Corporate Functions

Procurement and Contract Management

Our team helps us purchase the goods and services we need to carry out our work as cost effectively as possible, and to manage the contracts we put in place to do this. Join our team and you will be working with colleagues internally and suppliers externally.

• Jenny - Assistant Category Manager
  

  My job

  I work in the Procurement Team as an Assistant Category Manager. We operate a category management approach to Procurement which means working closely with our customers and suppliers to understand what people collectively need to buy, and implement procurement projects which can save costs. I help managers to buy-in individual contractor resources and consultancy services. The main part of my job involves running mini-competitions, through Government frameworks, to recruit the right people with the correct skills that FCO Services will need for the job. Once I have received the CVs, these are sent out to the managers who evaluate and produce a shortlist. From this I arrange interview dates with the selected agencies and handle all feedback to the agencies. My job also involves dealing with contractual queries, contract extensions, negotiating rates and advising the business about the processes surrounding purchase of contractors.

  My experience and qualifications

  Before I joined FCO Services I worked in a customer call centre, which has really helped me to develop good customer focus and communication skills and given me the confidence to use them. I then worked for five years in the FCO’s procurement team, before moving to my present job in FCO Services.

  I have the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), Certificate of Competence which was paid for as part of my personal development. There are other good opportunities for training here and I’ve been on courses on ‘Managing Customer Relations’ and ‘Influence and Negotiation’, which have been very useful in my work.

  Working for FCO Services

  The job offers the best of both worlds, the opportunity to work at home in the UK, but with the opportunity to travel abroad on short trips. In a rapidly changing world, job security is also a bonus. There is also a good team atmosphere; the people who work here are sociable and easy to get on with.

  Top tip for someone coming new into a similar job

  You need to be able to learn quickly and to be adaptable. Purchasing experience would be really useful for any job in our team.

• Robert – Senior Contract Manager
  

  My job

  I work in FCO Services managing business critical and high value contracts. I make sure that our major contractors are delivering the contract in a way which supports our business requirements, provides value for money and meets contractual obligations. I am in regular touch directly with contractors and work closely with them if there are any performance issues that need to be resolved.

  I also lead on strategic contract management, working along side FCO Services Buyers to develop a strategy for managing newly awarded contracts. I develop Key Performance Indicators and look at the management information we might need from the contractor to monitor their service and delivery performance against the contract requirements. I also discuss the contract performance with Commercial Group account managers, project managers and others to ensure they are getting the service they require from the contract, and deal with any day to day business changes that may require a contract variation.

  I support management training by delivering contract management workshops to provide best practice advice and guidance to the business.

  My experience and qualifications

  Before FCO Services I worked in both the public and private sectors, including the Inland Revenue, Guilbert-Niceday, Astron and the Prison Service. Most of my work in the private sector has been involved with front line customer delivery. As Regional Customer Services Manager, I was responsible for managing key customer accounts and the strategic contracts that supported their delivery. In the public sector, my roles have included managing the set up of procurement, deploying an electronic document records system and commercially managing a wide range of both goods and services contracts – all of which has led me to work in FCO Services in contract management.

  Working for FCO Services

  FCO Services is an organisation which is changing. Working here offers the opportunity to be part of that pretty much from the beginning. The new Trading Fund status means that we are now working much more on a commercial footing, this change means that there is the opportunity for you to make a difference.

  Top tip for someone coming new into a similar job

  You will need good commercial skills and experience – it's useful if you have experience of Government Procurement, but not essential. You need to have good communication skills and people skills as a lot of the work involves negotiation. You must be prepared to work in a changing and improving environment.

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Contract Management

Putting contracts in place to provide optimum protection both for our customers and our organisation, the team ensures that all liabilities are adequately covered and that all parties are clear on the terms of service provision.

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Human Resources

Our people are key to our success. Whether you are joining with skills in recruitment, diversity, policy or learning and development, you will be helping us bring in people with the right skills and potential, and helping us all to develop, learn and grow our skills and our business.

• Jessica - HR Business Partner
  

  My job

  As an HR Business Partner I work for a dedicated business area with the Group Director and as part of the Senior Management Team, on strategic and complex HR issues. I proactively support and advise the senior management team on HR aspects of all business issues, change initiatives and projects. This includes workforce and succession planning, resource planning, corporate initiatives, reward and policy, diversity, talent management, learning and development, and IiP matters, as well as advising managers dealing with serious casework such as performance or grievances and disciplinary matters. I also help with interview and selection.

  My experience and qualifications

  My degree was in HR and Information Technology. I then went onto complete a Masters degree in HR Management with CIPD, and as part of that course I worked at National Criminal Intelligence Service and completed my dissertation on Work-Life Balance and Flexible working. After then working for HM Customs & Excise in HR Policy and achieving my Chartered Membership of CIPD, I started work at FCO Services as a generalist HR Advisor. This role evolved over time into a HR Business Partner position, which allows me to work at a more strategic level. Over the past five years I have had the opportunity to look after various different business divisions, and understand the different challenges faced by those different groups, and thereby add real value to them. Recently, I was seconded to the main FCO providing specialist HR advice to a project team, assessing the letting of a massive contract for total facilities management across UK and North West Europe. I was looking at the HR proposition of the international private sector tendering companies, to see whether they operated HR best practice corporately, and assess whether the working practices in their live contracts actually matched their policies. This gave me my first opportunity to travel abroad with work and I went to places like Cyprus, Frankfurt and Luxembourg.

  Working for FCO Services

  Working at FCO Services brings lots on non-tangible benefits such as flexible working and a very supportive atmosphere. We are very strong indeed on learning and personal development and there are many opportunities to train, do project work or to travel, and particularly to network with other Government departments. People coming to work in HR will find they have an opportunity to make a real difference, and through delegated autonomy pragmatically apply law and champion the best and the latest thinking in HR practice. There is also the opportunity to draw on a wide variety of internal and external professional knowledge. On the tangible benefits side, there is a very good pension and the organisation is keen on rewarding staff with both cash and non-cash benefits.

  Top tip for someone coming new into a similar job

  Apart from the relevant qualifications, key aspects of the job are professional competence, the ability to find solutions and the bravery to take decisions outside your comfort zone. You will need the skills to become a confident ambassador for, and defender of, HR best practice.

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Financial Management and Audit

Joining our finance team you’ll be working at the heart of our organisation helping us plan our financial and business strategy and supporting knowledge and information management. You’ll be keeping us abreast of our financial situation, and working across the business to keep our cash flowing in efficiently and ensure our suppliers are paid promptly.

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Health, Safety and Wellbeing

As the wellbeing of our staff continues to be of the highest priority our Senior Managers and Line Managers are all trained on effective health and safety management. Sharing this knowledge with their teams means that all of our people have the tools and knowledge they need to make their working environment as healthy and safe as it can be. A team of health and welfare advisors is also available to support the wellbeing of our staff, including support for matters in and out of the workplace.

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Communications and Secretariat

You'll be joining highly motivated teams that provide key business support roles, including: Health and Safety, Security, Business Continuity Planning, Risk Management and Secretariat, all supporting our board and reporting to Government. We lead all internal and external communications, including marketing and stakeholder management.

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Knowledge and Information Management and Security

To help our customers meet their business needs while maintaining the security of their electronic information, our highly skilled team of networking specialists design, build and maintain bespoke, resilient and flexible IT networks on a global scale.

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