Menu
Departments
Back to main menu
Professions
Back to main menu
Life in the Civil Service
Back to main menu

The Civil Service

What do Civil Servants say?

Benefits
When you work for the Civil Service, we offer a wide range of benefits with you, your family, and your future in mind. Find out more about our excellent employee benefits.
Entry Routes
Back to main menu

Early Careers

Experienced Hires

Supported Schemes

The Civil Service Guide to Job Sharing
The Civil Service is an equal opportunities employer that positively promotes all forms of flexible working, including job sharing.
Application Guidance
Back to main menu

Applying for a Job

Supporting your Application

Reasonable Adjustments
To help you during the recruitment process, we will take into account any adjustments that could help you. Read more about reasonable adjustments here.
Try our career matcher
Apply for jobs

Our
Recruitment
Process

How we recruit at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

Here you can learn about:

Application and selection

Applying

We consider a number of different factors when assessing your suitability for a job. We call these factors ‘Success Profiles’ and encourage you to read more about them. You might also be asked to provide a CV or cover letter.

Please carefully review the requirements in the job advert and give yourself plenty of time to complete your application. We want to know what makes you an excellent fit for the role.

You’ll submit your application using the recruitment platform BeApplied. The platform removes bias and ensures fairness so we can recruit diverse and high-quality teams.

It does this by:
– removing personal information like your name, gender and education details
– randomising candidate answers
– letting the panel to sift independently online, reducing group bias
– helping us write job descriptions that aren’t too long and don’t use gendered language or jargon

Sifting

When the application deadline passes your application will be sifted by a panel. Panels should be diverse at least in gender, and ideally should represent a range of ethnicity, disability and experience.

The panel won’t be given any of your personal information. Your answers will be mixed in with answers from other applicants, to make sure each answer is scored on its own merit.

You’ll be scored on each answer, except if we do a sift on a lead question only. Behaviour, Ability, Experience and Technical questions are scored out of 5 and we’ll take an average as your overall score.

Interview

Most interviews are held online on Microsoft Teams and you’ll need to show photo ID to your interviewer. You don’t need to download Teams as you’ll join the interview via your web browser.

The questions in the interview will only cover the Success Profile elements that were included in the job description. You may be set a test or a task, such as a presentation for the interview. If so, it will say in the job advert and further details will be provided in the interview invite.

Interview Results & Feedback

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

After all interviews are complete, you’ll be sent a link from BeApplied with your interview outcome and feedback.

Reserve List

If we have more suitable candidates than roles available, we’ll put those who meet the standard on a reserve list for 6 months. We’ll tell you if you’re on a reserve list.

Whilst on a reserve list, you may be offered a job at the same or lower grade than the one you applied for. Jobs will be offered in merit order.

If you want to be removed from the reserve list, please email recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

Near Miss

If you don’t meet the grade standards for the role you applied for, you may be offered a role at a lower grade either immediately or after being placed on the reserve list.

Lead Questions

Some job adverts specify a lead question.

Lead questions are used if we think a lot of people will apply. If that happens we’ll only use the lead question to decide who goes to the next stage of the process.

CV & Cover Letter

Some job adverts ask for an anonymous CV and cover letter. You must remove information that could identify you like your name, age and gender. This helps us ensure fairness.

All panels are trained to reduce unconscious bias and indirect discrimination.

Civil Service Grades

All job adverts will tell you the job grade. Here are the grades and their responsibilities.

Show more

Administrative Officer (AO)

The most junior grade in MHCLG. Civil servants in this grade typically work in a supporting administrative role. They have no line management responsibilites.

Executive Officer (EO)

Civil servants in this grade provide business and policy support. This includes roles like executive assistants, finance, HR, IT and communications specialists.

EO’s usually work within a supportive team structure, under team leaders. They also hold individual responsibility for pieces of work within a programme or project.

Higher Executive Officer (HEO) and Senior Executive Officer (SEO)

These grades can include policy officers and officials with specific policy responsibilities.

HEOs contribute to high-level government decision-making. This is in areas like business planning or policy. Working within a supportive team structure, under team leaders. HEOs also hold individual responsibility for specialised tasks within a programme or project.

SEOs interact with businesses or governments at a senior level. They work across policy and corporate service areas, dealing with complex issues. SEOs contribute significantly to high level decision-making. This is in areas like business planning, policy implementation and strategy development. They often manage teams.

Grade 7 and Grade 6

Civil servants at these grades are experienced officials with significant responsibilities.

Grade 7s set priorities, agree targets and allocate responsibilities to their team. They are accountable for outcomes in their policy area. They become specialised in key parts of their policy or sector, and their work is complex. G7’s create new ways to manage and implement policy. They do this within set budgets and tight timescales. They use strong influencing skills to create solutions across organisational boundaries.

Grade 6s have line management responsibilities for large teams. They typically lead several complex work streams. They work with stakeholders across interdependent departments and sectors. G6’s may also be specialists in a particular area. They report to senior civil servants and have exposure to executive committees, Director Generals and Ministers.

Senior Civil Servants (SCS)

SCS comprise the four highest leadership levels across government.

They form the executive leadership team within each department, and are responsible for ensuring that the Civil Service delivers the best services for the public.

Read more about Senior Civil Servant roles.

Guaranteed Interview Schemes

We’re committed to having a diverse workforce at all levels.  If you apply under a guaranteed interview scheme and meet the job’s minimum standard, you’ll move to the next stage of the recruitment process.  

Disability Confident Scheme

MHCLG are a Disability Confident employer. We use the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum standard for a job.

Read more about the Disability Confident Scheme

Great Place to Work for Veterans

We want to make it easier for veterans to join the Civil Service. Veterans who apply and meet the minimum standard for a job will be automatically offered an interview.

To be eligible for this scheme, you must: 
– have served for at least one year in the British Armed Forces as a Regular or Reserve  
– be leaving or no longer in the Armed Forces 
– not be a current civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body.

Read more about the Great Place to Work for Veterans

Redeployment Interview Scheme

If you’re a civil servant who’s at risk of redundancy and you meet the minimum standard for a job, you’ll be invited to an interview. This scheme includes internal and external job vacancies at all grades, Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs), and government departments. You can only be redeployed to a job of the same or lower grade.  

Reasonable Adjustments

We welcome reasonable adjustment requests from candidates.

These are things like:

• more time to answer interview questions or to complete tests

• having interview questions in advance or written down

Read more about reasonable adjustments.

A woman with sight loss using a Braille keyboard at her desk.

Back to MHCLG hub

Go back to hub

Search for jobs

View our vacancies

Success Profiles

Read about success Profiles