About the job

Job summary

Passports, Citizenship and Civil Registration (PCCR) is a directorate of the Home Office, which incorporates His Majesty’s Passport Office (HM Passport Office), Citizenship services and the General Register Office for England and Wales. It is a directorate of the Customer Services function in the Home Office. It is a customer focused organisation providing passports for British citizens, passport verification services, citizenship services and overseeing the delivery of civil registration in England and Wales. PCCR employs around 4,000 people across the UK. We aim to deliver uncompromising public protection whilst providing world class customer service via a modern digital business.

The General Register Office (GRO), based in Southport, as part of PCCR, oversees the system of civil registration, including births, stillbirths, adoptions, civil partnerships, marriages and deaths, in England and Wales. It does this in partnership with a range of government departments and the 175 local authorities who provide the service directly to their local community. 

The Customer Service Management Team (CSMT) are responsible for all customer enquiries, complaints and correspondence received via multiple routes (telephone, email or post) from customers both within the UK and overseas.  CSMT process c.600k customer contacts per year.

HM Passport Office and GRO are undergoing a period of transformation with an aspiration of further improving our customer service by becoming a modern digital business. It is an exciting time to work in a part of government that touches the lives of the vast majority of citizens.

Further information about HM Passport Office is available on GOV.UK.

Job description

The Customer Service Management Team Leader is responsible for leading, managing and developing a team of Customer Service Agents within a Customer Service environment, to support the wider HM Passport Office operational network.

Your team will be required to consistently meet targets for quality, efficiency and customer service on a range of customer focused activities received by telephone, email or letter.

As a Team Leader you will also aim to improve the overall customer experience for HM Passport Office customers. A key part of the role will be workforce planning to ensure optimal deployment of the team. Other duties may involve analysis, preparation, presentation and review of management information, to aid business planning for the Customer Service Management Team.

Our Customer Service Management Team is located in Southport and operates 8:00 – 20:00 Monday – Friday; 8:45am – 16:45 on Saturdays.

The full-time working week in the Customer Service Management Team is 37 hours with a 36-minute daily lunch break. Full-time shifts are therefore 8 hours including lunch break. Your shift will be confirmed upon offer of post.

Working patterns will include 1 in 3 Saturdays. When a Saturday is worked you will be allocated a day off in lieu the preceding week.

All posts are open to part-time staff but working pattern requests will be considered against business need and operational core hours.

Roles may allow for hybrid working arrangements, working partly in the workplace and at home. These arrangements are dependent upon business need.

Person specification

This role is suitable for someone who has a passion for delivering excellent customer service; working in a team to deliver tangible, timely results and wanting to make a difference to meet the needs of the public.

The EO Team Leader’s key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Lead a team of staff ensuring that its members are organised, and fully skilled to meet their work objectives. Effectively managing both team and individual performance, addressing any issues as they arise, in line with HR policy.
• Assign responsibilities for action and monitoring progress against plans.
• Being empowered and empower your team to actively seek and encourage continuous improvement opportunities and embed a culture of positive change in your team.
• Ensure that performance management and reward & recognition systems are utilised effectively throughout area of responsibility, ensuring consistent standards through benchmarking, and encouraging and rewarding good ideas and creativity.
• Plan, co-ordinate and organise training and development for staff. Ensuring that learning & development needs of all staff, including inductees, are identified and met.
• Identify staff potential and develop in line with business and individual needs.
• Identify recruitment needs and retention issues, assessing resource requirements against demands.
• Be responsible for health and safety issues for the team and their immediate working environment.
• Take a lead in employee engagement activities to maintain good working relationships with staff and to improve service delivery and staff morale / motivation.
• Pro-actively role modelling and promoting an inclusive workplace dealing promptly with any instances of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination or misconduct.
• Being open to feedback and demonstrating a confidence working with others.
• Show pride and passion for your work and positive and inclusive engagement with your team.
• Managing and prioritising resource to ensure team targets are achieved.
• Demonstrating excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to communicate confidently with a wide range of diverse customers.
• Ensuring your team are representing HMPO professionally and are providing excellent customer service.
• Ensuring responses to our customers are accurate and consistent and that contacts are being answered in a timely manner.
• Investigating and take ownership of customer escalations and/or complaints, including taking over contacts when necessary.
• Note: An employee may be required to carry out other duties within the scope of the grade and within the limits of their skill, competence and training.
• Excess Fares Allowance (EFA) will not be available for this role. T&S will be paid in accordance with Home Office Policy.
• It will not be possible to pay any cost associated with dual workplace, including tax liabilities.

Essential criteria

This role is suitable for someone who has a passion for delivering excellent customer service, leading a team to deliver tangible, timely results and wanting to make a difference to meet the needs of our customers. We are looking for leaders who:

• Are an excellent communicator and have proven experience of delivering a high quality customer service.
• Have a positive can-do attitude with the ability to problem-solve and achieve outcomes in a timely manner.
• Have the ability to effectively manage expectations, take ownership of issues and persistently drive them to resolution.
• Can multi-task, set priorities and manage time effectively to achieve our goals.
• Can effectively support colleagues by sharing experiences and best practice to maintain a strong team dynamic.

Desirable criteria

• Proficient in Microsoft Word and Excel software.

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.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

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

• A statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 500 words)
• Provide evidence of the lead behaviour Leadership (250 words maximum)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. 

The statement of suitability should be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the essential criteria as detailed in the job description.

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

The sift will be held on the behaviour Leadership and the statement of suitability (personal statement).

However, if a large number of applications are received, the sift will be conducted on the statement of suitability (personal statement) only. 

The statement of suitability will be scored first for all candidates. Those candidates who achieve the minimum pass score for the statement of suitability, will progress to a further sift where the lead behaviour Leadership will be scored. These candidates will therefore receive a sift score for both elements.

Candidates successful at sift stage, will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of strength-based questions and behaviour-based questions. 

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

Sift and Interview dates

Sift is expected to take place week commencing 11th March 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 1st April 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however on occasions these dates may change. 

Interviews will be carried out via video. Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams

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.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

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

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.

A reserve list may be created for other similar roles for a period of 12 months. Selection will be in Merit Order to fill the same role or similar roles with closely matching “Essential criteria” and Success Profile elements without further assessment. 

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.

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.