View Vacancy - Consular Contact Centre Officer, A2 Malaga (ESP19.451)
The British Consular Network in Spain is part of a world-wide network, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now looking for two Consular Contact Centre Officers.
This is an exciting role at the FCO Consular Contact Centre (CCC) operation in Malaga (Spain), working on varied, fast-paced issues, in the heart of our dynamic CC Customer Experience team. The successful candidate will be a key part of our friendly team, working with our staff at our two contact centre sites (Malaga and Ottawa), our Emergency Travel Document (ETD) centres in Madrid and Singapore, and across the global network of British consulates. This means that the job holder will be at times required to work unsociable hours to support teams in different times zones. Our CC operation is a supportive working environment which also embraces flexible working.
The main purpose of the job is to provide first-class first contact to British people across the globe in need of consular assistance from the FCO, over the phone, in writing and through the social media and digital communication. Special emphasis is placed on enquiries related to the Brexit process.
- As a Consular Contact Centre Officer, the job holder will work closely with the Consular Policy Officers in the Europe network and with the EU Exit Department in FCO’s Consular Directorate, supporting their work on the UK’s exit from the European Union. The Consular Contact Centre Officer will help ensure that timely and accurate information is available for British Nationals contacting our Consular Contact Centre for advice on this subject, including website content.
The job holder will also:
- Focus on the service delivered for British people getting in touch with our Consular Contact Centre, assisting the Customer Experience Manager with quality-checking of customer interactions (verbal, written, digital and via social media). They will also solicit feedback from stakeholders and customers, using this insight and management information to challenge current practice and suggest/pilot improvements. The position will be responsible for developing and collating information on calls received, identifying trends and anomalies and providing relevant pro-active commentary on MI to key stakeholders. Attention to detail will be a key skill required for the position.
- Lead on User Acceptance Testing (UAT) activities and other technical tests for new applications to be used by at the Centre. The job holder will also be required to train the contact centre staff on new systems and lead on quality of service (QoS) initiatives. The JH will need to liaise with the global contact centre team to carry out these responsibilities.
The position also encompasses some web editing, as the job holder will also make updates to the GOV.UK online UK Government platform and to the Consular Appointment Booking Service (CABS) system. A high level of written English is essential for carrying out these tasks.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Customer Contact
- Fielding enquiries from the public, providing first-class first contact response and recording actions taken. The Consular Contact Centre Officer will be the first point of contact for escalations from the Consular Contact Centre teams of enquiries related to the process of the UK exiting the EU. Logging cases on our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases, passing calls and cases to British Consulates around the FCO Consular Network.
- Strong focus on enquiry handling, placing special emphasis on enquiries related to UK’s exit from the European Union. Drawing trends from customer contacts and flagging them to the Consular Policy Officers in the Europe network and to the EU Exit Department in FCO’s Consular Directorate, supporting their work on the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Stakeholder engagement
Working closely with the following internal departments/colleagues:
- Consular Policy Officers in the Europe network and with the EU Exit Department in FCO’s Consular Directorate
- Customer Experience Manager and CC Digital and Social Media Manager
- Operations management teams at all two CC sites
- Customer Insights Team
- Knowledge and Technology Directorate (KTD)
- Digital Transformation Unit (DTU)
Knowledge Management
- Support CCC Customer Experience Hub-led initiatives to optimise the way knowledge is available for the public and FCO colleagues, so that it can be easily accessed, and is both accurate and relevant to their needs.
- Great focus on the public information and internal guidance related to the process of the UK exiting the European Union, to ensure advice provided to British people contacting our CCC on this subject is accurate and consistent.
Customer Experience-related activities
- Support CCC Customer Experience Hub-led initiatives belonging in the Digital Transformation and Quality of Service (QoS) areas of work.
- Fluency in English (C level according to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages*), verbal and written, with excellent communications skills;
- Intermediate level of the Microsoft Office suite;
- Availability to work unsocial hours;
- Strong customer communication and service skills;
- Good geographical knowledge;
- Previous experience working with a contact centre or customer service environment.
- Previous experience working with a contact centre or customer service environment;
- Fluency in any other language;
- Experience working for the UK public sector;
- Experience using Microsoft Dynamics 365;
- Experience using Hootsuite and/or TweetDeck;
- Intermediate level of Microsoft Excel.
This is a full-time fixed-term position until 31 March 2020. The candidate will work on a shift-rotation basis (i.e. varying work schedule each week) from Monday – Sunday including unsociable hours and compressed shift patterns. The candidate will need to be available to work some Public Holidays. The exact working hours and shifts will be laid down by the Contact Centre in Malaga but the centre is open 24/7 and working patterns will reflect this.
The successful candidate is subject to a confirmation of a background check, security clearance and the successful completion of a probationary period.
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Spanish Social Security Scheme and will therefore not be entitled to any gratuity from the Embassy / Consulate based on gross annual salary.
Regarding taxation, the Consulate in Malaga is part of the British Mission in Spain, and as such supervised by the British Embassy. The Embassy is a Diplomatic Mission with tax exempt status and does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are fully responsible for payment of Spanish income tax at the legally required rate. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law.
Visa / passport requirements: must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Spain and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.
Please be advised that Consular positions at the FCO entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape, assault, post-mortems, prison visits and highly distressed customers. Candidates should therefore have a high level of resilience to trauma.
Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.
We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.
Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.
FCO does not pay for travel related expense incurred in interviews (including Security Check) or accept any financial risk, including cancelation or reschedule costs. The FCO will not meet the costs connected with relocation if offered a position.
* Please note Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment indicates Level C2 as Mastery or proficiency Level which comprehends that a person can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read; can summarize information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation; can express themselves spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations. For more information please click on the following link CEFR. Please bear in mind in case you are invited for an interview your languages skills are going to be assessed.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
