Administration Officer
| Posting date: | 25 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £26,025 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 08 December 2025 |
| Location: | Cardiff |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 433872/1 |
Summary
A role that offers both variety and flexibility?
If you possess excellent communication abilities and thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments, relishing the challenge of working within tight deadlines, we invite you to reach out to us!
Your unique skills and enthusiasm are exactly what we're looking for!
Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are committed to fostering a workplace culture where all individuals are valued, heard, and encouraged to be their authentic selves.
We recognise the importance of diversity, not only as a moral imperative but also as a driver of innovation and sound decision-making.
By embracing and celebrating differences, we create an environment where everyone can thrive, leading to greater creativity and effectiveness in our work.
We have Administration Officer roles available in our busy customer contact teams. These are demanding roles requiring excellent customer service skills, confidence on the telephone and the ability to multi skill and change tasks throughout the day.
These roles will provide significant opportunities to develop your own skills and future career.
(Refer to Candidate Pack attached for further details)
Training will be carried out face-to-face, as will any local inductions. Candidates are therefore expected to attend in person for these as and when required.
For any additional queries please raise enquiries via HRResourcingDelivery@DEFRA.Gov.UK
APHA operates a hybrid working policy and attendance is expected for 60% of contracted hours over a 4 week period. I.E. full time staff would be expected to attend their office location for 3 days per week.
You will be working in a friendly and supportive team in a fast paced, reactive and varied role. You will need to have good IT and organisation skills and the flexibility to turn your hand to different tasks as the situation demands. The position is customer facing and will suit those who have an ability to communicate well to a diverse group of customers. You will be engaging with a broad range of partners and forming relationships with colleagues across the wider Defra team.
These roles are primarily administrative. You need to be able to work well with data and be good at developing relationships with stakeholders. Confidence with speaking to customers on the telephone and via written/ email correspondence is an essential requirement for these roles. In addition to taking phone calls, you will also have responsibility for handling of inbound stakeholder email communications, answering emails within agreed timeframes and resolving of stakeholder queries and questions.
Job holders will be expected to provide support to our customers in a wide variety of ways as well as to support the management team.
As an Administration Officer, your main responsibilities will include;
Delivery
- working collaboratively with remote teams across Great Britain to support the delivery of the core function of the Business Unit in accordance with established time scales and performance targets
- ensuring accurate records are kept and updated accordingly
- data inputting using various IT systems in accordance with APHA Data
- identifying efficiencies that could be utilised within your own team or wider business unit
- understanding and identifying issues that may affect delivery that require escalation to your Line Manager
- being flexible to adapt to changing situations within the office and responds with energy and commitment to take on additional tasks that may be outside the normal day to day duties
Administration Procedures
- taking responsibility for a set of administrative procedures; ensuring actions are carried out in accordance with the procedures and within the necessary timescales
- answering telephone queries, following up enquiries which cannot be immediately resolved. There is some processing and procedural work associated with the calls generated, including accurately noting the details of the call on a customer’s record, updating databases, producing paperwork, and following general administration processes and procedures
- providing support and guidance to others (internally and externally) on procedures
Customer Service
- responding to requests from customers for information and guidance and providing accurate and timely information
- updating information held on our information systems by liaising with the public to ensure the data we capture about (or for) our customers is accurate
- managing customer expectation.
- liaising with farmers and local veterinary practices to arrange tests.
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme