About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. 

Come and join the DBS community today!

Job description

Our DBS Enquiry Centre services include three telephone-based teams:

Civilian People (Civ Pers) - Primarily an inbound telephony service, this team provides a service which enables managers and employees to effectively follow and adhere to HR policy and processes including Resourcing, Pay, Leave and Leavers. We also manage several inboxes from which we resolve or triage inbound email queries throughout Defence Business Services (DBS).

Finance and Procurement Services (F&PS) – Winners of the MOD Finance Team of the Year, MOD Head Office and Corporate Services Commendation and Customer Service Excellence awards. The team provides support to MOD suppliers and debtors, as well as technical advice to accounting, procurement and commercial professionals in MOD. 

Veterans UK Helpline – Consistently providing support and advice to the UK’s Veterans, Service Personnel and their families. The team provides assistance for both of the Veterans UK compensation schemes, War Disablement Pensions and the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme. Assistance and advice is also provided to Veterans, their families and dependents with issues such as benefits, housing and welfare.

Keeping customer satisfaction at the core of every decision and behaviour, all of our AO roles require strong verbal and written communication skills to enable you to converse with customers daily.

Helping to deliver excellent customer service with swift solutions to customers queries on a wide range of topics, the successful candidate will accept ownership for effectively resolving phone or email enquiries, customer issues and complaints to the highest quality.

Successful candidates should also be confident in encouraging self-service and empowering customers to use the relevant tools available to them.

Our customer facing operating hours are 8am – 4pm, Monday – Friday.
 
The role requires you to:

• Manage large volumes of inbound calls/emails in a timely manner
• Answer calls/emails on a variety of subjects, working as part of a multi-skilled team
• Handle queries from customers efficiently and effectively, providing accurate advice.
• Log and update queries from customers using a Service Management system.
• Proactively recommend and encourage the customer about the benefits of self-service.
• Undertake training and up-skilling to support the changing business requirements.
• Recognise continuous improvement possibilities, championing the benefits to the customer and operations.
• Support the Operational Team Leader and Manager in overall service delivery.

Person specification

Ability to process high volumes without compromising quality

• Confidence, understanding and patience when working with demanding customers
• Be an excellent communicator with a high standard of customer service skills.
• Positive attitude with the ability to problem-solve and achieve outcomes in a timely manner
• Ability to effectively manage customer expectations.
• Ability to confidently work with IT, especially Microsoft products.
• An openness to feedback and confidence working with others.
• Ability to multi-task, set priorities and manage time effectively
• Excellent listening skills and natural empathy
• Attention to detail with the ability to retain and assimilate information quickly

Desirable Skills:

• Contact/Enquiry Centre experience 

 
After the application sift, the next process will comprise of a telephone assessment. Candidates meeting the minimum criteria at this stage will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed against all 3 Behaviours.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £24,040, Ministry of Defence contributes £6,490 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.

For AO specific details please see page 1-2 of the Success Profile: Civil Service Behaviours (green) following the above link.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements: Primary: Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service, Secondary: Experience - Personal statement.

Completing your application

Behaviour examples requires more than just information about what you did, it requires you to explain. There are many different approaches you could take to writing behaviours, such as the STAR, or the CAR method. As to which one you chose to use, it’s all down to your personal style of writing. Within the Civil Service, the most common approach is: The STAR method

Using the STAR method, allows you to set the scene, show what and how you did and the overall outcome. The job holder (and later the interviewer) will use this method to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information of what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit of something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Remember- if you are a school leaver or out of employment, and feel that you don’t have the experience to apply for this role then do this-
Make a list of your skills, strength and experience

Focus on your education/day-to-day life/extra-curricular activities such as team sports

Highlight anything that would help you perform in the job that you are applying for

For more information on applying for Civil Service jobs and completing your application please visit-

The STAR method , National Careers Service

Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Working for the Civil Service - Civil Service - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours: 

• Managing a Quality Service

Experience: 

• Personal Statement: In no more than 500 words detail the following essential experience / knowledge:

1. Customer Service Experience

2. Contact Centre experience

3. Knowledge of Microsoft products – Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook 

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

Experience: 

• Customer service Experience - The first part of the interview process will comprise of a telephone assessment (Desk Based Scenario). Candidates meeting the minimum criteria at this stage will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed against all 3 Behaviours.

Behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing 
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

1. Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
2. Experience - Personal statement
3. Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
4. Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing 

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

1. Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
2. Experience - Personal statement

Application sifting and interviewing  is due to take place in January

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk  

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

To assist with your application please find attached -  

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

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.