To give up on this job offer

[HotChocolate16]

So I was offered a role in civil service last month mid December. Requested through their portal a discussion with the manager to discuss the offer. Chased this various times over the last month or so to which the recruitment email has responded a few times and said they’ve chased the hiring manager but not heard anything. I’ve still not heard from the manager. Should I give up on this job? It was a big recruitment drive of about 30 positions but still surely it wouldn’t take this long for a call back??

OK. In which case it sounds very different to all other civil service recruitment.

Go back to HR say you want a part time role. Hours, days etc.

Say that if can't get in touch with the hiring manager and can the central HR please contact the directorate business partner to establish if this role is suitable for PT working

Sometimes roles are advertised as open to applicants wanting to work part time as the ‘default’ option or even organisation’s requirement. But the recruiting managers don’t actually want someone PT.

That’d obviously be poor practice by the organisation, but IME it happens a fair bit!

@Darbs76

Also this time of year lots of people on leave as end of leave year is 28th Feb

What? My leave year ends in September- everyone is different depending on when they start! What a bizarre thing to say!

And ignore the comment about leave year

civil service are notoriously bad with keeping in touch through recruitment and very slow. My sister works for the DWP and even the internal process is ridiculous

I applied for a civil service job a six weeks before first lockdown (Feb). Interview May. Started mid October. I'm sure they must lose so many great candidates along the way waiting for the slow recruitment wheels to turn.

However, I'm finding I'm with the most supportive employer I have ever had. I'm disabled and they are doing their absolute best to support me. I work full time but am having a flare up of my disability at the moment so the chances are I'll be able to go part time for a while until I'm fully fit. They sell themselves as an inclusive employer and are happy with full time, part time, compressed hours, job share, be based anywhere.

Hang on in there! Which bit of the CS?

Oh and my leave year starts on my job start date.

I don't think you'll get very far trying to change the job offer to part-time before you've even started. Its take it or leave it I should think. I don't know why you feel you need a discussion. The terms should be laid out in the offer. You either accept it or you don't.

I’ve just gone through this with HMRC.
When I got the provisional offer I emailed my contact in HR to say I wanted to discuss part time working before accepting, and had a couple of other queries.

I got a phone call from the person who would be my line manager the same afternoon. She had been one of the people on the panel.

I got the provisional offer on 6th Jan which I accepted a couple of days later, all checks etc then formal offer around 3 weeks later with a start date 6 weeks after that.

Don’t know if it makes a difference though that mine wasn’t a mass recruitment drive but only 3 positions.

Btw regarding part time, the response was very positive. I have to be full time initially for some training but asked if I could be 3 days pw after that and she said no problem. “This is the civil service!” She said 😆
I think they generally agree part time unless there is a genuine business need not to.

@Viviennemary

I don't think you'll get very far trying to change the job offer to part-time before you've even started. Its take it or leave it I should think. I don't know why you feel you need a discussion. The terms should be laid out in the offer. You either accept it or you don't.

Actually…The civil service ads often say ‘full time, part time, flexi’ etc but just advise you to discuss this prior to accepting the provisional offer.

@HotChocolate16 if it is HMRC PM me

@User2638483 thank you for explaining that to previous PP as I had already said in a previous comment I posted that the portal where my offer is states to request a discussion with hiring manager to discuss PT working before accepting. And also in response to @Viviennemary, there weren’t any terms attached to my offer. It just said provisional offer and nothing else.

OP - my experience is the same as yours. The provisional offer had no T&Cs, salary, contracted hours, or start date attached to it, it was just a provisional offer which you could choose to accept/decline/discuss.

I have no idea why PPs are acting as though you've been given something more concrete than this, unless they just don't understand the format of this recruitment process.

I also felt that basically although it’s frowned upon, you’re not fully committed by accepting the provisional offer. So I did that (after clarifying part time) even though I still wasn’t 100% and still had some reservations.
Then you get forms to fill out for them to start the background checks, DBS etc.
Then after that’s complete you get the formal offer.

Just accept the offer - you will be allowed to work part time. The civil service recruitment is laborious and always has been, don't worry but definitely DO NOT turn down the offer. The civil service is the most family friendly, flexible and stable employer.

Yes the cs works in a way other employers do not. You may already be deemed to have accepted verbally from your conversation. Accepting will generate a contract etc

Typical civil service, my first role I interviewed and accepted the offer early February, after applying in October, and didn’t start til mid July. And they wanted to push it to august! My current role I got the beginning of June and didn’t start til October, it is crazy.
They will definitely accept your part time request, I’ve never heard of any requests being rejected

You need to accept the provisional offer so that pre-employment checks, clearance etc can be carried out.

Depending on department these premployment checks can take one to four months.

The hiring manager can not have a conversation about start date and role until they know that you've passed these checks as would be pointless.

Then once you have clearance to work then agree role give notice etc

Have you been through security clearance and references etc yet? Ime that comes before any formal job offer and takes months.

took me 6 months from applying to training when i worked for DWP

Hi everyone. I’m really confused by people saying I need to accept the offer. There are 3 options on the portal - accept, reject and request discussion. There is a little note at the bottom saying if you want to discuss PT and other working arrangements then to click request discussion. This is what I’ve done. So I have followed the correct process. And I couldn’t accept any offer before having an agreement in place regarding hours etc because of childcare issues I have.

And I’m still at the provisional offer stage, not a formal offer. I’m not trying to speed along a formal offer. All I want is the discussion which I requested which was what I’ve been told to do

What does provisonal offer state? I would have thought you accept the provisonal then negotiate before the final.

But you haven't completely any security clearance etc, which can take months and you might fail.

I know that it's frustrating. You need to accept the provisional offer. And then security checks can happen.

No hiring manager is going to be able to have a meaningful conversation until those checks are done.

You also don't give up your existing job until they are done.

Provisional offer probably has minimal information. You only get salary, hours, location, leave etc confirmed at next stage.