Home Office Passport Admin Officer Roles

BigAunty

Just had a look into the 2 year fixed term AO roles only to find that in my area, they offer only evening part-time roles that run around 8 months of the year and where the job starts in around 6 months time. In some areas, there is a minimum requirement to work nights at least 5 times a week.

They offer the posts following a very long application form which includes five 250 word competency statements, an online assessment, a telephone interview, a 45 minute face to face interview and a counter terrorism check.

Now I'm not disputing the requirement for a CTC for national security reasons and I'm aware that civil service application forms and interviews tend to be long. An employer is entitled to set up as many screening stages as they like (in this case 5) and I'm sure they will fill the vacancies.

But I now understand why there is a huge passport backlog in the country and why they estimate that they require around 300 plus staff - there are so many steps to the application process to get a temporary part-time evening job starting in December that pays just a couple quid more than the NMW.

Just for an additional moan, the online application form is very buggy. For example, it continually rejected my telephone number without providing any guidance on the format for the digits and it took around twenty attempts to enter just my landline number.

tomtontom

The application form is nothing out of the ordinary. The pay is over £9 an hour, not to be sniffed at for unskilled work. The application process is long winded because they have so many applicants and they need to be fair and transparent in their selection. What would you like them to do differently, apart from getting the bugs out of the application form?

Horace

The applications appear to be long-winded, all civil service jobs require you to answer competency questions. When dealing with passports or anything to do with homeland security then the application process will take 6 months so that background checks can be made to make sure that you are not a security risk.

BigAunty

My point is that the huge lengthy process with this for a low paid part time temporary job paying around £115 a week that doesn't start for months is perhaps a reason why there is a huge backlog for customers.

I don't dispute the need for the security check but clearly the huge application process and the poor working conditions (and presumably the high turnover by the few that pass all 5 stages that comes from the delayed start date, low pay, evening work, temporary contract) is why the passport service is in its current bad state.

It's a really over-engineered and hurdle strewn process for what amounts to a simple low paid admin job.

Tiddlywinks

So, just don't apply then.

I am glad to see that the Home Office is taking the recruitment process seriously - those temporary staff will have access to restricted data and systems - why would they cut corners?

BigAunty

They don't need to 'cut corners', they need to accelerate the process and offer proper jobs.

The Home Office probably can't attract or keep the staff because of the anti-social hours, for starters, the way a person only works part of the year yet is contractually obliged to work for 2 years and where the start date can be nearly 6 months away - major, major turn-off.

On the one hand, the jobs are low paid unskilled junior roles with no qualifications or experience required with very poor shift patterns and on the other, the recruitment process steps are more akin to the hoops that a graduate would have to go through to get a trainee management role.

This is why the passport issuing service is stuffed in the UK - there is a horrendous recruitment process and the long-windedness of it means it can't compete with operational demand.

There is no degree of realism in the convoluted and clunky process, no horses for courses here, and the lack of respect shown to potential candidates by the terms and conditions of the roles is probably a major factor in why the Home Office can't meet its basic operational responsibilities.

There is absolutely no way they can predict that those who are even willing to submit themselves to those 5 long-winded stages and who are actually offered the roles in August will still be motivated or available to take up the roles by December.

This means they have to over recruit and then have reserve lists meaning that at the end of the day, there could be dozens or hundreds of successful candidates who spent a lot of time and effort on their application, only to end up on an unused list.

It is an abysmal way to to run a recruitment programme for such a nationally important service - the terms and conditions of the role are akin to a junior temp role offered by an agency for data entry while the process around it seems geared towards recruiting for MI5...

At its heart, their recruitment message is 'You are an expendable low paid temp who must work anti social hours but might only end up on a reserve list anyway because we are simply stabbing in the dark about our operational needs. Welcome to the Civil Service'.

Horace

Don't apply for the job then BigAunty it really is that simple!

You are obviously not cut out to be a civil servant in any case especially if you are whinging about the application process.

whodathunkit

I'd think that interesting, evening only jobs, with no entry qualifications, paying £9 per hour would be like gold dust and they'd need a lot of procedres both for security and because of applicant numbers.

BigAunty

whodathunkit wrote: »

I'd think that interesting, evening only jobs, with no entry qualifications, paying £9 per hour would be like gold dust and they'd need a lot of procedres both for security and because of applicant numbers.

That's a good point but you have to be mindful that the roles only operate for around 8 months of the year, paying an average of £90 a week for 3 evenings per week. That's not much more than JSA.

These hours are less than the 16 hour a week and 24 hour a week working tax credit threshold for lone and 2 parent households so might not attract that demographic who wish to avoid the benefit cap that comes with not working sufficient hours..

The periods span academic vacations so might not appeal to the student demographic, particularly as peak application periods may coincide with end of term exams.

At around £4680 per annum, the salary is not sufficient to count towards the state pension (and perhaps other contribution based benefits).

So perhaps these jobs will appeal to pensioners?

whodathunkit

BigAunty wrote: »

That's a good point but you have to be mindful that the roles only operate for around 8 months of the year, paying an average of £90 a week for 3 evenings per week. That's not much more than JSA.

These hours are less than the 16 hour a week and 24 hour a week working tax credit threshold for lone and 2 parent households so might not attract that demographic who wish to avoid the benefit cap that comes with not working sufficient hours..

The periods span academic vacations so might not appeal to the student demographic, particularly as peak application periods may coincide with end of term exams.

At around £4680 per annum, the salary is not sufficient to count towards the state pension (and perhaps other contribution based benefits).

So perhaps these jobs will appeal to pensioners?

But being evenings they'd combine with a day time job to make enough hours for tax credits.

However, I'd think the most likely applicants would be SAHPs whose working other halfs would be looking after the children. A great job for someone in that position.

Truegho

Horace wrote: »

Don't apply for the job then BigAunty it really is that simple!

You are obviously not cut out to be a civil servant in any case especially if you are whinging about the application process.

The poster is NOT "whingeing"; he is simply expressing a sentiment about this ridiculously long-winded recruitment process which, as evidenced by the nature of some of the other posts here, many other job applicants share too. If they want staff that badly, they should not make their recruitment process so long-winded. FACT.