Survey Enquiry Line Call Agent

Job summary

Do you have excellent communication and organisational skills? Have you got a good eye for detail? If so, this might be the role for you!

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.

Social Surveys Directorate (SSD) is the largest Directorate in ONS, comprising 2000 colleagues, including the field communities, split across six divisions:

Social Surveys Field Collection (SSFC)

Social Surveys Telephone and Ports Collection (SSTPC)

Social Surveys Research and Production (SSRP)

Social Surveys Strategy, Research and Innovation (SSRI)

Social Surveys Transformation (SST)

Social Surveys Central Division (SSCD)

This post sits within Social Surveys Telephone and Ports Collection (SSTPC) division which encompasses the International Passenger Survey community, who are based at airports, seaports, and international train stations across the UK, and the Telephone Operations community, which is based within our HQ offices.

The division also incorporates the Survey Enquiry Line, who support field interviewers and the public who call in requesting assistance, and the Survey Validation team who undertake critical coding and editing work.

The Survey Enquiry Line (SEL) Team sits within the Social Survey Operations, under the Directorate of Social Survey operations. The Survey Enquiry Line Call Agents answer a high volume of calls from members of the public who have been invited to take part in government surveys in our inbound Customer Contact Centre.

Job description

The Survey Enquiry Line Call Agents answer a high volume of calls from members of the public who have been invited to take part in government surveys in our inbound Customer Contact Centre.

Call Agents work collaboratively within the team to maintain delivery at peak times. They are the first point of contact for members of the public and ONS field interviewers.

Call agents deal with a variety of calls, including appointment booking, technical support and general queries relating to ONS surveys.

Call agents work on a shift basis covering the call centre opening times which are Monday – Friday 09:00-18:00 and 09:00-1300 on Saturdays.

The induction for this role will be delivered in person. You will be required to complete a one‑week induction programme onsite at the ONS Titchfield office in Fareham. The hours will be 09:00am – 16:00pm for the training. Following this initial induction period, you will then work primarily from your contractually allocated office location, spending at least 40% of your working time on site.

Working from 09.00 to 18.00 Monday to Friday, and Saturdays 09.00 to 13.00, the team provides a crucial role in supporting field staff in their work and to provide an effective service to survey respondents. Flexibility will be required within your role to support your team across these hours.

We welcome applications from candidates seeking part‑time or compressed working patterns. However, due to the nature of the work and the shift coverage required, the minimum number of contracted hours for this role is 30 hours per week.

Responsibilities

• Taking incoming telephone calls from respondents and triaging individual queries.
• Process requests and queries in a timely manner.
• Identifying and resolving issues using the information available.
• Escalating queries of a more complex nature as required.
• Completing documentation to a high standard ensuring data and information captured.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Evidence of contact centre or inbound telephone experience, Software’s such as 8x8 or similar telephony packages.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Good IT skills. Agents will have the ability to learn and work with multiple systems, databases and software including MS Outlook, Excel & SharePoint.
• Ability to manage difficult calls and complaints from the public in a calm manner.
• Ability to work under pressure.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

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.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 3 stage process

Stage 1: Civil Service Skills test

Stage 2 : Application

Stage 3: Interview

Stage 1 – Civil Service Customer Service Skills test

Civil Service Online Tests

Upon submission of Part 1 your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete Customer Service Skills online tests.

There will be full instructions on how to complete each test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. These tests are not time limited.

If you pass a test, you will then receive a further invite to complete each subsequent test if there is more than one for this vacancy. If you fail a test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

If you pass all tests for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application, this is where you will provide information such as your work history. Skills and experience and Personal Statement.

Stage 2 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your CV 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, 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.

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 and any required technical skills.

Interviews will be in person at the Titchfield office. Please note - travel expenses will not be reimbursed.

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

Important Dates:

The closing date for the role is 17/03/2026 at 23:55. Please note, both the Customer Service Skills test and written application (work history, qualifications and personal statement) will need to be completed by this deadline.

The Sift will be conducted from 20/03/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 07/04/2026

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 criminal record check.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 : Christine Morris
• 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

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