About the job

Job summary

About OPSS  

Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge, and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!  

We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade (Previously the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.  

Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, recently with the addition of construction products regulation.  

Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence.  

Further information can be found on our website here  

The Role and Our Team 

We are looking for a Recruitment Manager to join our Birmingham Office. 

The Organisational Capacity team support the business by providing a recruitment service to our internal customers. Ensuring that we hire and onboard the most able candidates. 

As a member of the Organisational Capacity team, you will report to the Organisational Capacity Lead, and work alongside three Organisational Capacity Managers. You will be predominantly responsible for supporting the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) colleagues in their recruitment and onboarding activities, while also supporting projects and initiatives. 

Visit our Careers Site and blog links to learn more about what we do. 

https://opss-careers.co.uk/  

https://opss.blog.gov.uk/  

We are looking for a Recruitment Manager to join our Birmingham Office. 

This is an opportunity for you to make a real positive difference in an organisation that is growing to meet the demand and challenges of our expanding portfolio by attracting, recruiting, and retaining the right talent. We are looking for a dedicated, collaborative, and ambitious individual to help shape our future workforce. 

As one of our Recruitment Managers, you’ll be managing the end-to-end recruitment process in an innovative, engaging, and robust way using Civil Service Recruitment principles and the rest of the team as a guide. 

You will be promoting our employer brand and enhancing the candidate experience recruiting only the best candidates who share our values and behaviours.   

A key focus is to provide a professional high-quality recruitment service to the organisation whilst also growing your skills and knowledge. 

Building positive relationships with hiring managers will also be a crucial part of your role. You will play an instrumental role in building our reputation as an employer of choice. 

If this sounds like the job for you, we'd love to hear from you!  

Please note that the internal job title will be Organisational Capacity Manager. 

If your application for this role is unsuccessful, we may offer you an alternative role at the same or lower grade should one be available.  

Job description

​​This role will provide you with the opportunity to grow and develop, as well as many opportunities to broaden and diversify your HR knowledge and experience across other service functions. 

​You will be responsible for: 

• ​Acting as the OPSS recruitment subject matter expert. 
• ​Providing hiring managers with an end-to-end recruitment service, offering information, advice and guidance to enable them to successfully manage their recruitment. 
• ​Regular updating and monitoring of recruitment activity via a resourcing team inbox and activity trackers. 
• ​Ability to balance a varied workload, prioritising and communicating with team members as required. 
• ​Representing OPSS in cross gov events relating to resourcing – DAS, Fast Streamers, Apprentices. 
• ​Building relationships with hiring managers and leading on quality assurance to ensure clear job descriptions and candidate specifications are agreed for each job role. 
• ​Ensure all vacancies are aligned with recruitment principles and follow fair and open competition rules. Refer back to hiring managers with any areas of non-compliance or ambiguity. 
• ​Establishing strong relationships with central recruitment teams to ensure effective progression from identification of need through to agreement of start dates. 
• ​Ensuring records of recruitment activities are complete and kept up to date to produce accurate MI. 
• ​Maintaining current knowledge of changes to Civil Service recruitment principles and department policy and procedures. 
• ​Driving change and continuous improvement across all aspects of recruitment. 
• ​Working with minimal supervision, taking responsibility for outcomes. 
• ​Working closely with the Organisational Capacity Lead to understand and proactively deliver resourcing plans that meet business needs. 
• ​Mentoring and Line management may be a part of your role. 
• ​Provide a high level of Customer Service and maintain professional working relationships with hiring managers and candidates, promoting continuous improvement throughout. 
• ​Maintain the professional image and reputation of the Organisational Capacity team and People team by ensuring the accurate and timely resolution of recruitment issues and queries. 

Person specification

We want to hear from you if you can demonstrate:  

Essential criteria: 

• A good knowledge of the recruitment lifecycle and demonstrable experience managing recruitment campaigns.  
• Knowledge of Civil Service Recruitment policy and processes. 
• Technical and analytical skills to interpret data and identify trends. 
• A good collaborator with effective communication skills and resilience to work successfully with a variety of stakeholders. 
• You can work in a fast paced, high volume transactional team. 
• You show the proven ability to work with ambiguity and change of priority with short notice. 
• You can develop and maintain positive working relationships at all levels and are confident in dealing with a range of individuals. 
• You have strong communication skills that can adapt in style and presentation dependent on the target audience. 
• Experience of working as part of a team, and experience in mentoring and developing other members of the team. 
• Evidence of strong organisational and planning skills to ensure work is processed within tight deadlines. 
• Excellent attention to detail to produce accurate work. 

Desirable Criteria: 

• Qualified to a L3 CIPD standard.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,858, Department for Business and Trade contributes £8,871 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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:   

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
• A Personal Statement of up to 750 words explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.

It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date though this is subject to change.

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift will be conducted on the personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.   

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment: 

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. 

Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.  

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

Candidate Support

You may want to join a virtual Candidate Support Session. These sessions include helpful tips and advice on the recruitment process, from application to interview.  

Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department.

Further Information:

• A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.   
• Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
• The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.  
• 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. Any applicant who has details held on the IFD will be refused employment.   
• A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.  
• Terms and Conditions are attached.  Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Please note – the successful candidate will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of 18 months before being released for another role.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

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.