Operational Support Manager

Location

The ONS operates an adaptable hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations working between office and remote throughout the week. The locations for this role are Newport, Titchfield (Fareham).

All colleagues on office-based contracts should be working primarily in their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time.

The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.

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 Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest profession in the Civil Service. ODP’s 200,000+ members work in a wide range of operational delivery roles across government, providing essential services that support and protect UK citizens at home and overseas. They help to make ONS a great place to work.

As a member, ODP supports you by providing learning and development opportunities, career pathways, tools and resources to help develop your skills and progress your career. This is an exciting opportunity to join a modern, innovative and inclusive Civil Service profession that sits at the heart of public service delivery.

Job description

Within this role there are multiple elements to provide a diverse lens to continuous improvement and training. You will play a key role in supporting the Telephone Services business area, transforming it’s existing operational processes, incorporating opportunities available through new technology and systems, all in line with customer needs. You will be expected to understand the operation end-to-end, spot inefficiencies, and implement sustainable solutions.

You will support on workforce planning, including supply-demand modelling and rota optimisation, ensuring resources align with survey requirements. You will be responsible for administrative tasks, operational management, and ensuring the effective running of operational services in the Telephony department.

Excellent coaching skills are desired to develop managers and embed a performance-driven culture.

Management Information (MI) will be used as a supporting tool for decision-making, not as the primary focus.

Responsibilities

• Manage agenda coordination, meeting schedules and completion of notes & actions, ensuring the key actions are managed and monitored through agreed systems.

• Record and ensure appropriate management of operational delivery risks.

• Build and maintain good working relationships across forums to provide support to colleagues.

• Manage the inbox and housekeeping of associated SharePoint sites.  

• Develop and maintain subject matter expertise where needed of ONS Systems.

• Work collaboratively with teams to enable system and data changes.

• Seek opportunities for continuous improvement of processes and systems.

• Develops and manages issues escalation process, tracking issues through to resolution working with operational teams.

Person specification

This role aligns to the ODP Cross Government Operations Manager role profile - Operational Delivery Profession:

Essential Criteria

• Communicates and builds relationships across teams to deliver excellent service, quality and performance.

• Provides clear direction to team members to deliver successful outcomes in challenging circumstances.

• Identifies problems and supports others to identify problems and encourages the generation of solutions from teams.

• Highlights trends or risks through data analysis which could impact service delivery or stakeholders.

• Understands complex information and is able to make the right decision at the right time often under pressure. 

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving

• Delivering at Pace

• Communicating and Influencing

• Managing a Quality Service

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.

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.