About the job

Job summary

The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this effort since 1782. As such, we play a fundamental role in maintaining the security and economic prosperity of the UK.  The Home Office leads on immigration and passports, refugee protection, counterterrorism, policing, fire services, and crime and drugs policy.

Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) enables the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. We design and build the services that help people apply for visas or passports; support policing and counter-terrorism operations; and protect the UK’s borders.   

Home Office DDaT End User Collaboration delivers Collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams to the Home Office, providing directorates with the essential technology they need for modern ways of working. 

Our DDaT vision for Business Management is that it, “leads the day-to-day running of the function, providing support and guidance to colleagues.  Ensuring that the business operations are running as effectively, efficiently and safely as possible. With skilled professionals supporting DDaT’s delivery, and team members through enabling the delivery of resourcing, workforce and people led activities. 

Business Management activities within DDaT have been defined as: Resourcing; Workforce Planning: Recruitment Planning; Team Engagement; People Activities; Information Management; Learning and Development; Delivery Centre Management; Business Continuity; Risk Management; Finance, and Commercial.  

As the Senior Business Manager your role will be responsible for leading the provision of business support activity and will typically include stakeholder engagement across the Portfolio /Function.  You will support resource management and workforce planning, support communications, planning and scheduling, monitoring and reporting, governance, overseeing financial processes and business continuity within your Portfolio/Function (as applicable). 

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.  

Job description

•    Managing a team of Business Management professionals, providing leadership and governance with robust processes to meet the requirements of the Portfolio /Function and wider department.  Escalating issues to Senior Managers as required.  

•    Managing finance processes in accordance with Home Office policies and financial accounting principles, actively managing budgets and supporting budget holders in delivering their budget responsibilities.

•    Working with a range of stakeholders to ensure that business continuity processes are fit for purpose across the Portfolio/Function and remain sustainable, identifying potential opportunities for refinement.

•    Supporting people initiatives, including diversity and inclusion, talent management, and learning and development. Developing and maintaining a stakeholder network across the Portfolio / Function, championing standardisation of data management and ensuring activities align to wider departmental objectives.

•    Managing and coordinating the end-to end Civil Servant recruitment process for brigaded and singular campaigns, including tailoring the role specification, seeking budgetary approval to recruit and for marketing purposes. 

•    Advocating first line risk management activities within business Portfolio / Function, supporting the Portfolio / Function and relevant stakeholders in achieving and maintaining a minimum of level 3 of the Home Office Risk Management Maturity Model and providing continuous risk maturity direction.

Resource Management and Workforce Planning

•    Overseeing the Home Office end to end contractor onboarding procedures and processes. Including process time frames, restrictions and criteria, becoming the expert in the field, providing specialist support.

•    Embedding standards, guidelines and processes that promote best practice and consistent ways of working, ensuring quality service delivery of Workforce Planning and Resource Management.

•    Maintain accurate workforce plan data and support the production on analysis to support strategic planning, ensuring alignment with financial plans/budget and accuracy of pay forecasting.

•    Ensuring current and future resourcing needs for Workforce Planning and Resource Management across DDaT are met, by upskilling, hiring new talent and allocating resources as required, supporting hiring managers with the end-to-end recruitment process. 

Finance

•    Supporting the Portfolio/Function, driving forward value for money and effective financial management processes.

•    Undertaking regular budget management and monitoring in liaison with management accounts, if applicable.

•    Initiating and be responsible for remedial action to ensure financial reports are accurate and that any under/overspends are highlighted and that mitigating actions are in place wherever possible.

•    Analysing monthly reports and cross-checking payroll with position reports on Metis to ensure staff are moved to their correct positions outside the department.

•    Working closely with colleagues to ensure accuracy of financial information and forecasting.

•    Work with colleagues in commercial to ensure adherence to procurement policy and that value for money is achieved. 

•    Management of the agreed recharge process, if applicable. 

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. Applicants can discuss any specific questions with the Vacancy Holder.

Person specification

BM Function 

•     Managing your team in line with Home Office Performance Management policy and guidance and supporting continuous professional development and optimal performance. Effectively manage conflict, misconduct and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate.

Essential Criteria

You will have a passion for Business Management, with the following skills or strong experience in:

•    Having experience of working in a recruitment environment, overseeing the end-to-end recruitment process and management of the external contractor processes.
•    Working with internal / external stakeholders including the Senior Leadership Team, building effective networks and relationships. Identifying, monitoring, and managing issues, escalating to more senior members of the team where required. 
•    Working autonomously to plan and prioritise a busy schedule of work for yourself and your team. 
•    Having experience of providing leadership and line management to a team of varying grades to develop a high performing team.
•    Communicating effectively using the most appropriate channels including written, oral and presentation, demonstrating a high level of IT proficiency e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, with the ability to present confidently to an audience.
•    Ability to report on process performance in line with agreed key performance indicators (KPIs) against strategic objectives of EUC&C.
•    Possessing strong organisational skills with a high level of proactivity to drive tasks to completion and using good judgement to make effective decisions. Promoting continuous improvement.

Desirable Criteria

Ideally you will also have the following skills or some experience in:

•    Having experience of managing finance – including purchase orders, receipting and breakdown reporting.
•    Possessing experience of overseeing the organisation of training within a large-scale team.
•    Overseeing People activities including Well-being, People Survey results and team communications.

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 CV detailing job history/qualifications/skills 
•    a statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 1000 words)

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
 
The statement of suitability should be aligned to meet the required essential criteria as detailed in the job description.

Applicants are advised to shape their evidence in the statement of suitability in the STAR format. More information about this format is provided in the Success Profiles handbook.

The sift will be held on the statement of suitability (personal statement). The CV will not be scored. 

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview which will be a blended approach of strength and behaviour-based questions. We'll assess you against these behaviours during the interview: 

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service 

Sift and Interview dates
 
Sift is expected to take place from the 4th of March.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 18th March 2024.

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

Interviews

Interviews will be held face to face at the General Registry Office, Southport. Further details will be provided ahead of interview.

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.

Further Information 

Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement. 

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

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

A reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.  
 
We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

Note to 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 and generating of examples/answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If any is detected the application may be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. 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 or a contractor working within the Home Office, 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.   

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 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.