About the job

Job summary

The first duty of government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the frontline of this effort since 1782 and plays a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the UK.

As a member of the Communications Directorate, you’ll be supporting our mission to deliver outstanding public services that work for everyone. We help ministers and the wider department prepare for and respond to unexpected events, we identify and mitigate risks, and deliver attitude and behaviour change campaigns to our external and internal audiences – all of this ultimately supports the security and economic prosperity of the UK.

The Communications Directorate is a multi-disciplinary team with colleagues based across the UK, working together to deliver the Home Office’s communications strategy. 

The Insight Team sits at the centre of this directorate. Working across the full range of Home Office policy areas, this specialist team helps ensure that the department’s communications strategy, and all communications activity, is audience-led and effectively evaluated. This includes acting as trusted insight advisors to communications colleagues, carrying out high quality research and evaluation activities, and working closely with agency partners to brief, design and deliver commissioned studies.

We believe a positive, open and supportive culture is essential to help everyone deliver their best work. We value diversity and provide an inclusive and encouraging environment for our team members. We nurture our talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities to help you fulfil your potential.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on one of the most high-profile, interesting and demanding briefs in public sector communications, and work in a Communications Directorate that is fully committed to using audience insight to generate positive impact.

Job description

Information about the role:

Benefits

Successful candidates will be given a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) of £3,800, which will be added to the base salary e.g. £41,600 + £3,800, totalling £45,400 (national) or £49,400 (London).
 
Please note that the salary for successful external candidates joining the Home Office will start from the minimum salary figure. 

All Home Office employees are eligible to join the Civil Service pension scheme, which contributes on average 27% of your salary to a defined benefit pension.
 
You will also be entitled to benefits, including 25 days of annual leave a year, which increases by one day every year to a maximum of 30, as well the cycle to work scheme and a season ticket travel loan.

Job Description:

Do you have:
•    A strong research background
•    A proactive, solutions-focused mind
•    An energy and passion for applying insight 
•    An ability to engage positively and productively with colleagues
•    An ability to work well under pressure and to tight deadlines
•    A clear, engaging communication style
•    Confidence to influence decision-making

If so, we are looking for you to make a significant contribution to the team as Senior Insight Manager in the Communications Directorate.

The successful candidate will lead on research and evaluation projects within particular policy areas to inform and evaluate wide-ranging communications activity. They will work with colleagues to help set outcomes and KPIs and help make sure that communications activity is evidence-based and can demonstrate its value. The role is varied and fast-paced, and will see you working on multiple projects, and collaborating closely with research agencies.

The role will be fully supported, reporting into a Head of Insight and working very closely with colleagues across the Communications Directorate, but it also offers a significant amount of autonomy and responsibility.

The role may include direct line-management responsibility. You will be expected to be an inspiring and empathetic line-manager who gives equal importance to the development of junior colleagues as your own. You will help them set goals, monitor their day-to-day activity and ensure work is kept on track.

This post will stretch and enhance your ability to:
•    Think strategically (often during ambiguous and changing circumstances).
•    Work through others.
•    Inform decision-making.
•    Find pragmatic solutions to difficult research questions.
•    Demonstrate the value of audience-led communications.

This role will be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. The role holder will be expected to spend 60% of their working time in an office. This is a non-contractual arrangement.

Due to the nature of the role, this post can only be offered on a full-time basis.

Person specification

No day will be the same, but the role requires someone who can:

•    Be a custodian of the Directorate’s audience intelligence across specific policy areas, holding the pen on what we know about our audiences and making sure that knowledge is accessible and shared across the Directorate.
•    Identify opportunities for improving our audience insight, so that communications are always built on solid, high-quality evidence.
•    Advise on the design and delivery of insight and evaluation projects and programmes, ensuring that all work is carried out to a high standard and offers value for money to the Directorate and the Department.
•    Manage research projects delivered by external research agency partners, ensuing their teams are fully briefed and immersed in the research needs and communication objectives, and are able to deliver high quality findings on time and on budget. You will play a key role in managing the relationship with agencies and be the main point of contact for the projects you lead.
•    Support the design and delivery of research projects run in-house, including carrying out desk research, using social media monitoring tools, designing questionnaires, conducting depth interviews or focus groups, analysing data, determining research findings and turning those into actionable insights.
•    Ensure that research and evaluation activities and outputs are useful and accessible to non-researchers, focussing on outcomes and application of the findings.
•    Work with colleagues to ensure that communications activities have clear outcomes and evaluation plans that are cohesive, effective and proportionate, and demonstrate value.
•    Build positive relationships across the Communications Directorate, the Department and across Government, including with other insight professionals to encourage continuous improvement in research and evaluation.
•    Be a positive advocate for audience insight, encouraging its use in driving effective communications.

Essential Criteria:

You must have a track record in:

•    Working within a high-quality research/insight team (agency or client-side).
•    Designing and delivering research and evaluation studies – using a range of methodologies (such as secondary methods including desk research and analysis of existing data,  and primary methods including qualitative, quantitative and behaviour change techniques).
•    Generating insights (from research findings) to inform decision-making – translating insights into accessible recommendations and solutions and influencing how those insights are used.
•    Communicating about research and evaluation to non-insight and/or non-communications colleagues – using your excellent verbal, written and visual skills.

You should also have the knowledge and gravitas to:

•    Hold your own in conversations with communications colleagues and research agencies when creating research and evaluation solutions.
•    Work effectively with our research agencies to ensure successful delivery of projects, ensuring high standards are met.
•    Represent the insight team positively within a diverse partner network.

You do not need to be a communications specialist yourself (you will be working alongside comms specialists), but you must have an interest in communications and at least a basic understanding of the role for communications in delivering an organisation’s objectives.

Desirable Criteria:

It would be very useful if you can offer any of the following:

•    Client-facing experience in a research agency
•    Experience applying research to behaviour change programmes
•    Social media monitoring/digital analytics experience (e.g. using tools like Brandwatch)
•    Basic data analyst skills (e.g. using tools like SPSS).
•    Data visualisation skills (e.g. using tools like Power BI)

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

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.

As part of the application process you will be asked to provide:

•    A CV detailing job history/qualifications/skills
•    A personal statement demonstrating your suitability for the role (maximum 750 words)
•    Evidence of the behaviour Making Effective Decisions (250 words maximum)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
 
The Statement of Suitability should concisely explain, in no more than 750 words, your motivation for applying to this role, and offer evidence of how you meet the essential criteria listed on the Job specification.

Please do not provide any personal details (including your name) in your CV or statement of suitability. We are unable to interview candidates who provide that information in these sections of their application. 

The sift will be held on the behaviour Making Effective Decisions and the statement of suitability (personal statement). The CV will not be scored.
 
The lead behaviour Making Effective Decisions will be scored first for all candidates. Those who achieve the minimum pass score for the lead behaviour, will progress to a full sift where the statement of suitability (personal statement) will be scored. These candidates will therefore receive a sift score for both elements. 

Candidates who fail to meet the minimum pass score for the lead behaviour will not have their statement of suitability (personal statement) scored and will therefore only receive a sift score for the lead behaviour Making Effective Decisions.
 
If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview which will involve a blended approach of Strength-based questions (no preparation necessary) and Behaviour based questions.

For guidance on how to construct your personal statement, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links – Statement

For guidance on how to construct your behaviour examples, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers. Links –Behaviours

Strengths are the things that you do regularly, do well and that motivate you. To find out more about strength based questions click here

You will also be required to prepare a short presentation to present at interview. Further details about the presentation will be provided before the interview.

Sift and Interview dates
Sift will take place week commencing 9 February 2024.
Interviews will take place week commencing 29th February 2024.
We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Interviews will take place at 2 Marsham Street, London. Please note travel costs will not be reimbursed
 
PLEASE NOTE: Due to time constraints we may not be able to offer alternative interview date(s). It is therefore expected that candidates who are successful at sift stage will make themselves available during the above time frame given.

When completing your application you will have the opportunity to select your preferred location(s). Please ensure you select all locations you are interested in. Candidates who are successful at Interview will be placed in order of merit per location and provisional job offers will be made in strict merit order per location preference. Provisional offers are made, as they are on condition that you successfully pass all pre-employment checks.

Note for Candidates: 
Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying of examples/answers from internet sources. If any is detected the application will be withdrawn from the process.

Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving internal candidates. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants. 

If you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, a contractor or contingent worker you can only apply for roles that are advertised externally, i.e. outside the civil service. If you are eligible to apply for a role, you are required to select yourself as an external applicant and not internal when submitting your application on Civil Service jobs. This will prevent any delays in pre-employment checks should you become successful in being made an offer of employment after the Interview stage.

Visa sponsorship:    
We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License.   

Further Information 

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role or similar role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office 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 at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.