Business Support Officer

The Environment Agency (EA) is fully committed to having an inclusive workforce to reflect the communities we serve. We don't just talk about diversity; we seek it, embrace it, and live it, for the benefit of our staff, our communities, and our environment.

We’re looking for an organised, proactive Business Support Officer to join our new Planning and Place business management team. In this important role, you will provide high quality administrative, organisational and information management support, helping the team deliver effectively against the requirements of our spending review settlement and wider EA corporate frameworks.

A key focus will be supporting records and information management, maintaining well-structured SharePoint Online sites that comply with Defra and EA requirements, and helping colleagues follow good version control, naming, storage and retention practices. You will support quarterly records management actions and action opportunities to consolidate information and improve our ways of working.

You will support core business processes such as Deputy Director and Team / Manager risk registers, budget monitoring and reporting, the preparation of future funding bids and business cases, tracking and coordinating business planning requests from Defra and the wider business, collating and interpreting data for reporting, and preparing materials for leadership discussions within Planning and Place, and across EA and Defra governance groups. You will also provide general team support such as organising meetings, preparing agendas, taking minutes, managing shared inboxes, and collating presentation materials.

Responding to incidents is a central part of what we do. You will be required to have an incident role and make yourself available to respond to incidents or provide business continuity support during an incident. This may attract an additional payment and full training, and alternative working arrangements will be available to support you with your incident role.

The team  

You will join our Planning and Place team within the Environment and Business Directorate. The team is geographically dispersed with a culture of collaborative remote working. We lead the Environment Agency’s growth and spatial planning work, delivering sustainable growth while protecting and enhancing the environment. You will join a new team committed to supporting and demonstrating how we do this.

The Environment and Business Directorate promotes a positive, inclusive, supportive culture where everyone feels valued.

Experience/skills required  

We’re looking for someone who is organised, dependable and motivated to help others succeed.

Essential:

• Good organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Competent use of Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Ability to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines.
• Clear, concise written and verbal communication.
• Ability to manage, store and retrieve information systematically.
• Confidence working remotely, both collaboratively and independently, as part of a geographically dispersed team.

Desirable:

• Experience in records or information management.
• Experience coordinating meetings (agendas, minutes, action tracking).
• Experience in business support or project/programme support roles.
• Experience in risk management.
• Experience in reporting and presenting data and information to support effective decision making.
• Familiarity with EA systems, governance or business processes.