Business Operations Administrator

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

Business Data Operations Division (BDOD) is a large and diverse area of 400 staff collecting economic statistics survey data from over a million businesses a year. We play a key role in producing the data that underpins important national statistics, such as how much the UK economy is growing (GDP), changes in prices and inflation, and other measures that help understand the country's financial health.

This role is an excellent entry point into the Civil Service and a great way to start building a long-term career. As part of the Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) – the largest profession in government with over 200,000 members, you’ll join a cross-government network that provides essential services to the public. Working within Business Data Operations Division (BDOD) gives you the chance to develop transferable skills and gain experience that can open doors to a wide range of opportunities across ONS and the wider Civil Service. ODP supports your growth through structured learning, career pathways, and resources designed to help you progress and thrive.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

Job description

We are seeking proactive and flexible individuals to join our Business Data Operations team. As a Business Operations Administrator, you’ll help collect and check survey data from businesses. Your job is to make sure the data are accurate and up to date, and to record relevant information on our systems.

In this role, you’ll take ownership of your day by managing and prioritising your workload independently. You’ll collaborate with businesses to uncover insights and explain changes or anomalies in their data which goes towards measuring the size and shape of the UK economy. Using your learned knowledge and your analytical skills, you’ll make informed decisions, accurately record outcomes in our internal systems and confidently escalate any issues that require further support.

Your responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Being the professional and helpful point of contact between ONS and our survey respondents, through multiple communication channels (such as telephone, email, and secure messaging).
• Proactively query and validate survey data, applying analytical thinking and information gathered from businesses to make informed decisions, while continuously building technical knowledge to become a subject matter expert in survey processes.
• Confidently use multiple IT systems to record actions clearly and accurately, often working across dual monitors to manage complex tasks efficiently.
• Working flexibly as part of a team and maintaining positive relationships with colleagues and respondents.
• Taking responsibility for your own learning and development, reviewing progress regularly with your manager.
• Helping to deliver a better respondent experience and improve our data quality.

Job holders will need the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English or Welsh.

Person specification

Please note as part of this role, there is a requirement that you provide cover until 5pm on a rota basis

Essential criteria:

• Excellent numerical, oral and written communication skills and a keen eye for detail.
• Comfortable working with a range of IT tools, and a desire to learn new systems and processes.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a wider team.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise, be flexible and adaptable to change to deliver within tight deadlines.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,501, Office for National Statistics contributes £7,387 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Assessment Process

Number of Stages: 2

Overall Structure:

Stage 1: Application (2 steps)

Stage 2: Interview (1 step)

Application (2 steps):

Application Step 1: Online Civil Service Numerical Test.

Upon submission of Part 1 of your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete an online Civil Service Numerical test. There will be full instructions on how to complete the test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. The test is not time limited. If you fail the test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

Application Step 2: Submission of Job History and Personal Statement based on 3 questions.

If you pass the online numerical test for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final step of your application, this is where you will be required to provide information such as your work history and personal statement.

For your personal statement you are required to answer the questions below using up to 250 words on each answer. As these responses to the questions are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions.

• In this role, we use the telephone to contact businesses. Can you describe a situation where you have used the telephone in a business/professional setting to answer a query and/or request information. Please include any specific skills or software you used.
• Describe your experience of working both independently and as part of a team.
• How would you prioritise and manage your workload to ensure you complete your work on time, without compromising on quality?

In cases where there is a high number of applications the sift pass mark may be adjusted and candidates will be invited to interview in merit order, i.e. those scoring the highest.

Interview (1 step):

Should you be invited to interview, you will be assessed using various assessment techniques aligned to the new Civil Service Success Profiles, where you'll be assessed against all the behaviours outlined in the advert.

Interviews will be conducted by Video Conference.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales) and Titchfield.

All successful candidates will be placed on a reserve list for up to 12 months and we aim to onboard cohorts from this reserve list on a rolling monthly basis.

The Sift will be conducted from: Monday 2nd March 2026

Interviews will be conducted from: Monday 16th March 2026

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Business Surveys Recruitment
• Email : Business.Surveys.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

ONS_Vacancy_Terms(Permanent) Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 465kB)