Location
About the job
Job summary
The Home Office has one of the most challenging and critical jobs in Whitehall: to keep Britain safe and secure. We operate at the heart of the Government’s agenda, leading on immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime policy, counter-extremism and counterterrorism and work to ensure visible, responsive, and accountable policing in the UK. The challenges the Department faces are significant and can change rapidly in the global environment in which we operate, making this one of the most exciting and stimulating Government Departments in which to work.
This post is part of corporate services (business management, finance & workforce planning),within the Home Office Security Adviser Team, which sits at the heart of the Security and Investigations Unit within the Corporate and Delivery directorate. HOSAT is responsible for supporting Home Office business areas to improve their security standards and enable them to deliver their priorities in a secure manner.
The Team which sits at the heart of the Security and Investigations Unit within the Corporate and Delivery directorate. HOSAT is responsible for supporting Home Office business areas to improve their security standards and enable them to deliver their priorities in a secure manner.
HOSAT works closely with the Government Security Centres and technical authorities to ensure that advice is always current and relevant. The team chairs and attends various cross government forums, ensuring that the department remains a role model in security best practices.
This is a busy role with leadership responsibilities, which requires you to manage a range of complex issues, including risk management and resourcing and to have a good understanding of the wider political and security context. You will be expected to brief senior officials and Ministers on a regular basis.
The Home Office is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity and inclusion. It is committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all its people can work and perform at their best.
The Home Office is committed to investing in its staff and offers a range of work-based training and qualifications, coaching and mentoring opportunities, with a guaranteed five days of learning and five days volunteering per year.
Job description
- Managing the day-to-day running of business-as-usual activities across Security, from shared mailbox management, to supporting induction processes and leading on reactive commissions – ensuring timely and accurate returns to the Deputy Director and beyond.
- Maintain, and build on, the good processes currently in place to support directorate activity. Review current processes and implement your ideas to continuously improve on the services we provide across Security.
- Planning and improving resourcing; supporting line managers in the recruitment of new colleagues and being responsible for the process and management of information, relating to FTE and resourcing, recruitment, contingent labour etc.
- Lead on the development of workforce planning, monitoring and accurate reporting across Security.
- Interrogating data (for example the People Survey) detailing the experiences and engagement of colleagues and act as the directorate lead to plan initiatives to make the directorate an inclusive, enjoyable and stretching place to work.
- Supporting senior leaders by coordinating effective senior management team meetings, maintaining the SMT forward look and scheduling and facilitating the right discussions and the right points in the year on topics such as: performance management, risk management and financial management.
- Liaising and managing stakeholder engagement regarding their overarching Risk Management strategy ensuring mitigations are set appropriately and continuously monitored
- Lead on key assurance work including the new Home Office Assurance framework and the annual Departmental Security Health Check from the Cabinet Office.
- As a member of the Security Adviser Team, you will be required to provide oversight and management of the response to live incidents, working in a fast-paced environment, and coordinating with other members of the team to ensure there is sufficient coverage throughout the working week. You will provide decisive leadership, ensuring that incidents are dealt with swiftly, in an appropriate manner, escalating where necessary. This will involve effective stakeholder engagement with site managers and OGD partners, alongside relevant security partners to ensure that IM investigation, action and review are timely and aligned.
- There is also a requirement to contribute to the Security Culture and Awareness Team engagement work. This will require raising security awareness across the entire Department, including delivering face-to-face security briefings to Private Office and presentations across a variety of security topics linked to security policies.
- This post will have line management responsibility.
Note: This is not an exclusive or exhaustive list, and the post holder will be required to perform any additional duties reasonably expected of them within the scope of the grade and within the limits of their skill, competence and training.
Person specification
We are looking for a highly motivated, well-organised self-starter to join our dynamic team.
As a Business Support Lead, you’ll be part of the team working with colleagues and stakeholders across HO Security to develop our services and support our customers.
Essential criteria
• You will have strong communication skills, both orally and in writing, with the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships and influence colleagues at all grades.
• You will be a collaborative team player, with a positive attitude, able to build effective working relationships to support the directorate, the business management team and the Senior Management Team (SMT).
• You will have strong IT skills including Outlook inbox and calendar, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills, able to multitask and prioritise competently and quickly ensuring attention to detail.
Desirable criteria
• Business Management experience (People and workforce development, recruitment and managing government finance).
• Line management experience.
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing
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%