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Job summary

Role Summary

As a Reward Adviser, you will play a key role in supporting the delivery of an effective and professional reward service across the Defra Group. This is a varied and rewarding position, offering the opportunity to develop specialist knowledge of Civil Service pay and reward while working closely with HR colleagues, managers, trade unions, and wider business stakeholders.

You will be responsible for coordinating a range of activities that underpin the work of the Reward team. This includes managing the reward mailbox, providing policy-based guidance, escalating complex queries where appropriate, and supporting the review, maintenance, and publication of reward policies and guidance. You will also manage the team SharePoint site, contribute to the development of a new online reward hub, maintain key logs and records, and support effective planning through ownership of the team workplan.

The successful candidate will be an organised and proactive individual with experience supporting teams within an HR environment. They will possess excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities while delivering high-quality outcomes. A good level of numeracy and confidence working with data is essential, alongside extensive experience using Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel.

Strong interpersonal skills are key to success in this role, as the postholder will build and maintain effective working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. They will be a self-starter who takes ownership of tasks from initiation through to completion, demonstrates resilience in a fast-paced environment, and contributes positively to continuous improvement activities.

This role offers an excellent opportunity for someone looking to build a career within HR and reward, developing expertise in reward policy, pay frameworks, and wider Civil Service HR practices while contributing to meaningful outcomes across the organisation.

Job description

As the Reward Adviser, you will be flexible and resilient. You will play a key part in our service through the management and coordination of multiple activities that underpin the wider objectives of the team.Typically you will be responsible for:

• Overseeing the reward mailbox, providing policy-based guidance or, where queries are complex, ensuring they are correctly allocated and managed.
• Supporting the review of reward policies and publishing them on Content Cloud, the organisation’s data sharing platform.
• Managing the team SharePoint site.
• Developing and implementing a new online hub for all our reward policies and updates.
• Developing and managing logs for higher starting salaries and allowances.
• Owning and maintaining the Reward team’s workplan.
• Providing team support, such as attending meetings to capture notes and actions, generating ad-hoc reports, conducting research, etc.

You will work across the range of Defra group, interacting with HR colleagues and managers and others in the business, including the trade unions. You will gain a good knowledge of Civil Service pay and how this links to other areas of HR. This is a dynamic and varied role that will provide the right person with a great opportunity to further their career within HR/reward.

Person specification

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate the essential criteria as noted below:

• Experience of supporting a team within a HR environment Strong written and verbal communication skills
• A good level of numeracy Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage differing priorities
• Must be a starter/finisher with good accuracy and attention to detail
• Good interpersonal skills to manage effective working relationships
• Extensive experience of using Microsoft Office products, particularly Excel

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,765, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £10,071 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).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Up to 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays

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 and Experience.

Application Process

As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a CV and a 500 word personal statement.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

You will need to complete 250 word statement on the following behaviour:

• Working together

Sift

A sift will be conducted against your CV, personal statement and behaviour statement.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Should there be a large volume of applications, we will sift on personal statement initially. Candidates will then be either progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Interview

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview, which will be a blended interview assessing the behaviours listed below:

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decision

Strengths are tested at interview stage. The strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Interviews will be held via MS Teams and are expected to last for 60 minutes. You will receive a link to join the interview, sent to the email address you provide on your application.

Further Information

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Reserve List

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

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be appointed in merit order for each location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to DEFRA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Near Miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in Defra which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Internal Fraud Database Check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to London may be subject to a higher level of clearance because of the security requirements for that location. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

Feedback

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.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 : richard.britton@defra.gov.uk
• Email : richard.britton@defra.gov.uk
• Telephone : 07920880271

Recruitment team

• Email : defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.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 Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here