About the job

Job summary

At the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) we are committed to creating an inclusive and respectful work environment for all our colleagues and that reflects the diversity of the public we serve.  

Are you passionate about working in HR or recruitment?  

Do you have the skills to be a great line manager?  

Do you thrive on driving new ways of working and maintaining high levels of performance?  

If so, then we would love to hear from you!  

The People Capability & Change (PC&C) Directorate provides direction, drives change and delivers support on the Department’s people issues. This is an exciting time to be joining the HR Operations team within PC&C as we drive forward changes across the recruitment, on-boarding and HR transactional services teams. We operate as a single team, working flexibly across projects as required, to use our combined knowledge and expertise in the most effective and efficient way. 

We want to build a talent pool at HR advisor (EO) level and will offer roles from our reserve list as vacancies in our team arise. This is a rolling campaign – we will sift and interview regularly – you do not need to wait until the closing date to apply.  

Job description

The HR advisor role is responsible for:  

• Leading and managing a team of Administrative Officers, ensuring the on-going delivery of services across a wide range of HR services from recruitment, onboarding and queries from anywhere within the employee lifecycle.  

• Monitor, measure and manage the performance of the team against agreed objectives and service level agreements, taking action to mitigate risk and address performance in an appropriate and timely manner.  

• Set clear expectations for the team, using feedback and coaching techniques as part of regular performance conversations.  

• Building and maintaining a detailed knowledge of HR policies and practices, identifying and staying up to date with changes.  

• Empower the team to identify, develop, test and challenge innovative ideas to drive continuous improvement and productivity, celebrating creativity and learning from failures.   

• Specifically, leading complex recruitment, onboarding and HR service centre cases. For example, supporting the design and delivery of bespoke recruitment campaigns for specialist roles, reviewing and analysing data, reviewing and checking contracts/onboarding, leading on secondments and loans and managing difficult pay and pensions queries.  

Person specification

 The successful candidate will have:  

• Attention to detail – taking pride in the accuracy of recruitment and payroll information 

• Excellent organisation skills and the ability to prioritise workloads  

• Strong communication skills – ability to build strong working relationships across different teams 

• Willingness to work in a fast-paced environment and ability to adapt and respond to change quickly  

• The ability to lead a team effectively and potential to become a strong line manager.  

 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at AO to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.  

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,464, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £7,145 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

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. 

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).  

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions, for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.  

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors. 

When writing your application, remember: 

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.  

• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.  

• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!) 

 

At sift, we will be assessing 

Managing a quality service (lead behaviour) - Please tell us about a time when you have identified a problem and found a solution.

Communicating & Influencing  - Please tell us about a time when you presented an idea and listened to other people’s views and feedback.

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview. 

 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:    

Behaviour – Changing & Improving, Delivering at pace, Leadership

Strength - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Behaviours: Managing a quality service, Communicating & Influencing, Changing & Improving, Delivering at pace, Leadership

Strengths: Yes

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

 

EO salary 

• The salary for this role is £26,464 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC 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 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

  

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Birkenhead

• Wolverhampton 

• Darlington* 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting will be completed on a rolling basis, with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

 
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see - Internal Fraud Register 

 

Fixed Term Details 

For external candidates – you will be offered a 1 year fixed term appointment with a possibility of permanency.  

For existing civil servants – you will be offered a 1 year loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful. 

For Secondments - you will be offered a 1 year secondment opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your employer to take up a secondment opportunity should you be successful. 

For DLUHC employees - you will retain your existing contract.  

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.