About the job

Job summary

If you have excellent administration skills and high attention to detail, join us as a Recruitment Officer. You will play a pivotal role in supporting and delivering this vital function in a forward looking and high performing team.

You will be responsible for conducting pre-employment checks in accordance with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard and take a leading role in administrating and monitoring applications for higher security levels. You will ensure the effective and efficient onboarding of new staff to the CMA and you will work collaboratively with a range of teams to deliver a seamless candidate experience.

You will also contribute to the delivery of projects being undertaken within the wider HR team, enabling you to further enhance your career.     

To be successful in this role, you will have excellent administration skills ideally gained working in an HR or Recruitment team.  You will have experience of liaising with stakeholders at varying levels and an ability to prioritise a busy workload. To round off your profile, you will have excellent written and verbal communication skills, a keen eye for detail, and good IT skills - especially in using Microsoft Excel to manage and track data.

What we can offer you

The CMA is a hugely diverse, rewarding and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. We offer generous benefits, including an excellent pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 27%, at least 25 days leave (increasing to 30 over five years), and generous maternity/paternity leave provision. You can also take advantage of interest-free season ticket loans, a cycle to work scheme, our employee assistance programme, and our extensive flexible working options.

To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, please click on the APPLY button.

CMA – Working for the CMA , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Or our LinkedIn page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/competition-and-markets-authority/

Closing date for applications: 11:55pm on Monday 15 January 2024.

Job description

The main responsibilities of the role include:

Pre-employment checks

• Responsible for ensuring the necessary checks have been undertaken for each candidate offered a role at the CMA; this may include staff on temporary contracts and secondments, according to CMA recruitment standards and the Baseline Personnel Security Standard.
• Ensure right to work check and DBS check compliance, working closely with colleagues to ensure progress of checks in a timely manner.
• Responsible for completion of pre-employment trackers and associated filing systems to ensure compliance and accurate information management.
• Liaise with colleagues from Learning & Development, all HR teams and IT to ensure a robust and timely onboarding and induction programme is in place for all new starters across all CMA offices, including in the Devolved Nations.

Security Vetting

• Send application forms to all new joiners requiring higher levels of security clearance, checking employee details against personnel records.
• Act as the main contact for application updates and process queries, ensuring applications are progressed at pace.
• Log, track, and self-audit all applications in process, ensuring errors are addressed and resolved.
• Monitor expiry dates of higher security levels and initiate new applications as necessary.
• Produce monthly updates of the progress of higher-level security checks, ensuring escalation of complex or high-risk issues.

Recruitment Campaigns

• Issue final confirmation of employment letters once all pre-employment checks are completed and finalise start dates for new joiners.
• Ensure all signed paperwork is scanned and saved to the appropriate e-file.
• Book team meetings and rooms, assisting with paperwork and minute taking where necessary.

On-boarding

• Ensure joining instructions are sent out to all new joiners informing of instructions for induction and IT set up.
• Set up new joiner records for agency staff on the HR system (Agresso) and preparation of all new CMA joiner files to handover to HR Operations for payroll processing.
• Issue new joiner instructions to candidates and ensure laptop and security pass collection (new starter induction) is confirmed with hiring manager.
• Conduct in-person ID and DBS checks.

Other

• Ensure the ‘appointments by exception’ tracker is kept updated with details on secondees joining the CMA, loan ins and temporary appointments and appropriately filing all written Commission approvals.
• Ensure all team purchase order numbers are appropriately opened and resolved and invoices are processed accurately and correctly logged.
• Ensure any actions relating to temporary agency employee extensions are completed including updating end dates on Agresso and liaising with agencies.
• Monitor the recruitment inbox and respond to emails relating to external and internal enquiries.  Respond to telephone queries about vacancies or pre-employment checks, ensuring any complex enquiries are forwarded to the relevant recruitment team member.

Person specification

It is essential that you can provide evidence and examples for each of the following selection criteria in your application:

• Computer literate, particularly a high competence in MS Excel (V-look ups, pivot tables) and some experience using HR Systems. (Lead Criteria).
• Excellent administration skills, including data entry and records management (Lead Criteria)
• Experience of dealing with a range of internal and external stakeholders at different seniority levels, to provide a high-quality service.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Ability to prioritise a busy workload. 

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of providing support to an HR or Recruitment Team
• Experience conducting pre-employment checks

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,553, Competition & Markets Authority contributes £7,439 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 and Experience.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and an online application form. Further details about application requirements are listed on the application form.

The selection process will comprise of the sift (CV & application review) and an interview. Arrangements for the interview will be enclosed in the invitation.  Interviews will be conducted virtually. 

An initial sift based on the lead criteria may be held if a large number of applications are received. If your application progresses to a full sift, all elements of the essential criteria listed under Person Specification (above, below and in the attached role profile) will then be considered.

• Computer literate, particularly a high competence in MS Excel (V-look ups, pivot tables) and some experience using HR Systems. (Lead Criteria).
• Excellent administration skills, including data entry and records management (Lead Criteria)
• Experience of dealing with a range of internal and external stakeholders at different seniority levels, to provide a high-quality service.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Ability to prioritise a busy workload.

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of providing support to an HR or Recruitment Team
• Experience conducting pre-employment checks

The sift will take place week commencing w/c 15 January 2024

If your application is successful you will be invited to attend an interview. You will be notified via email to log-in to your Civil Service Account and book your interview slot. You will be sent an email with full details of your arrangements for interview.

Interviews will be held on  w/c 19 January 2024 

The first part of your interview will comprise an in-tray exercise of which details will be provided if selected for interview, the second part of the interview will be a 45 minute panel interview where you will be asked questions based on the Behaviours and Experience as outlined in the role profile, more information will be forwarded to you with the interview invite.

Reasonable adjustments

We want to make sure no one is at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process.

For example, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you are deaf, a Language Service Professional. You might also require additional time to complete a timed assessment or a sign language interpreter to support with the relaying of information.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.