Advisor, Employment and Welfare Policy

The Behavioural Insights Team

Location Westminster
Salary £30,000 - £45,000 per annum, plus benefits
Team Communities, Health, Employment, Equality and Revenue Team
  • Closing: 12:00pm, 5th Dec 2016 GMT

Job Description

Advisor, Employment and Welfare Policy

Permanent: 39 hours per week

Salary range: £30,000 - £45,000 per annum, plus benefits

Based in Westminster

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is looking for an exceptional candidate to join as an Advisor to work on employment and welfare policy. The role is part of the Communities, Health, Employment, Equality and Revenue team based in BIT’s London office.

The successful applicant is likely to work on projects that aim to apply behavioural science to create an effective welfare system and support people back to work. Previous work in this area has included work with the Department of Work and Pensions and with welfare-to-work providers to test innovative ways to help people who are out of work to achieve their goals and increase their resilience.

The role may also include working on projects with a focus on gender equality, in particular on improving female labour market participation.

The Behavioural Insights Team

The then Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; we come up with innovative ideas for solving policy problems and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff on the basis of our company values: always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

Roles and Responsibilities

As an Advisor you will support a wide range of projects, providing expert advice and project management. You will lead aspects of projects, working to a Senior or Principal Advisor. You will also undertake discrete pieces of work (such as literature reviews, quantitative analysis or qualitative field work).

You will get regular exposure to a range of senior stakeholders and be expected to actively contribute to company development. Most of our advisors have prior work experience in either a policy, academic or consultancy role.

Essential
  • A passion for improving welfare policy and/or employment support;
  • Experience developing or delivering government policy (for example, having worked in government or in public sector consulting);
  • Excellent written and verbal communication (for example ability to write short, to-the-point policy papers for Government ministers or senior officials);
  • An understanding of the behavioural science literature and how it can be applied to help solve complex policy problems;
  • Strategic thinking and creative problem solving;
  • Strong teamwork skills ¬ - as a part of a small team you will need to be reliable and willing to take responsibility for the small details of projects, meetings and daily routines;
  • Good stakeholder management skills;
  • Good project management skills;
  • Ability to interpret quantitative data and use it to inform policy recommendations; and
  • Ability to support the design and implementation of rigorous evaluations, including but not limited to randomised controlled trials.
Desirable
  • Masters or PhD in a relevant subject area (including, but not limited to behavioural economics, psychology, evaluation methods);
  • Experience of working with or within the UK welfare system and/or employment support (e.g. Jobcentre Plus).

Removing bias from the hiring process

Applications closed Mon 5th Dec 2016

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Removing bias from the hiring process

  • Your application will be anonymously reviewed by our hiring team to ensure fairness
  • You won't need a CV to apply to this job

Applications closed Mon 5th Dec 2016