting scientists with their work, responding to requests from stakeholders on their applications or working within a policy function.
Many of the posts give you the opportunity to support scientific staff on progressing the authorisation of applications for the approval of pesticides or industrial chemicals and managing the delivery of approval/authorisation of pesticide active substances and products. We also have teams involved in the evaluation of data submitted in support of applications for approval of pesticides in the UK.
In addition, you will be supporting and working with policy makers on the provision of regulatory advice and guidance and working with a range of external stakeholders inside and outside of the UK. Candidates joining CRD should be able to commit to a minimum of 22.5 hours per week.

Building Safety Division/Chief Inspector of Buildings Office (CIBO) - CIBO is comprised of one director and three deputy directors; your role will be to assist the team so that the directors and wider BSD teams can efficiently handle day-to-day operations. In CIBO, no two days are the same; you must successfully manage your workload to support the team while meeting tight deadlines and working at pace to rearrange and schedule meetings. The primary role of the job will be administrative, and you must be well organised to ensure that data entry and meeting minutes are accurate to accomplish team goals. Candidates joining BSD should be able to commit to a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Regardless of the division you are assigned to, you will contribute to the important work HSE does. You will work closely with your colleagues to deliver the key responsibilities of the post. You will be flexible and able to respond to changing work priorities at pace, which will allow you to develop your skills and knowledge. In all that you do you will be proactive, innovative and focused on delivering HSE’s business, as well as able to plan and prioritise your work. You will be required to provide support on both a local and national basis according to business need.

Offers from a reserve list may not be restricted to the divisions listed as other Divisions may extend offers to candidates placed on the reserve list. Upon applying, you will be considered for all positions available in your chosen location; a skills matching exercise may occur when allocating successful candidates to a Division/Team.

Please note, whilst you can preference your choice of division, we cannot guarantee that you will be assigned to your preference.

Person specification

Responsibilities

• Provide an outstanding administrative service to your wider team. While this could vary from team-to-team, you could be answering email queries in a timely manner, managing an inbox, itineraries or contributing to projects across your division.
• Provide general assistance to your wider team, ensuring a smooth running of operations.
• Acquire an understanding and knowledge of relevant operational and business support procedures and functions and how your role contributes to the overall success of the HSE.
• Work closely with your Team Leader and colleagues to deliver the key responsibilities of the post in a flexible and responsive manner, responding positively to changes of priority as work demands dictate.
  

Essential Skills and Criteria

You will be able to:

• Provide a professional administrative service for HSE, answering calls, emails and other queries that arrive in the office, in a timely manner, ensuring exceptional customer services at all times.
• Input and process data on to the computer systems, ensuring accuracy and attention to detail at all times, drawing conclusions from this data to make sound decisions.
• Actively contribute to the delivery of the teams’ projects, working effectively as a team member.
• Effectively communicate with customers and internal and external stakeholders.
• Be organised, with the ability to manage your workload, inbox(es) and priorities effectively.
• Be proficient in the use of all Microsoft Office Packages including: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

This list of key responsibilities is not exhaustive and will be dependent on the team that you are appointed to.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,082, Health and Safety Executive contributes £6,772 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

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

Application Guidance 

It is recommended that candidates use the STAR approach in your answers - Situation, Task, Action, Result (see below for more information) to structure your example and to refer to the Success Profiles Behaviours (Level 1 AA/AO) guide which can be found on gov.uk

Sift Information

At sift you will be asked to submit a Statement of Suitability up to 500 words on how you meet the essential skills and criteria for the role. Please note that your examples do not need to be work-related - you can tailor your answer to projects, education or life examples you feel best reflect your experience.

You will also be asked to provide a statement of up to 250 words on the lead behaviour 'Delivering at Pace'.

The sift will take place Week Commencing 6th May.

Interview Information

Interviews will take from week commencing 20th May. This is a blended interview consisting of Strengths and Behaviours.

Please note that these dates could be subject to change due to panel availability.

In the event of a high number of applications at sift or that pass the interview standard we will assess on the lead behaviour Delivering at Pace. The lead behaviour will also be used in the event of a tie-breaker.

Useful Information

You can use either a work or non-work-related example in your answers.
It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in, and use the STAR model to explain;

• What was the Situation?
• What were the Tasks?
• What Action did you take?
• How/what did you learn through a Review?

Further Information

A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months. Offers will be made in merit order, by location.

Please be advised that offers from the reserve list may not be contained to divisions advertised. Some of our divisions may require Security Clearance which requires applicants to have 3 years continuous residency in the UK up to the date of the application and, Home Office approval for indefinite leave to remain within the UK. If Security Clearance is required for a reserve list position, you will be informed about this at the point of offer. 

AI Tools & Platforms

During the application process candidates are allowed to utilise AI (artificial intelligence) platforms and Tools to support them in writing their Behaviours, CV’s and Personal Statements. However, all information submitted must be factually accurate. This includes presenting the ideas and experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. All presented information will be assessed at the Interview Stage.

Sponsorship

This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.

Any move to HSE from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility here If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.