HM Revenue & Customs Careers – Junior Content Designer

About the job

Location

Manchester, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Edinburgh

Job Summary

About the job

At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career at HMRC accessible to you.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are essential to our success and we encourage applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

HMRC is one of the largest organisations in the UK and the biggest digital operation in Government. Our digital business runs the IT behind tax and benefits services for 45 million individual and 5 million business customers.

We’re making HMRC services and information simpler, clearer and faster for individuals and businesses. To do that, we need content designers who will help us design end-to-end services based on user needs.

Job Description

As a Junior Content Designer you’ll work alongside other user-centred design professionals and senior policy and process experts. Your role will be to design inclusive and accessible content that is part of end-to-end services across HMRC and government.

You’ll be a passionate advocate for clear, jargon-free content, and be persuasive and collaborative with a wide range of stakeholders.

As a Junior Content Designer You Will

• Provide hands-on content design for projects or portfolios of work
• Use best practice and standards to write usable and accessible content, consistent with the rest of government and HMRC
• Contribute to the development of content strategies to inform end-to-end journeys
• Work with user researchers to gain a better understanding of user needs
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams on large, complex services by supporting the design process, research activities and workshops
• Work with more experienced content designers to map user journeys and processes
• Provide on-call cover as part of a rota to respond to publication requests out of office hours

You Will Also Be Expected To

• Actively participate in the HMRC and cross-government design communities, both digitally and face-to-face
• Proactively seek new learning opportunities and look to continually improve by gaining feedback from your peers and the business.

Person specification

You Need To Have Experience Of

Essential skills and experience

• Writing for the web, with ability to create content that is accessible and usable.
• Working with other designers to create clear user journeys to and from content.
• Working with style guidelines.
• Reviewing content before it’s published and giving feedback to designers to make sure design standards are met.
• Supporting more experienced content designers to access and analyse analytics data and other user feedback to inform content design decisions.
• Explaining your design decisions and approach with stakeholders.
• Supporting workshops and discussions to facilitate the design of content through collaboration with other professions.

Desirable Experience

It would be great if you also have experience of:

• Working to the government service standard and/or GOV.UK standards and working practices.
• Working in agile teams.

Technical Skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• User-Centred Content Design
• User focus (Content Design)
• Stakeholder relationship management (Content Design)

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service pension.

Team members that are moving offices as a result of the Locations Programme will be entitled to a Moves Adjustment Payment for three years where they incur additional costs. This is calculated based on the difference between the costs of travelling to and from the new and old office, over a weekly period. You will get more detail on this as part of targeted locations move communications.

Find More About HMRC Benefits In

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete:

• CV.
• Personal Statement, which should demonstrate how you meet the skills ensuring you give examples relating to your professional experience, referring to the essential and desirable criteria above (1000 words max).

Please note desirable criteria will only be used in a tie break situation.

A sift of your CV and personal statement will be conducted against the role profile.

The applicants with the best skills and experience will be invited to interview, where you will be required to provide evidence as to how you meet the above criteria and requirements. Your technical skills will be explored in more detail at interview where you will also be asked to complete a design exercise.

After interview, a single merit list will be created and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location.

Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed.

Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. The inbox to contact is: [email protected] – Use subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application – 243922 & vacancy closing date 26/10/2023.

Security Update

If you are successful and transferring from another Government Department, we will carry out a check of your identity, nationality, and immigration status (including the right to work in the UK) and a criminal record check before confirming your appointment.

Successful candidates must pass a Disclosure and Barring Security Check/Disclosure Scotland. Please note that HMRC have an exemption under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which enables us to make enquiries about both unspent and spent convictions.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email [email protected]

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre -employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

HMRC transformation

HM Revenue and Customs is currently going through an exciting ten-year transformation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future. As part of this, we are committed to providing high-quality jobs and giving employees a great place to work, whichever location you work from.

HM Revenue and Customs has made significant progress with its plans to locate in 14 large, modern, flexible offices, equipped with high-speed digital infrastructure supporting improved customer service and compliance activity. These collaborative workspaces will enable smarter working and great training and development facilities, allowing for the sharing of expertise, local training, promotion, and provide great ongoing career development opportunities.

These offices will be located in central locations in the following towns and cities close to accessible transport links: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Croydon, Portsmouth and Stratford.

In addition, there will also be a small number of specialist sites where the work cannot be done anywhere else, in Gartcosh (near Glasgow), Telford, Ipswich, Worthing and Dover, as well as our headquarters in central London. What’s more, our Welsh language service has people located in Porthmadog, as well as Cardiff.

We are letting you know about our future plans because if you are recruited into an office that is not one of these locations, you will be expected, subject to HM Revenue and Customs applicable policies, to move to one of these locations in the future. In some cases, this will be via one of our nine transitional sites.

For more information please contact the vacancy holder.

Terms and Conditions

We really hope you decide to apply for this role. If you’re successful you need to know that in February 2021 members of recognised trade unions (ARC and PCS) voted to approve a pay and contract reform offer. This means that HMRC will adopt new terms and conditions for all colleagues as part of a multi-year pay deal and contract offer, the pay deal period is 01 June 2020 – 31 st May 2023 and terms and conditions changes take place from the 01 June 2021 onwards. These terms will apply to colleagues who already work in HMRC and if you join us, it will apply to you too. We’ve put together a summary of the key changes that will be made and you can find this attached to the Job Advert.

Pay

If you are currently working for an OGD and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document “Pay on Transfer from OGD” for further information. (Please note the attached document could also be called “ Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”)

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Further Information

Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement this will be tested as part of the selection process.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to HMRC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility

HMRC welcomes applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, taking into account our operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer .

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Important Information For Existing HMRC Contractual Homeworkers

Please note that this role is unsuitable for contractual homeworkers due to the nature and/or requirements of the role.

Reasonable adjustment

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate. Please see our for more details.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
• Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Working for the Civil Service

The

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s

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.

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : Matt Lowe
• Email : [email protected]
• Telephone : 03000 529131

Recruitment team :

• Email : [email protected]

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click