ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations in Newport or Titchfield (Fareham)and working between office and remote throughout the week.
All colleagues are required to work from their contractually allocated site for at least 40% of their working time.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person. The postholder will be required to work shifts, alternate weeks of days and evenings and Saturday mornings on a rota basis., Do you have excellent communication and inter personal skills? Do you like working with various different people ? 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.
Why Join Us?
As a Telephone Operations Manager you will have the opportunities to :
- Lead a team in an operational area.
- Motivate and develop staff to improve performance.
- Develop communication skills and build effective relationships across the office for national statistics.
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.
You will be part of the Operational Delivery Profession (ODP), it 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., The role is to manage interviewer teams effectively, ensuring that interviewers are trained sufficiently and supported in their roles. Managers monitor performance and ensure that quality standards are met by their interviewers.
You will ensure that shifts and rotas meet the needs of the business in supporting required call volumes and achieve required levels of response. Perform additional roles and duties required to support the operation eg managing a survey, deliver survey briefings, support the development of new surveys.
You will work as part of the Telephone Operations management team to support the day-to-day operation.
Responsibilities
+ On a rota basis, oversee the day to day running of the area to ensure effective workflow management and resolution of queries as they arise.
+ Responsibility for developing, coaching and managing a team of up to 20 interviewers.
+ Adherence to HR polices relating to performance, conduct and attendance where required, with the support of HR caseworkers.
+ Providing a quality assurance function by conducting regular assessments of interviewers telephone contacts with respondents, providing feedback and discussing outcomes.
+ Interpreting and discussing management information reports with interviewers to continually improve individual and overall performance.
+ Assist in recruitment activities and delivery of training for new interviewers.
+ Additional project work as required such as overseeing ad-hoc surveys.
+ To embed the engagement culture in all aspects of work and interactions with staff.
+ To work closely with the management team to ensure a consistent approach across teams.
+ To manage a range of social surveys - these include Labour Force Survey (LFS), Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS), and the Opinions survey (OPN), plus keeping in touch exercises on other surveys., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Leadership
+ Making Effective Decisions
+ Changing and Improving, 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 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., To maintain authenticity and credibility of the application process, should you choose to use generative AI tools, you need to ensure the information you provide in your supporting evidence accurately reflects your skills, knowledge, and experience.
ONS does not advocate relying solely on generative AI to write your application. Doing so may negatively impact your chances of success during the selection process.
If you are invited to interview, please be aware the use of AI tools is prohibited and any suspected use may result in the termination of your interview and subsequent withdrawal from the campaign.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1: Application
Stage 2: Interview
Stage 1 - Application
Assessment at application stage will be based on your CV and the evidence given in the 2 set questions contained in the application form. Your CV should be tailored to demonstrate any skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the content of the role but it won't be scored.
In your application form you are required to answer the questions below using up to 250 words on each answer. As these responses to the questions are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions.
+ Can you share an example of how you have successfully led a hybrid team, which included collaboration and performance across remote and office based staff?
+ Can you tell us how you have built effective relationships and developed communications within your team?
In cases where there is a high number of applications the sift pass mark may be adjusted and candidates will be invited to interview in merit order, i.e. those scoring the highest.
Should you be invited to interview, you will be assessed using various assessment techniques aligned to the new Civil Service Success Profiles, where you'll be assessed against all the behaviours outlined in the advert.
Stage 2 - Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.
Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.
Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield and Darlington.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
The Sift will be conducted from 24th July 2025
Interviews will be conducted from 11th August 2025
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

+ Experience of leading a hybrid team in an operational area with conflicting priorities.
+ Evidence of motivating and developing staff to improve performance.
+ The ability to work independently as well as in a team.
+ Experience in supporting change initiatives.
+ Excellent communication skills at all levels and evidence of building effective relationships.
+ Be proficient in the use of a laptop and MS products, especially Teams, Outlook, and Excel.

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 5400 valued colleagues across the business.

Alongside your salary of £27,252, Office for National Statistics contributes £7,894 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.