Job summary
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK's national statistical institute and the largest producer of official statistics in the UK. We are the only government department with the production of statistics as its main role. We are independent of ministers and instead report through the UK Statistics Authority to Parliament and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the Social Survey Division, the Telephone Operation (TO) is responsible for collecting data that underpins those statistics by conducting a number of telephone surveys with selected addresses across the UK. TO is a busy, interesting area employing a diverse workforce of around 200 interviewers working varying shift patterns, including evenings and Saturdays.�
Social Surveys Collection (SSC) is the largest business area in ONS with over 1000 colleagues across our HQ sites and the nationwide field community. It is responsible for many of the largest household and social surveys run in the United Kingdom. We have over 70 years of history in managing the design and collection of complex multi-mode social surveys.�
Working collaboratively with other business areas both within the Surveys Directorate and elsewhere in ONS, all roles are aligned to the objective of producing high quality, social survey outputs that meet user needs, whilst remaining aligned with corporate priorities that include the recently established Surveys Strategy.
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
The role will be to conduct telephone interviews with members of the public, who have been selected and pre notified for our social surveys. Some of the calls will be booked appointments, others will be calling telephone numbers supplied to us. The interviewer role is to gain agreement to conduct the survey over the telephone, completing the survey by asking the questions accurately and recording the responses using the Blaise system.
Conducting telephone interviews is the primary function of the role. The data collected is entered into computer software by the interviewer. There may be additional admin tasks related to the role including undertaking regular learning and development, having regular meetings with their line manager and team, and using Outlook for emails.
Business opening hours :
In order to achieve maximum response from our surveys, the majority of our work is carried out during week day evenings. We are able to offer 20 to 30 hours per week with various start times available for evening shifts, for daytime shifts there will be a start time of 9 am
The Telephone Operation business opening hours are:
1. Monday to Thursday to 21:00
2. Friday 09:00 to 20:00
3. Saturday 09:30 to 13:30
Hours will be discussed if you are invited to interview
Key Responsibilities:
4. Contact and call respondents to complete designated social surveys over the telephone. These surveys may include the Labour Force Survey (LFS), Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), and the Opinions survey (OPN), plus conducting keeping in touch exercises on other surveys.��
5. Ask questions as worded adhering to the Standard Method of Interviewing.�
6. Working as part of a team and supporting colleagues across the Telephone Operations Community.
Person specification
Essential criteria:
7. Be able to follow a script and accurately record data.�
8. To be self-disciplined, self-motivated, and happy to work without constant supervision.�
9. Have excellent communication skills and enjoy talking to people.
10. Excellent IT skills, proficient in Word and Excel and be able to learn new software systems quickly.�
Desirable criteria:
11. Previous experience of interviewing or telephone working.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
12. Managing a Quality Service
13. Communicating and Influencing
Benefits
Alongside your salary of �22,082, Office for National Statistics contributes �6,397 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
The 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 5400 valued colleagues across the business.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that the benefits pack attached (bottom of page) will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a member of the Business Disability Forum and a Disability Confident Leader we�re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.