Business Support Manager

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled individual to play a key role in supporting senior leadership, driving effective business operations, and improving directorate ways of working.

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.

As a Business Support Manager, you will work collaboratively with colleagues within the Directorate Business Support team in delivering highly effective business support activities to the director, senior leadership team and wider directorate. How your work is spread across the directorate will depend on its size and structure, and the complexity of some of the key tasks.

There will be an opportunity to join business support communities of practice, working collaboratively with business support colleague across ONS to develop and share best practice, solve operational issues, and improve processes.

The Business Support Manager plays a key role in supporting senior leadership, enabling effective directorate operations and improving ways of working. The post holder will provide high-quality business support to the Director, Senior Leadership Team and wider directorate, working collaboratively with colleagues and enabling functions across ONS.

Job description

There are 6 roles avaliable as part of this campaign across 5 different business areas:

Office of the National Statistician

This role sits within the National Statistician’s Office (NSO), which supports the National Statistician in providing leadership across the UK statistical system. NSO works across government and internationally to promote high-quality statistics, support analytical excellence, strengthen statistical standards and drive collaboration across the wider statistical community. NSO is structured into three divisions: the National Statistician’s Analysis Unit, the International Division, and the GSS and Analysis Function Support and Standards Division.

Macroeconomic and Environmental Statistics (two posts avaliable)

This role within the Macroeconomic and Environment Statistics and Analysis (MESA) Directorate is responsible for managing the business support function across two divisions: Economic and Microdata Insights (EMI) and Environmental Economy. The role includes leading and supporting the Personal Assistant function, overseeing divisional mailboxes, coordinating responses to enquiries, and ensuring the timely delivery of key business support activities, including corporate reporting, divisional events and away days, communications, and management information. It also involves supporting divisional recruitment, capability development, and financial processes, while ensuring delivery to agreed timescales and quality standards.The Macroeconomic and Environment Statistics and Analysis (MESA) Directorate produces a wide range of economic statistics. This post forms part of MESA Central Division, we are a team of fifteen Business Support Managers and Personal Assistants supporting seven Divisions across the Directorate. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in supporting the senior leadership with their recruitment and finances, driving effective day to day business operations and enhancing ways of working for the Global Trade & Investment (GTI) Division. The role provides key business support for the division in their work producing UK trade, foreign direct investment and balance of payments statistics.

Population Statistics

Working collaboratively across the Population Statistics Directorate and wider ONS, you will support the Business Manager to provide high-quality business support to the Director, Senior Leadership Team and wider directorate. Your responsibilities will vary depending on business needs, priorities and the complexity of the work.

You will also contribute to business support communities of practice across ONS, sharing best practice, resolving operational issues and improving processes.

Methodology and Quality

The Directorate Support Unit provides high-quality business and executive support across the Methodology and Quality Directorate. The team works closely with senior leaders and colleagues across the Directorate, providing support across recruitment, finance, corporate planning and reporting, communications and wider business management activities to help the Directorate deliver its priorities effectively.

Economic Statistics Production Analysis

ESPA teams produce a wide range of UK economic statistics, including:

• Labour Market
• The National Accounts (which includes Gross Domestic Product)
• Monthly output of the service, production, construction and retail sectors
• Quarterly household expenditure and household income estimates
• Sub-national estimates of GDP, household income and household expenditure
• Real Time Indicators, including the Business Insight & Conditions Survey
• Data on the UK financial services industry

The Directorate is also responsible for the large structural surveys conducted by ONS, which include the Annual Business Survey, Annual Purchases Survey, Prodcom and the Annual Survey of Goods and Services.

This role will sit in Economic Statistics Production and Analysis Directorate within the business support team, providing Business Support to the Labour Market division. The Business Support team is made up of 11 colleagues providing support across 5 divisions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and matrix manage SCS Personal Assistants and business support officers, providing guidance to ensure senior leaders are fully supported.
• Build and maintain effective stakeholder relationships across the directorate, group, wider ONS and external partners.
• Coordinate corporate planning, reporting, management information and senior briefings.
• Draft and cascade key communications on behalf of the Senior Leadership Team.
• Maintain corporate registers and ensure outputs are delivered to agreed timescales and quality standards.
• Provide secretariat and coordination support for key directorate meetings, boards, briefings, workshops and resource panels.
• Oversee team inboxes, ensuring requests and enquiries are managed promptly and escalated where needed.
• Support delivery tasks and small projects under the direction of the Senior Business Support Manager or other senior managers.
• Contribute to business support communities of practice, sharing best practice and improving operational processes.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, with demonstrable experience of collaborating and engaging effectively with people across the organisation, including at a senior level.
• Demonstrable experience of establishing, building and maintaining strong collaborative and productive relationships across a broad range of customers and / or stakeholders.
• Highly effective organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks concurrently, delegating appropriately to ensure delivery to time and quality.
• Proven ability to work under pressure and at pace, responding flexibly to changing priorities while supporting others to meet tight deadlines.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team, including leading others to deliver high