Skills, Development and Employee Experience Officer

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 ONS is dedicated to creating a working environment where everyone feels valued and inspired to deliver their best work. Our HR team, at the heart of the People and Places Directorate (PPD), leads the way in implementing industry-leading people practices and embracing innovative approaches, helping us attract, nurture and retain top talent.

This role is based within the Skills, Development and Employee Experience (SDEE) Division of the People and Places Directorate. The SDEE division supports the organisation by developing the skills needed now, and for the future, to deliver ONS’s priority outcomes, while also helping to build a brilliant workplace through a wide range of employee-focused services.

We are looking for someone with a proven record in driving positive change and organisational development in complex environments. Your expertise will be vital in shaping an exceptional workplace and supporting the ONS to achieve its strategic goals.

The Skills, Development and Employee Experience Officer plays a pivotal role in supporting the delivery of learning and development, well-being, culture, and inclusion initiatives across the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The successful candidate will act as a flexible resource, rotating between the four teams within Skills, Development and Employee Experience as required. This structure offers an excellent opportunity for professional growth, enabling the postholder to gain experience across multiple teams within the HR function and contribute to a range of impactful projects that support the organisation’s strategic objectives.

Job description

This HEO role supports the strategic aim of becoming a skills-led organisation; partnering with stakeholders to operationalise a growing portfolio to support skill development to deliver important ONS and cross-government agendas, which is a fast-paced, challenging and ever-changing landscape.

The successful candidate will act as a flexible resource, working across SDEE as priorities dictate. The areas within SDEE are:

• Talent & Entry Talent –Senior Civil Servant (SCS) Performance Management, Talent Development and a portfolio of Entry Talent programmes such as apprenticeships and social mobility internships

• Employee Experience – Building a brilliant place to work through culture, wellbeing, equality and diversity initiatives and interventions

• Learning- Partnering with the business to develop and deliver learning interventions aligned to skills needs

• Projects – Supporting various projects which deliver against key skills development and employee experience priorities across the organisation

Initially based in the Employee Experience Team, the successful candidate will lead on, and support interventions that support employee wellbeing, drive cultural evolution, and nurture inclusive practices, creating an environment that enables our people to be heard and bring their best, authentic selves to work.

Role Responsibilities:

The successful candidate can expect a diverse range of responsibilities centred around operational management and strategic development of talent and cultural initiatives.

Initially placed within the Employee Experience Team, the successful candidate will:

• Support the analysis of employee data to inform and implement initiatives that enhance wellbeing, inclusion, and workplace culture.

• Assist with employee feedback activities, such as surveys, and help communicate findings and recommendations.

• Collaborate with stakeholders, internal teams and employee resource groups (such as diversity networks), to improve employee experience and support culture-related projects.

• Provide flexible support across the team as required, including (but not limited to), project management, communications, administrative support.

As our work in SDEE continues to evolve, there will be moments when we may need to provide flexible resource support across various areas. This is a fantastic chance for the successful candidate to take on a pivotal role, whether that involves leading or supporting activities and initiatives.

Working across different areas within SDEE will not only broaden your skill set but also allow you to make a meaningful impact on our projects and goals. It's an excellent way to gain new experiences, collaborate with different team members, and contribute to the success of our initiatives such as:

• Managing apprenticeship programmes

• Facilitating social mobility initiatives

• Supporting outreach and work experience efforts

• Supporting Senior Civil Service (SCS) performance management

• Facilitating SCS leadership development

• Cross Government and industry collaboration

• Championing innovation and continuous improvement.
• Supporting the delivery of SDEE priority projects

Please note that the working hours for this role are part-time only, with a minimum of two days and a maximum limit of 24 working hours over three days per week. It is preferable that one of the working days is a Friday.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Ability to analyse and interpret data and use insights to drive activities and ideas.
• Confident in using Microsoft 365 tools, Including Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word and CoPilot (etc), with knowledge of SharePoint, ideally as Site Owner Level.
• Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills – Able to actively question, listen, and check requests and instructions to achieve a shared understanding of a complex issue, so these can be communicated effectively to other stakeholders where needed.
• Effective organisational skills, able to effectively prioritise and manage multiple tasks and activities concurrently.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including presenting learning interventions, and facilitating discussions around employee insight.
• Enjoys working at pace, and comfortable with change: Able to take initiative, prioritise workflow, and effectively manage multiple priorities.

Qualifications

Qualified by Experience or Certification – Demonstrates credibility and practical expertise in people management and development, ideally supported by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Level 5 or equivalent hands-on experience in supporting delivery of HR strategies and operational solutions.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,587, Office for National Statistics contributes £10,019 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:

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying.

A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to 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

Application process:

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

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

Your personal statement should be no longer than 1250 words. 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.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

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.

Interviews will be held in person at our Newport & Titchfield offices.

Please note our Titchfield office is based at 159 Segensworth Rd, Titchfield, Fareham PO15 5RR.

Please note our Newport office is based at Cardiff Rd, Duffryn, Newport NP10 8XG.

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

Sift - w/c 9th February 2026

Interviews - w/c 2nd March 2026

Dates are subject to change

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

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 : Claire Haigh
• Email : recruitmentoperations@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

2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)