HMRC - Diary & Corporate Support to DD

Job summary

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The Unity Programme is a major change initiative that will provide HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Transport and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, along with their Arms Length Bodies and Agencies, with a modern, intuitive and efficient system platform for self management, staff management, and financial management and accounting.  
 
The Deputy Director for Finance Change for HMRC is responsible for ensuring that the new system is designed and built to deliver against all financial requirements for HMRC and Valuation Office Agency, and that the staff who work in financial roles within HMRC and VOA are well informed, prepared and supported ahead of, during and after the implementation of the new platform.  
The Deputy Director's Private Office Support is a critical role, delivering the environment to enable the Director/Deputy Director to prioritise their workload to maximum effect and discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively. This role would be ideal for an individual who is interested in gaining experience of or developing a career in corporate centre.

Job description

As the successful candidate, you will be forward thinking and use sound judgement, with the Deputy Director’s support, in managing conflicting requests/priorities and to ensure the most effective use of the Deputy Director's time.  

Your main areas of responsibility will be diary management, inbox management and administrative support. You will be responsible for the active planning of the Deputy Director's diary, using the Deputy Director’s prioritisation and delegation plan to manage any competing priorities, ensuring adequate planning and preparation time is built in ahead of key meetings, that the volume of meetings is manageable with sufficient wellbeing breaks included, that any leave periods are planned well ahead of time with appropriate delegates appointed to cover important meetings and ensuring any declined or delegated meetings are recorded day to day.  

You will be expected to appropriately flag and file emails and take on personal ownership of actioning specific items, with full support and knowledge building from the Deputy Director and their wider teams.  
 
You will work closely with other Private Office colleagues across HMRC, the Unity Programme, DfT, DLUHC, HMT and other government departments and external stakeholders to manage diary time using your judgement to confidently act on the Director's/Deputy Director's preferences and reach convenient arrangements for all parties. 
 
This role does not have any line management responsibilities. 
 
Examples of tasks to be undertaken will include: 

• Supporting management of the inbox/systems that are put in place to manage the flow of information.  
• Supporting the triage of all emails to determine relevant action required (i.e. cascading readouts and commissions or taking straightforward diary related actions on behalf of the Director/Deputy Director).
• Daily catch ups with the Deputy Director flagging high priority issues, items for them to action and upcoming clashes that may require their attention or awareness.
• Maintaining an effective forward look system to monitor deadlines and ensure any issues are handled early on so as to ensure timely delivery
• Being proactive in building a good knowledge of the Finance Change portfolio to facilitate day to day business management, using knowledge to solve issues, take decisions and confidently provide guidance and assurance to customers and stakeholders.
• Attending meetings with the Director/Deputy Director to make notes of actions, provide a read out and issue to appropriate stakeholders
• Managing and maintaining the Deputy Director's action log, track progress, commission responses and updates and bringing items to the attention of the Director/Deputy Director as required.
• Provide secretariat function for meetings where requested, setting up agendas and schedulers, circulating papers, taking minutes and actions with the help of transcription technology where helpful
• Ensure Director/Deputy Director has all necessary papers and briefing for meetings and the time planned in to review them in full before attending the meeting 
• Supporting with the management of SharePoint site, directorate comms and distribution lists, drawing on up-to-date organisation charts for information.
• Supporting with archiving and filing key documentation whilst ensuring adherence to GDPR data retention guidelines.
• Organising travel and accommodation.
• Organising room bookings.
• Organising visitors access.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be a proactive individual with exceptional organisational and forward planning skills, able to quickly build strong working relationships with their stakeholders older is an independent, organised and proactive individual, who will quickly learn to work according to the Deputy Director’s priorities and preferences and plan the DD’s time management and meeting attendance so that they are delivering the very best results against their objectives. 
 
This vacancy is only available at the specified locations, alternative locations are not available. 

Your office location is contractual so if you are successful, there is an expectation that you will attend that office location as required by the business (currently a 60% in the office expectation). You need to consider how you will meet this requirement before you apply and discuss any concerns with the vacancy holder before accepting any role. 
 
We are looking for a candidate who has: 

• Flexibility.
• Confidence to be a proactive self-starter.
• Existing knowledge or willingness to learn about the finance function and how large change programmes work
• Strong ability to upwardly manage. 
• Resilience 

Essential Criteria: 

• Prior experience working within a professional office environment, with demonstrable experience of implementing strong organisational processes
• Proficient user of Microsoft suite; including but not limited to - Outlook, OneNote, SharePoint  
• Ability to deal well with competing priorities and last-minute changes in what can be a fast-paced and demanding environment.
• Excellent communication skills, competence engaging professionally with stakeholders across many levels who often have competing priorities and a range of viewpoints to factor in
• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills.

Desirable Criteria:  

• Finance Department or large change programme exposure.

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,341, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £7,652 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

•    Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 27% of their salary.
•    Family friendly policies.
•    Personal support.
•    Coaching and development.

To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service

Things you need to know:
Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

How to Apply

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:

•    A 500 word Personal Statement.
•    A 250 word statement - Managing a Quality Service.
•    A 250 word statement - Communicating and Influencing.

Your Personal Statement should demonstrate your suitability against the Person Specification, describing how your skills and experience would be suitable for the advertised role, making reference to the essential criteria and person specification outlined in the advert. 

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift: 

At sift, your Personal Statement and the following behaviours "Managing a Quality Service" and "Communicating and Influencing" will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.

We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.

Interview: 

During the panel interview, your experience will be assessed and you will be asked some behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of. You will also be asked strength-based questions to also explore what you enjoy and your motivations relevant to the job role.

Sift will take place week commencing 16th September.

Interviews will take place face to face, from week commencing 6th October.  

Eligibility

Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you.