Recruiter Ref. 3376
Department - Mission Enablers
Location(s) - Cheltenham, Manchester
Salary - Salary: £34,777 rising to £37,596 after one year
Job description
Flexible Working: We support full-time, part-time, compressed, flexible hours, job share and hybrid working. You can expect to be office based for a minimum of 60% of your time.
About Us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.
The Role
This role is your opportunity to be at the heart of shaping the future workforce of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ by attracting the best talent with diverse skills and backgrounds. As a Recruiter at MI5, based at GCHQ, you’ll provide a professional and inclusive experience to our customers, candidates and colleagues while delivering high-quality employees.
Using our attraction, selection and candidate management processes, you’ll deliver recruitment campaigns – mainly for GCHQ – within short timeframes. And, working alongside our external recruitment partner, you’ll keep candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process, giving them transparent and timely communication about their status.
You could be working on a variety of different campaigns including high-volume graduate campaigns, or more niche specialist roles. You will play a key role in assessing candidate suitability and could be involved in, or provide support to our internal business areas, with assessment centres and interviews, virtually or in person. And you’ll be involved in end of campaign reviews – using your campaign insights to make recommendations to improve processes and efficiency.
You’ll build productive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders and partners, providing regular updates and managing expectations. These stakeholders may include hiring sections across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ (teams which we are recruiting for), and partners such as occupational health, occupational psychologists, vetting, employment lawyers, marketing teams, outreach teams, and our external recruitment partner. You will develop your subject matter expertise and look for opportunities to share your knowledge within recruitment as well as with stakeholders and partners.
You will ensure campaigns are compliant with HR policy and employment law and you’ll deliver value for money. You will ensure that candidate trackers and internal systems are kept up to date with the status of candidates. This will be used to provide accurate and up to date management information (MI) which supports senior level customer interactions and planning across the organisation. Your campaigns will need to be GDPR compliant, with any compromises reported immediately.
There is an expectation that you will stay within recruitment for four years before applying for other roles at MI5. In the future, you’ll be able to apply for other roles across MI5’s corporate services, such as Vetting, Finance, Commercial or Human Resources. In addition, you will be able to apply for all available and eligible UK Intelligence Services secondment opportunities across agencies at Cheltenham/Manchester locations as well as others offering a wide range of career opportunities and possibilities.
About You
You’ll have demonstrable experience of working as part of a team as well as working solo. You can take the initiative and plan ahead, prioritising which projects are most important within your workload. Your ability to communicate with a variety of people about a range of topics and build relationships – with candidates and partners – will be crucial.
As you’ll be one of the first people candidates speak to, being professional will be imperative, as will being organised.
A minimum of 1 year experience in either recruitment, talent spotting or HR is essential to apply for this role. This will have helped you develop the skills we are looking for, as would a CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) qualification - although this is not essential - and there may be the opportunity to obtain the CIPD qualification whilst in role.
Training and Development
At MI5, we have an inclusive and supportive working environment that’s designed to encourage open minds and attitudes. We value and nurture talent and we’re committed to ensuring you have the support and guidance to build a rewarding career at the heart of national security. From language events and workshops, to acquiring professional qualifications, our strong learning culture will continuously develop you, your knowledge, and your skills.
By joining MI5, you’ll be joining a network of colleagues who work across the Intelligence community. This widens our perspectives, enhances our abilities, creates an open culture, and enables us to be more effective in our work. Along with being assigned a buddy on day one, you’ll have a two-day induction to get up to speed on our processes and internal systems. Working alongside and learning from your team, you’ll be given all the support you need.
You’ll also have a dedicated development budget for a relevant external course or to put towards other training to support you in your role. You’ll have access to plenty of internal training courses and there may also be the opportunity to obtain CIPD qualification.
Rewards and Benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £34,777 plus other benefits including:
- 25 days’ annual leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days’ public and privilege holidays
- Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
- Personal Learning Budget
- Interest-free season ticket loan
- Excellent pension scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
- Paid parental and adoption leave
Equal Opportunities
At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website:
https://www.MI5.gov.uk/careers/diversity
We're Disability Confident
MI5 are proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. Being Disability Confident, we aim to offer an interview to any candidate who self-identifies as disabled and meets the essential criteria for the role. This is our ‘Offer of Interview’ (OOI).
Essential criteria:
* A minimum of 1 year experience in recruitment, talent spotting or HR is essential for this role.
What to expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
* Application sift, looking at your motivation for the role and the organisation
* Interview, including motivational fit questions, scenario questions and competency-based questions
* If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, subject to vetting
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.
Before You Apply
To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You can read our full eligibility criteria here.
This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. You can find out more about the vetting process here.
Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.
Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more discretely.
The role is based in Manchester or Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. A loan is available to support people relocating.
Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.
Right to Withdraw Statement:
Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.