Organisation Design and Development Practitioner - Census

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.

The Organisation Design and Development (OD&D) team sits within the People and Places Directorate. OD&D provide specialist consultancy to help the organisation adapt to changing priorities, strengthen its operating models, and improve ways of working. The team works in a flexible consultancy model, partnering with leaders across all directorates to design and embed organisational changes, support people centred transformation, and strengthen organisational effectiveness.

We are able to offer two roles, the first focused on supporting the delivery of Census 2031. Census 2031 represents our most ambitious data collection project yet – a once-in-a decade opportunity to capture a complete picture of everyone living in England and Wales. The second role plays an important part in maintaining and growing OD&D capability across the core ONS directorates.

The complexity of the roles arise from balancing multiple OD&D assignments, working with teams and leaders with different needs, and supporting to make evidence based design and development decisions. The postholder will often work in ambiguous or evolving situations, requiring them to analyse issues, identify risks or dependencies, and influence decision making without formal authority. While the role does not directly manage budgets or large-scale delivery functions, it plays a significant part in shaping how work, teams and ways of working are designed and implemented across ONS and the Census.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end organisation design and delivery activity across designated areas of the Census programme or across ONS.
• Review operating models and develop organisational structures, accountabilities and role profiles to ensure clarity, efficiency and confidence in delivery.
• Apply systems thinking and industry best practice so designs reflect interdependencies between people, processes, technology and governance.
• Support organisation development interventions that strengthen leadership capability, effective ways of working and collaborative behaviours across Census teams.
• Turn complex data from a variety of sources into meaningful insights and audience focused reports, that enable informed decisions and implementation plans.
• Design and facilitate workshops and senior leader discussions to diagnose issues, explore options and cocreate organisational solutions.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to design and implement project management approaches, ensuring effective planning, and delivery across multiple workstreams.
• Ability to analyse, challenge and translate complex workforce data into strategic insight, leading workforce planning activity and influencing workforce decisions through evidence-based analysis and recommendations. Provide expert OD&D advice, challenge and recommendations to senior leaders, supporting them to embed organisational changes and sustain them through delivery phases.
• Drive continuous improvement by capturing learning, sharing good practice, strengthening OD tools and approaches, and building strong stakeholder relationships across the Census programme and ONS.
• Become an active member in the cross government OD&D community of practice.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Proven experience of leading organisation design and/or organisation development activity, including the design of organisational structures and the development of organisational culture.
• Proven ability to analyse a range of information inform options/recommendations and decisions.
• Excellent planning and prioritisation skills with the ability to apply project management principles when approaching pieces of work, and when responding to changing priorities.
• Strong experience of workshop design, facilitation techniques and tools.
• A good understanding of workforce planning, with the ability to analyse and interpret data, to assess demand and inform planning decisions.

Qualifications

• CIPD Level 5 Organisation Design and Development qualification (or willingness to work towards), or equivalent including work experience.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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.

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

ONS is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are currently in the UK on a time-limited visa, it must have at least 18 months remaining at the point of application.

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Application process

Number of Stages: 2-stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

Step 1: Online Civil Service Judgement Test.

Upon submission of Part 1 of your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete an online Civil Service Judgement 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 step, or the next stage.

If you pass the test for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application (step 2), this is where you will provide information such as your work history, skills and experience and personal statement.

Step 2: Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250 words, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours, and essential skills.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

You will be asked to complete an in-tray exercise which will be provided on the day of the interview and candidates will be allocated time to prepare. This in-tray exercise will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour - Delivering at Pace.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

The Sift will be conducted from 20th October.

Interviews will be conducted week commencing 9th November.

Dates are subject to change.

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

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a standard (or equivalent) 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 : SCS Recruitment
• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scs.recruitment@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

2721 Advert 4B Fixed Term Between One and Two Years - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 134kB)Role3_Census1_Requirements Opens in new window (pdf, 78kB)2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)