Civil service EO to HEO

Jassgal

I've been working as an EO in the civil service for 5 years and recently passed the interview for HEO but unfortunately could not stay in my current department which means I will be assigned to another department. I have a good idea of the role of HEO in my current job but I've never worked in another dept so not sure on the expectations/ responsibilities and afraid to take the risk of accepting the HEO role and not liking it.

As an EO I have a team of 8 and work towards deadlines so it's by no means easy role, the heo role where I am currently would be responsible for around 20/30 eos and cos and have a decent amount of higher duties than the eo.

If you have moved from EO to HEO how did you find it in terms of responsibilities, direct reports and duties?

FunkyChicken24

I am not an HEO, I am a CO who passed EO on the external panel and is just waiting for my start date. I have however, had some experience with HEOs in different Departments and Units/Teams.

It really depends from Department to Department and team to team. It sounds like you have been working in an operations role as a lot of EOs in our Dept might have 1-3 COs, some do not have any! And the HEOs might have 2-4 EOs maximum, so a team of 6 - 12 if you include COs.

A team of 20-30 EOs and COs sounds horrendous to be honest and I haven't heard of what you describe before however, I do know that any of the operations teams that involve a high amount of public facing work, either in person or on the phone will usually have bigger teams.

The thing is that they could put you somewhere similar or they could put you somewhere completely different, they do seem to like to mix it up and put people in roles they have previously had zero experience at before which is quite hilarious but seems to be about the fact that they need and want generalists, not specialists (with some exceptions).

At the end of the day though, if you don't like it, you can always move back to being an EO if you prefer. I mean, if it is out of your capabilities, you may not pass probation anyway in which case you would even go back to your old department in my understanding. However, you owe it to yourself to try and see how you get on. You are probably well able for it but it is always daunting when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, which is why they are called comfort zones 😂

The bump in money will be nice too, so maybe save as much of the extra salary during probation while you see how you get on and then if you decide to go back to EO or you don't pass probation, you will at least have a little nest egg.

Do all the training and lean on your AP and EOs, develop your system to manage your time and energy and you will be golden. Good luck and congratulations 💪😊

koifish

excellent advice above. honestly, give it a go and see how you get on. keep in mind this is also a peak time for promotions, mobility and opportunities - whenever the economy or government funds start to tank (ie. tarrifis, wars, downturn) these opportunities dry up. you won't know when the next panel could be!

gerdywerdy

Roles can vary from department. Having managed 8 staff will be great experience for your move. Some HEo roles can have big teams and some HEo roles can be policy based with little or no staff. Its purely luck of the draw. My first HEO role I had four staff and the i Moved internally and now have none but I am responsible for a much bigger projects and budgets

EchoIndia

You can't easily compare jobs in a given grade as between Departments (sometimes not even within the same Department), as there is such diversity.

The one piece of advice that I would offer (after a 40-year+ career in the civil service) is to take opportunities that come your way and don't have too much self-doubt. You'd be surprised at how competent in a new role most people become after 3-6 months. Very few people actually revert to a previous grade once promoted, and where I have experienced this it has been in those very rare cases where the person was fairly plainly unqualified for the higher post and should not have been promoted in the first place. 🙂