People Operations Officer, People, Risk and Casework

Job summary

The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is driven by its unparalleled access across government to build ‘better insights, better outcomes’ for our clients.

This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider civil service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, stakeholder engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government.

The Agency’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully, and continue developing professionally.

s part of delivering GIAA’s People and Culture and workforce strategies, the HEO People Operations Officer – People, Risk & Casework will play an important role within the People Team. Reporting to the SEO People Risk & Casework Lead, you will support the delivery of a responsive, consistent and high-quality HR advisory and case triage service across the Agency.

You will be accountable for providing first-line HR advice and operational support across a range of routine people matters, including attendance, wellbeing, conduct and general employee relations queries. You will act as an initial point of contact for managers and employees, ensuring issues are correctly identified, appropriately categorised and progressed through the relevant HR route.

You will work collaboratively across the People Team, providing flexible support to ensure a joined-up and responsive HR service that meets the needs of the Agency.

This role provides a strong foundation for developing experience in HR advisory support, people processes and operational case triage within a structured People Team environment.

Job description

Role responsibilities

• Act as the first point of contact for general HR policy and procedure enquiries, managing the first-tier people enquiries inbox to ensure timely, accurate advice and appropriate triage or escalation.
• Support and guide EO People Operations Coordinators in handling routine HR queries related to employee relations, attendance, performance, pay, benefits, and policy application.
• Manage and resolve straightforward HR queries and low-complexity cases, providing clear advice while escalating more complex cases to the SEO People Operations Adviser.
• Assist managers with basic employee relations tasks, including drafting correspondence, preparing case documents, attending meetings, and maintaining accurate records.
• Support attendance management by monitoring compliance, advising on return-to-work processes, prompting timely actions, and coordinating wellbeing interventions such as Occupational Health referrals.
• Provide initial guidance on employee well-being queries, signposting to appropriate support services.
• Coordinate reasonable adjustment requests by gathering information, liaising with Occupational Health, implementing agreed adjustments, and ensuring compliance with data protection.
• Oversee flexible working requests administration, ensuring consistent process adherence, clear communication of outcomes, and monitoring trends for escalation.
• Maintain accurate casework logs, trackers, and HR records to support governance, audit readiness, and continuous improvement through insight into trends and issues.
• Contribute to business change, job evaluation, and embedding Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDI) practices, supporting workforce-related changes and compliance with legal and organisational EDI responsibilities

Person specification

Civil Service Verbal Reasoning Test

You will need to pass an online verbal reasoning test.

Please be aware there will be maintenance for online tests on 21 June 2026 Midday and 1pm and 28 June - 4pm to midnight. This means you will be unable to access the online tests between these times. Your progress will be saved, and you will be able to continue once the tests are available again.

If candidates require reasonable adjustments during the application process, or online test process, please allow sufficient time (at least 5 working days prior to the job closing date) to request support, to allow us to support candidates as best as possible. Please note that there is no candidate support from Friday 5pm until Monday 9am.

Application

A) You will be required to provide a 250-word statement to demonstrate the following behaviour: Managing a Quality Service.

You will need to give an example of your previous experience supporting, managing and resolving a variety of HR enquiries and issues, which demonstrate experience of providing expert advice to managers and employees.

B) You will be required to write a statement of suitability of up to 500 words setting out how your skills and experience meet the following criteria:

1. Experience supporting managers and employees with HR queries in a customer-focused environment by providing clear, practical advice on policies and procedures such as attendance, flexible working, wellbeing, and general HR processes, including handling or triaging HR queries through an inbox based or a shared service model.
2. Working knowledge of HR policies and processes and experience of providing direction and coaching to team members to resolve routine HR queries across the employee lifecycle.
3. Experience of managing or supporting the administration of HR processes, with strong attention to detail and the ability to maintain accurate records and ensure timely completion of tasks.
4. A proactive approach to continuous improvement, with the ability to identify opportunities to improve HR processes, guidance or service delivery.

Only candidates who achieve a score of 4 or more on the behavioural question will progress to the personal statement assessment stage.

We are also keen to candidates from who understand Civil Service or public sector HR frameworks and how policy is applied in practice within structured HR environments and experience of using HR systems to support operational activity and maintain accurate workforce or case data for reporting purposes.

Interview

At interview you will be assessed on experience, strengths and the following technical skills:

• HR Lifecycle

Qualifications

Level 3 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) qualification.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• HR Lifecycle

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,168, Government Internal Audit Agency contributes £10,767 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits

• Competitive salaries and in-year rewards
• Flexible working
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Discount on big brands
• Volunteering days
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Schemes
• Free eyesight tests
• Family-friendly HR policies
• 25 days’ annual leave increasing by one day per year of service to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• Geographically based Agency

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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Recruitment Timeline

• Closing date: 29 June 2026
• Shortlisting: 06 July 2026
• Interviews: w/c 13 July 2026

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline.

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs profile.

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Eligibility Statement

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. Checks will be performed as part of pre-employment checks in line with this. Please refer to the Candidate FAQ document attached to the advert for more information.

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, individuals appointed to the Treasury group will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Security Check (SC)

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. In exceptional circumstances, for example if you have been working abroad on a government posting, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case-by-case basis once the advert closing date has passed.

Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you. Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.

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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Katie Woodhouse
• Email : giaarecruitment@giaa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : giaarecruitment@giaa.gov.uk

Further information

Complaints Procedure: The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact: GIAARecruitment@giaa.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

Attachments

Success Profiles - Candidate Overview Opens in new window (pdf, 616kB)HEO-People Operations Officer -People, Risk and Casework-Candidate Pack_ Opens in new window (pdf, 968kB)