Administrative Officer

Are you interested in a key role within local delivery where you will use your administrative and communicative skills to provide a high level of customer service? If so the Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Economy (ARE) have an exciting opportunity for an Administrative Officer.

Portree Area Office is part of the network of 16 local Area Offices that perform a key role in the work of the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID), within the Agricultural and Rural Economy Directorate. The Area Offices are the main contact with farmers, crofters and other interested parties, being responsible for the delivery of grants, subsidies and other Government policies to the rural community.

Area Office staff contribute their knowledge and experience towards the development and implementation of policy and systems for new schemes, as well as the on-going maintenance of existing schemes. Area Office staff also provide professional advice and information to Scottish Ministers, the general public and other colleagues in the Scottish Government.

You will join our busy front office team and will support farmers and crofters with questions about their applications or claims both on the phone or at our front counter. When not dealing with customers you will be processing the applications and claims that our customers have submitted to you.

You will get to know our network of customers both internal and external, and will be expected to provide a professional and helpful point of contact for all. It is essential that you remain impartial, fair and diplomatic at all times, operating within agreed guidelines of information sharing.

Your workload will be varied and at times, extremely busy. You will need to be able to plan, organise and prioritise your work to meet agreed deadlines while maintaining a high level of quality and accuracy. You should be able to work using your initiative, have a positive attitude to change and be able to adapt to new procedures and priorities. You will use a range of systems to accurately input data, maintain information and retrieve data.

This is an excellent opportunity to grow and develop your skills with a variety of learning and development opportunities available within the team. You will have the opportunity to engage directly with local crofters whilst developing your interpersonal and organisational skills within the friendly, local team.

• Receipting, data capture, assessment and authorisations of applications and claims under a range of agricultural and environmental schemes.
• Dealing with telephone, written and face to face enquiries from both internal and external customers including assisting with registration and navigation of RPID’s online systems.
• Using Rural Payments and Services and other IT systems, make assessments of information submitted on business and their applications, including data capture of information submitted.
• General administrative duties, including filing, acknowledgement and onward processing of mail, compilation of inspection files and maintain spreadsheet information.

Competencies

Customer Service
Communications and Engagement
Team Work
Self Awareness

No specific qualifications required for this post.

Essential Criteria

1. Strong verbal and written communication including dealing with a range of customers and stakeholders, to maintain and improve standards in customer service.
2. Good administration, organisational and planning skills with the ability to prioritise competing tasks and workloads.
3. A proven team player who is able to work well with others but also carry out individual tasks as required, with the minimum of supervision.
4. Good IT skills, with a good working knowledge of a variety of IT systems, including Microsoft Office Products – Word, Excel and Outlook, or equivalent.

Provisional interview Dates

Interviews are anticipated to take place in mid June but may be subject to change. 
 
Minimum Time in Post

You will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of three years unless successful at gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade. 
 
In the event that further posts are required, a reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for up to 6 months. 

Location

Portree, Isle of Skye

This role is Hybrid working and will involve both office based and home working.

How to Apply

To apply please fully complete the application and submit evidence based examples to demonstrate your knowledge/skills (300 words). Remember, your answers should be clear, concise and reflect what actions you undertook. You may want to use the STAR(R) approach to respond to each criterion.

Additional Information:

For further information, please download and review the “Person Specification” which you will find below.

Person Specification - Band A

The post is a full-time role, but staff with different working patterns are invited to apply, and we will assess proposed working patterns against the business requirements for this post.

For information on this post please contact Hiring Manager Lynda Booth by email at lynda.booth@gov.scot

The Scottish Government is a diverse and inclusive workplace and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of assessment is used. If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via ScottishGovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot

As part of any recruitment process, Scottish Government and associated public bodies collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants and applicants for public appointments.

Personal information you provide in the recruitment process will be made available to Scottish Government and our additional data processors.