View Vacancy - Consular Assistant (NLD401)

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular

The British Consulate General is recruiting a Consular Assistant based at the moment in Amsterdam. There is a possibility that the position may move to The Hague in the future.

The British Consulate General provides consular advice and services to British residents and over 2,000.000 annual British visitors that travel to the country. The consular team is part of the wider Europe Asia consular region. Our customers rightly expect high levels of service and we aim to deliver.  Consular work is very rewarding – you have the chance to make a direct difference to someone’s life, often in very challenging situations.  The successful candidates will be working in a busy consular assistance team often under pressure and sometimes dealing with extremely sensitive cases.

The main purpose of this role is to actively support the other members of consular team i.e. Pro Consuls and Vice Consul of the Consular Section to provide modern and efficient consular assistance and fee-bearing services to British Nationals in The Netherlands.  Predominantly customer-facing, this role may include dealing with people in hospital, victims of crime, distressed British nationals, and general administrative duties when required.  Data collection and analysis as part of Prevention campaigns, social media communications, communicating with British and Dutch authorities

 

Main Duties / Responsibilities

  • Assisting British nationals by helping them to find solutions to difficulties they face e.g. following the loss or theft of documents, referring more complex cases to a Pro Consul or Vice Consul;
  • Issuing emergency travel documents, fee-taking, and dealing with customers at the counter, by telephone, or via e-mail;
  • Preparing documentary services for official signature;
  • Producing local management information through collecting statistical data and creating Excel spreadsheets to strict deadlines;
  • Dealing with incoming routine correspondence and answering telephone calls;
  • Organising and updating information lists, the website, and the online appointments system;
  • Liaising with the Belgian authorities and the consular Contact Centre in Malaga;
  • Supporting preparedness for mass casualty incidents and if necessary be ready to deploy.
  • Assisting organising events 

Assistance and Prevention

  • Handling correspondence, telephone enquiries, and counter enquiries and services;
  • Accepting Emergency Travel Document (ETD) applications and producing the ETD;
  • Maintaining information packs e.g. Prisoner pack, Bereavement information;
  • Performing other administrative duties as required (e.g. processing lost/stolen/recovered passports and coroner’s requests);
  • Collecting and analysing data for use in Prevention campaigns;
  • Back-up web editor;
  • Creating and publishing messages on social media (for example in relation with prevention campaigns); 
  • Assisting with the organisation of engagement and outreach events with the British Community and other stakeholders.

Administrative Support

  • Opening, sifting and logging all incoming correspondence daily, and answering general enquiries by phone;
  • Updating/ maintaining lists of local providers such as lawyers, translators, hospitals, funeral directors and notary publics;
  • Performing other administrative duties as required (e.g. processing lost/stolen/recovered passports and UK driving licences; dealing with lost property; preparing Prisoner Packs; front desk documents and templates, filing and weeding- Consular archive);
  • Ordering and overseeing stationary and leaflets supplies;
  • Back up for updating the consular content on website and phone tree as required and ensuring the information provided is accurate and up to date;
  • Back up for producing local management information through the collection of statistical data to strict deadlines;
  • Back up for managing online appointments booking system;
  • Working as Counter Cashier, accepting fees initiating various types of Consular services.

Notarial Work

  • Preparing documentary services for official signature working within the deadlines and according to guidance;
  • Taking fees for services and recording daily fee takings.

Crisis management

  • Updating the consular elements of the Crisis Management Plan (CMP) and taking part in Post crisis preparedness activity;
  • Assisting in Post preparation and response to football matches and other large-scale events; 
  • Responding to mass casualty incidents or crises;
  • Participate in local and regional crisis training and events, keeping awareness on crises up to date;
  • Testing monthly consular crisis equipment such as the satellite phone and organising its maintenance; 
  • Preparing and maintaining grab bags;
  • Regional Resilience Support in crisis (voluntarily).

Required Experience & Skills

Essential:

  • Fluent English language skills, both oral and written, as well as ability to communicate in Dutch at a working level;
  • Previous experience in a customer facing role and excellent customer service skills;
  • Excellent time management and organisational skills. A proven record of delivering results and the ability to work well under pressure;
  • Excellent team working ability, including the ability to understand your personal impact;
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
  • Good knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel;
  • Flexibility, resilience, patience, and the ability to deal with difficult situations, including the ability to work unsocial hours in an emergency or crisis;
  • Ability to display a high level of discretion and responsibility;
  • Ability to successfully undergo security clearance procedures;
  • Drive and initiative to get things done, adaptability, and a positive mindset towards change and working as part of a wider team.

Desirable:

  • Knowledge of the Dutch administrative system, including the justice system, laws and regulations, as well as social services.

  • Key FCO competences: Collaborating and Partnering, Demonstrating Resilience, Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service and Seeing the Big Picture.
31 August 2017
Administrative Assistant (AA)
Full-time, Permanent
36
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Netherlands
Amsterdam
British Consulate
1
EUR
2,038.36
1 September 2017

The successful candidate is expected to start at Amsterdam and be relocated to The Hague later on.

The successful candidate will initially be offered a permanent contract at A1 level. The base salary for this position is €2,038.36 gross per month, based on a working week of 36 hours. In addition, an 8% annual holiday allowance and a monthly travel allowance are payable. The Embassy currently applies a performance based bonus pay model for local staff.

Applicants must be legally entitled to work in The Netherlands. Please note that The Embassy is not a tax withholding employer. Consequently staff members are responsible for paying their own income tax and social security on the gross salary received.

The successful candidate will undergo a professional background check. Any job offer is also provisional to a successful security clearance check.

The Embassy encourages a culture of continuous learning. All employees have access to the Civil Service Learning platform which gives access to training to improve job specific skills.

Employees are entitled to a minimum number of annual training days.

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.

Please be advised that the British Diplomatic Missions will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered a job.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.