JOB SUMMARY

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. We are the UK’s biggest public service department and administer the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers.
DWP has an excellent reputation for ensuring its work is underpinned by robust evidence and analysis. Analysts work flexibly, in multi-disciplinary, multi-site teams across the organisation, embedded within policy, operational and wider analytical teams, to develop DWP’s evidence base and provide analysis that supports key decisions underpinning Departmental policies and projects.
The In-House Research Unit (IHRU) sits in the Central Analysis and Science Strategy Unit (CASS) and carries out a range of high priority, qualitative research to support the design and delivery of DWP policies and services. CASS collaborates across DWP (and beyond) to put evidence at the heart of decisions. This means that the IHRU collaborates on projects with other analytical teams across the department, or the IHRU leads research projects from design, carrying out research and reporting findings. This role covers providing essential administrative support to IHRU researchers to effectively carry out their research.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The key responsibilities of the role will include but will not be restricted to:

• Management of the administrative team (line management of up to 2 Administrative Officers, AOs).
• Providing support to the administrative team with daily tasks and development opportunities.
• Supporting researchers to deliver projects throughout the research stages by: recruiting participants, supporting with communications (including Gov.Notify letter system or Text Messaging Application), designing and developing Excel trackers, allocating fieldworker resource, procuring and monitoring incentives, and data anonymization.
• Supporting the IHRU in general administrative tasks, for example setting up ad-hoc and re-occurring meetings, monitoring multiple inboxes, updating intranet pages, registered E-filling.
• Procurement and budget monitoring, for example financial spend on training, research tools, incentives and travel.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

• Proven track record in organisational and project management skills in a research-focused or analytical support environment, including monitoring finances. (key criteria)
• Proven intermediate to advanced skills in MS Excel, SharePoint, Word and PowerPoint.
• Understanding of the role of social research in government, governance and processes, including experience of working with Data Protection rules and regulations, or the ability to learn these quickly.
• The ability to organise and undertake the recruitment of research participants, both customers of DWP and the general public, for social research fieldwork.
• The ability to exhibit strong leadership skills and to work as part of a team to promote a positive and energetic working environment.
• Variety of written communication and presentation skills, including experience of working with customers.

DESIRABLE SKILLS

• Experience of intranet or website publication.
• Experience of line management

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)
• 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

The key responsibilities of the role will include but will not be restricted to:

• Management of the administrative team (line management of up to 2 Administrative Officers, AOs).
• Providing support to the administrative team with daily tasks and development opportunities.
• Supporting researchers to deliver projects throughout the research stages by: recruiting participants, supporting with communications (including Gov.Notify letter system or Text Messaging Application), designing and developing Excel trackers, allocating fieldworker resource, procuring and monitoring incentives, and data anonymization.
• Supporting the IHRU in general administrative tasks, for example setting up ad-hoc and re-occurring meetings, monitoring multiple inboxes, updating intranet pages, registered E-filling.
• Procurement and budget monitoring, for example financial spend on training, research tools, incentives and travel