Business Operations Officer

Job summary

We are MHCLG

Do you bring strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise your work?

Are you keen to promote collaborative ways of working amongst your team and stakeholders?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join us at Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we’d love to hear from you!
In the Place Engagement Team, we understand the local government sector as well as local places, use local intelligence and knowledge to improve places for the people that live there while also influencing policy making and delivering priorities for Ministers. Our work enables MHCLG to understand the sector and places so that policy is developed with a consideration of, and engagement with, the sector and place from an early stage.

The Business Operations Hub enables the Place Engagement team to operate effectively, manage risk, and measure impact. This team collaborates closely with colleagues in Place Teams and the Strategic Engagement Team, acting as the owner of key products and processes. As Business Operations Officer you will be a key member of the hub supporting day to day operations as well as supporting the wider team to achieve our goals.

Job description

• You will act as a link from the Business Operation Hub to the Northern place team, developing strong relationships across teams and a working knowledge of the area.
  
• Work with colleagues to run the team inbox.
• Commission and support the preparation of briefings and visit planning, maintaining accurate records and databases. You will take responsibility for more standard briefings ensuring consistency across the team.
• Coordinate correspondence and letters, ensuring consistency and working with place teams to incorporate local context and intelligence. You will prepare draft responses to standard pieces of correspondence etc.
• Monitor and analyse intelligence gathered by our teams, producing the team Snapshot and other products.
• Help create and then own governance processes and structures to ensure the team can function effectively and interact with the wider directorate and department.
• Support inductions for new starters and learning & development activities.
• Work closely with policy leads and other teams to ensure alignment and consistency of approach.
• Develop specialist knowledge in areas such as data analysis or honours processes.
• Provide surge capacity and flexible support for Place teams in response to specific pressures or ad-hoc events. Depending on business needs, you may be asked to work flexibly to support wider departmental priorities.

Person specification

• Organiser: You will plan and organise your time effectively, ensuring deadlines for briefings, correspondence, and governance tasks are met. You will manage competing priorities calmly.
  
• Networker: You will build strong working relationships across the team, with ministerial private offices and with policy teams using excellent judgement and collaboration skills.
• Improver: You will look for ways to improve processes and contribute to building the team, for example by streamlining workflows or supporting corporate initiatives. You will be open to opportunities for development and gaining experience in different areas of work.
• Analyst: You will monitor and interpret intelligence, spotting patterns and providing insights that inform the team’s products.
• Flexible and Responsive: You will have a diverse range of responsibilities, and you will need to be able to prioritise and pivot depending on demands that may not always be foreseen.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,169, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £10,478 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Staff Benefits Scheme, Childcare Vouchers, and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Stage 1: Sift

• Experience question 1 (Lead sift) : Please describe a situation where you managed multiple competing priorities and deadlines at the same time. Explain how you organised your workload, made decisions about prioritisation, and ensured key deadlines were met.
• Experience Question 2: Please provide an example of how you built and maintained effective working relationships with colleagues or stakeholders outside your immediate team to deliver an outcome. Describe your approach and the impact of your collaboration.

• Experience Question 3: Please describe a time when you had to respond to changing or unexpected priorities. Explain how you adapted your approach, managed your workload, and ensured important tasks continued to progress.

There is a 250-word limit per question.

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!)

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

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 interview.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Working together, Making effective decisions, Managing a quality service

• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked to complete a written excercise further details of this will be sent along with interview invites. This will be assesed agaisnt experience

Sift and Interview

Sifting is envisaged to take place starting 20/05/2026.

Interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database

• Appeals and Complaints

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + CTC

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 counter-terrorist 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

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 : Rosie Jenkins
• Email : rosie.jenkins@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk