Our culture

Our culture is always developing, and we constantly strive to ensure that the Gambling Commission is a good place to work.  We gather feedback from our employees regularly, and use that feedback to make improvements where we can.

We have developed four core values that drive the way we operate.  In everything we do we aim to be:

  • Fair – We will be consistent, proportionate, evidence based and free from bias, prejudice or discrimination in all that we do.
  • Accountable - We will be open about the way in which we work and reach decisions in the public interest, while safeguarding the personal and confidential data that we hold.
  • Professional - We will ensure that we have the right skills and knowledge base and follow international regulatory best practice.
  • Constructive - We will work positively and courteously with our internal and external stakeholders to ensure that their needs and views are taken fully into account in all we do.

Equality and diversity

We aim to provide a fair and supportive working environment, where everyone feels valued regardless of race, nationality, ethnic origin, marital status, sexual orientation,  gender, age, religion or belief.  Our equality and diversity policy applies to how we recruit staff, the terms and conditions of employment we offer (including pay, training, references and career development) and every other aspect of employment.

We have developed innovative ways of raising diversity awareness across the organisation.  If you join us be sure to ask about our Real Experience programme and how you can get involved – it gives our employees the chance to work with local community organisations to raise awareness and share experiences.

Single equalities scheme - April 2008

What are the benefits of working for us?

You will see from the job description that there are some things we expect from you if you work for us.  We hope you can see that we offer a good package in return, and here is a summary of why this is a great place to work.

Financial benefits

We reward people fairly and consistently for the work that they do, and our pay system is based entirely on performance.  You will have a clear set of objectives in place that you and your manager have agreed, and, following your final assessment, we will adjust your pay accordingly.  Our pay review year runs from 1 November to 31 October.

Other financial benefits include:

  • access to various discounts through the Civil Service online membership scheme
  • interest free loans available for you to purchase season tickets and bicycles.

Pension

Although as a non-departmental public body our employees are public servants rather than civil servants, you will be entitled to join the Civil Service pension scheme.

You can choose between two Civil Service pension schemes:

  • Nuvos - this is an occupational pension scheme that currently has a 3.5% member contribution rate. As your employer we meet the rest of the cost of the scheme.
  • Partnership pension account - this is a stakeholder pension with an employer contribution based on your age. You do not have to contribute, but if you do, we will match your contributions up to 3% of pensionable earnings.

If you already work in the Civil Service you can transfer your pension to us.

Holidays

If you join us you will be entitled to 26 days holiday initially, rising to 29 days after working with us for two years.  Of course, you will also get the eight United Kingdom public holidays.  If you are currently a civil servant and you are used to getting privilege days, you will not be entitled to them with our organisation.

Civil servants and other public sector workers who have two years or more continuous service from previous employment will be entitled to the higher rate of 29 days per annum when they join us.

If you don’t feel this is enough or are planning something special, you can buy an extra week of leave to increase your entitlement.

Leadership development

We have put significant investment into developing our leaders and managers to focus on three areas that are important to us – strategy, structure, and people. Our Leadership and Management Development Programmes help people who manage people or processes develop their management competencies.

Employee development

We are committed to learning and development and we have recently been awarded the Investors in People Award. When you first start you will take part in an induction programme, and after that there are many learning and development opportunities you can take advantage of, including NVQs in Customer Service, Business Administration and Management, and external and internal IT training. You can also get support for other relevant qualifications. 

Flexible working

Our standard working week for most people is 37 hours, worked from Monday to Friday, during normal office hours between 8am and 6pm.  We do offer flexible working within those timeframes, and have in place a flexible working policy so you can apply for compressed hours and other flexible options. 

There are some roles where our employees are occasionally required to work outside of these hours (for example, field-based Compliance Managers). If you are expected to work outside the standard hours we will provide details on the vacancy role profile.

Families

We have a range of employee benefits available to support families:

  • Childcare vouchers to help pay for registered childcare, including day nurseries, child minders, pre- and after-school clubs, au pairs and even holiday clubs for school age children. Working parents exchange part of their gross salary before tax and National Insurance deductions, requesting up to the cap value in childcare vouchers.
  • We have gone over and above the standard requirements in many of our policies, such as family leave, flexible working and career breaks.

Representation, engagement and communication

If you join us we will aim to involve and engage you in decisions that will affect you. We have both formal and informal mechanisms in place to talk to employees on key issues.

We do this by:

  • running an employee forum with elected representatives from across the organisation
  • getting all of our people together and spending time talking about key issues twice a year at our employee conferences
  • holding regular employee surveys to understand what people’s perceptions are and acting on the results
  • operating a range of communication methods including newsletters, team briefing, weekly and instant updates, hot topics, and our intranet site.

Our People

Our people are one of the biggest benefits of working here.  If you join us you’ll be joining a team of professional and committed people who are very skilled in what they do. 

Working environment

We also think our working environment is one of the key benefits of working here.