Location
Edinburgh
Office
Finance
Advertising Salary:
£32,884 to £40,000
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  • Temporary Finance Officer, Full time for 12 months

About The Role

Working pattern: Our normal working week is 37 hours however we are happy to talk about flexible working. We’re committed to supporting staff to achieve a healthy work-life balance. To meet business and personal needs, we have a progressive flexible working hours arrangement in place. As public engagement needs to be designed around the needs of participants, this post involves occasional weekend and evening work and travel to different parts of Scotland.  We manage this flexibly across the team to take account of individual circumstances.

 

The Scottish Parliament is looking for a skilled Finance Officer to join our Financial Accounting team.  Finance is made up of 13 members of staff. To see where the office fits within our organisation,view our organisation chart.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is responsible for providing the Parliament with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purposes.  We place high value on excellence, and we are continually looking to improve how we work to ensure that we can deliver the Parliament's core purpose of representing the people of Scotland by debating issues of national importance, passing legislation and holding the Scottish Government to account. We are a diverse workforce, and our embedded values shape the way we work and treat each other. We have a culture of respect and inclusion, and everyone has the ability to make a difference.

This is a varied role within a friendly and motivated team and will give you a broad range of responsibilities and experience. Your responsibilities will include:

  • Assisting with the preparation of statutory reporting and returns
  • Providing the Parliament with financial knowledge and high levels of customer service
  • Assisting the Financial Accountant with other ad-hoc tasks
  • Maintaining accurate and up-to-date financial accounts

You will also assist with the organisation’s transition to a new finance system (Oracle Cloud). You will utilise your knowledge and problem-solving skills to help adapt our processes and maintain efficient and robust financial management.

We particularly welcome applications from candidates from a Minority Ethnic background and Disabled candidates. All appointments will be made on merit. We have a values-based culture of respect and inclusion embedded in our organisation, and everyone has the ability to make a difference.

We offer a great range of benefits including: 41.5 leave days (including public holidays), flexible working, paid professional subscriptions, family-friendly policies, Season Ticket advance loans, an onsite gym, Health and Wellbeing Schemes including discounted gym membership, a confidential counselling and information service, and the Cycle to Work Scheme.

You’ll also have the opportunity to join the Alpha Civil Service pension scheme, where we’ll offer you an employer contribution of up to 27.9% of your basic salary.

For further information about the role please contact [email protected]

Please apply before 11.59pm on 8 May 2024.  Full details of our selection process are outlined below.

 

About You

The successful candidate will have detailed knowledge and experience of applying finance policies and procedures. You’ll have experience of posting transactions, completing reconciliations, and preparing statutory returns.

You’ll have great communication skills and build positive working relationships. You’ll enjoy working collaboratively as part of a small finance team to deliver organisational objectives.

You'll also have excellent organisation, analytical skills, and attention to detail. You’ll be confident in using finance systems and spreadsheets to analyse and communicate to a range of stakeholders. Experience with Oracle Cloud would be advantageous.

For full information about the role, have a look at the job description and application pack.

The Selection Process

Stage 1

How to apply and our selection process

We are a values-based organisation. Our values are a central part of our working culture, and our people management processes. We use these to recruit, manage and develop our staff. For more information on our values and behaviours framework, please visit our values pages in our Staff Handbook. 

To apply for our roles, click 'apply' and this will allow you to upload your CV in order to register with us (if you’ve not done so already).

You’ll be asked to write a values-based supporting statement based on the job description of the role you’re applying for. The job description will detail the main recruitment selection criteria under each value, in the sections titled “And in delivering these, you will have”.

Your application will be assessed solely on your statement.

You’ll need to provide one or more examples to cover all bullet points, in each of the four value sections entitled “And in delivering these you will have”  

Please provide details from your background or career, of where and how you have demonstrated that value. 

When completing and submitting the values-based statement to apply for this role:
 
  • Please provide evidence against each of our four values, a maximum of 400 words is allowed per value.

  • Please use the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to address the key delivery requirements under each value in the Job Description.

  • Each value should be clearly formatted, and your examples may include specific skills, experience, abilities, knowledge and strengths you have.

  • We have a separate box on our system for you to input each value.

  • Please do not input anything into the values boxes until you’re ready to submit your application.

  • Please complete your answers to the questions offline, perhaps in Word, and then copy and paste your answers into the system when you're ready to submit your application.

  • We recommend that you check your answers, by reading the inputted information in the box, when you've copied and pasted the information into the system, just to ensure it's all there.

  • Please only click 'Next' to submit your application when you're content it’s complete. When you click “Next”, you don't have the option to go back.

  • If you 'cancel' then your work won't be saved. 

  • The system will time out after an hour and your work will be lost if you don’t complete it in that time. You don't have the option to save your application and return to it later.

  • If the system times out, you can go into your ‘candidate profile’ to access and complete your statement. 

  • If you mistakenly submit your statement prior to completing this on the system, please email [email protected] with full details of the role you’re applying for, what has happened, and your completed statement. 

  • Please note that only your supporting statement will be submitted to Hiring Managers, without any personal details, and they will then select candidates for further assessment or interview.
Stage 2 

At the final stage, you’ll be invited to attend a virtual panel interview and will also be asked to undertake a test.  Interviews will be held the week beginning 27 May 2024, although this is subject to change.  

Feedback will only be provided on request to those who attend interview.  

If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please email [email protected]

 
After the interview 

We’ll aim to let you know the outcome of your interview as soon as we can. This will normally be within 10 working days. If you’re unsuccessful at interview stage, you can ask us for feedback. We want to ensure a positive candidate experience, so we’ll also contact you to ask for your feedback on the whole recruitment process. 

Onboarding Process 

If you’re successful at interview, you’ll be asked to complete our onboarding process. This includes security clearance and you’ll also be asked to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.

We will provide you with details of our security vetting policy and you will be required to complete a security questionnaire. Some of our roles will require membership of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme. For further information, please see our Policy on the employment of ex-offenders and use of disclosure.

Referees 

If you’re successful, we’ll approach previous and/or current employers for a reference. If you have no employment history we may approach any school, college or university you have attended.

We can only make a formal offer of employment once we have received your security clearance, eligibility to work in the UK and references. Your health assessment will be used to inform us of any adjustments you require before you start with us.

Our commitment to an inclusive workforce

We are a Disability Confident Leader Employer and guarantee to interview any disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for the role.  If you have a disability and would like to talk to us about any aspects of this job, please contact us.  More details can be found here.
 
 
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