Senior Support Officer – Recognition and Reward

at  Department for Business and Trade

JOB SUMMARY

About OPSS
Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!
We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade (Previously the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.
Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, most recently with the addition of construction products regulation planned.
Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence.
Further information can be found on our website here
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (DCS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
We are Inclusive
We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Development and Skills Team is part of the wider Capability and Development Team who provide key HR support to OPSS including organisational capability, capacity, talent, learning, planning, and internal engagement. We are responsible for ensuring that OPSS can identify, attract and retain staff to carryout necessary regulatory functions to protect people and places and promote economic growth by giving consumers and businesses the confidence to buy and sell products.
The OPSS Development and Skills Team is now looking for an individual to deliver staff reward and recognition schemes and support other projects to ensure OPSS can retain staff to carryout different regulatory functions. The team is supported by a Team Leader (G6) and Deputy Director (SCS) and works very closely with colleagues, of all levels, across OPSS.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experienced at delivering deliverables at pace through using planning and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to work with a range of internal stakeholders to support different initiatives.
• Management of different internal reward and recognition schemes.
• Proficient in using Microsoft applications, including Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, independently.
• Task management of staff carrying out deliverables to support a variety of initiatives.

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)

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Weekly responsibility for collating non-cash award nominations for OPSS staff and making non-cash award recommendations to OPSS Leadership Team (Senior Civil Servants).
• Working with the Department for Business and Trade staff benefits provider to process staff non-cash awards.
• Communicating with internal stakeholders about awards, including managing enquiries to service standards and ensuring guidance on the intranet is up to date and accurate.
• Quarterly responsibility for delivering OPSS staff cash awards including collecting, drafting, and communicating staff cash awards across all grades.
• Working with the Department for Business Finance Team to process staff cash awards.
• Providing high level support to Leadership Team (Senior Civil Servants) for cash awards including managing and presenting data and drafting communications.
• Managing and updating spreadsheet trackers for cash and non-cash awards so that information can be presented quickly and efficiently for Leadership Team (Senior Civil Servants).
• Task management of staff supporting cash and non-cash awards with a future view of line management responsibilities.
• Responsible for devising innovative approaches and solutions to reward and recognise staff in OPSS, in the parameters of policy.
• Co-ordinating and working with Senior Civil Servants to write letters of recognition for staff.
• Delivering wider OPSS Development and Skills team projects to support staff learning, development, and culture.