Contact Centre Advisor SCC01427/AMB

Inside this pack: • What You Will Be Good At • What You Will Deliver • What We Will Offer You in Return • Living our values

If you are interested in finding out more before applying, please get in touch with Stuart Andrews (Children’s Team) on 01823 359918 sjandrews@.gov.uk, Marina Jones (Adults Team) on 01823 359916 [email protected] or Rebecca Hine (SCC Services Team) on 01823 359908 [email protected].

If you have any questions about the benefits we offer, or our recruitment process, please contact our Recruitment Team on [email protected] or telephone on 01823 355209

We will notify you by email if you have been selected for interview or have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please check that the automated email has not gone in your junk mail folder before contacting us.

What You Will Be Good At

The Contact Centre’s People Attributes The Contact Centre’s 3 People Attributes below are the key competencies for the Contact Centre Advisor position.

1. Self-Awareness and Self-Management Recognises how challenges to personal values may trigger certain responses. Takes steps to manage own emotions and pressure when necessary. Takes time-out for reflection and seeks support from peers. 2. Drive for results Takes actions that lead to service improvements. Encourages others to find ways of delivering services that will better serve the needs of customers while meeting objectives. 3. Holding to account Ensures that processes are in place to support individuals in achieving standards and to learn from mistakes. Prepared to be held accountable for own agreed goals.

Work Experience Knowledge & Skills

Essential Desirable

• Clear communicator. Concise, accurate • Experience of adjusting quickly from and professional written and verbal one conversation to another with communication skills differing requirements • A Good Listener • Knowledge of service delivery with a • Problem solver. Demonstration of good Council environment diagnostic and questioning ability. • Empathetic. Ability to deal with some highly sensitive subject matters with empathy and understanding. • Good at building a rapport. Ability to easily build a rapport and engage with others • Adaptable. Able and prepared to adapt to different circumstances. Welcome

and embrace change whether to systems, processes or working practices • Evidence of having gone that ‘extra mile’ • Good typing speed and computer literacy • Ability to extract relevant and key information from a conversation / contact

Personal Attributes

Essential Desirable • Demonstrates a professional and positive attitude to customers and colleagues alike • Knows own strengths and limitations • Aware of own emotions and your impact on others • Manages own response and reactions carefully when faced with demanding situations. • Has demonstrable passion for delivering customer service excellence • Has the confidence and creativeness to be able to recognise and recommend improvements to the customer experience • Willingness and capability to learn and grow within the role • Is a team player who is considerate to others and flexible in their approach

All disabled applicants meeting the essential criteria will be interviewed.

Somerset has signed the Charter for Employers who are Positive about Mental Health

MINDFUL EMPLOYER is a UK-wide initiative. www.mindfulemployer.net

What You Will Deliver

Key tasks and responsibilities:

There are three delivery teams within the Contact Centre providing the first point of contact for Somerset County Council (SCC); Adults, Children’s and all other SCC Services e.g. roads and transport, registrars, parking services, blue badge, general enquiries. The type of contacts and how these are handled vary across the teams. Contacts may be quick and follow a script or more complex and sensitive with a free-flowing conversation to support the customer.

As part of the role you will:

• Be required to respond to contacts predominately via the telephone however we will be using more digital interactions e.g. live chat and social media as well as email from members of the public, service users and associated professionals, identifying their needs, providing support and guidance and clarifying issues. • Be required to take all relevant details from the customer and depending on the nature of the contact, you may make formal referrals, suggest appropriate action to resolve the query and, as necessary, refer issues of appropriate urgency or complexity to key contacts/organisations. • Be required to take ownership of difficult calls, using call handling skills and judgement to determine the best course of action however there are support or escalation routes if necessary. • Depending on the team you work in, be required to undertake an initial assessment of often complex needs using prompts and information contained on various IT systems and databases. You will log all enquiries using IT and sign-post people to online support materials wherever possible rather than using paper materials. • Work as part of a team to manage the contacts in and out of the Contact Centre and as an individual maintain a constant awareness of real-time activity of queues. Technology will support individuals and the team with this but there is still an element of individual responsibility and consideration to work together effectively as a team. Performance of individuals and the team is measured to ensure we deliver an effective and efficient service and to support training and development.

Contacts & Relationships You will come into contact with people who need to access services for a variety of reasons, many of which are potentially sensitive – for example, reporting concerns about the welfare of a child, criteria for acceptance into local schools, recent bereavement or dissatisfaction with a received service. Consequently, you may be exposed to callers who are aggressive, rude or distressed. There is a need to deal with these callers in a tactful, courteous and professional manner.

You will report to a Team Manager who leads your team. Outside of regular 1 to 1 meetings you will also be able to refer particularly complex or contentious issues to them.

Additional Information The Contact Centre is an award-winning centre consisting of approximately 70 staff.

We aim to be the voice of customers and communities (approx. 525,000 people live in Somerset) and work with representative customer groups to decide where and how they access our services. Customer Contact delivers over 3000 different service activities which goes someway to demonstrate the variety of services available and the number of enquiries likely to be received.

Further information specific to this job Somerset County Council is subject to Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent English will be an essential requirement for customer-facing roles. This job requires a basic criminal background check (DBS) via the disclosure procedure.

What We Will Offer You in Return

Salary and Grade 13, between £19,698 to £ 21,748 pro rata. grade: Appointments are normally made at the bottom of the salary scale.

Contract Permanent type: Location: The location for this post is County Hall although regular remote/home working will be offered to individuals where appropriate for them and for delivering an effective and efficient service Hours of Part time and full time hours available, on a rota between 08:30 and 17:30 work: Monday to Friday although business need may dictate hours outside of these times on occasions (advance notice and discussions will take place before any changes of hours) Annual For this grade: 23 days or, with more than 5 years continuous service leave: 27 days.

This is inclusive of two statutory days. In addition, there are 8 bank holiday days.

Please note, the amount stated will be pro–rata for part-time and fixed term contract posts.

The annual leave year starts on 1st April or 1st of the month in which the contract commences.

Probationary The appointment will be subject to a probationary period of 6 months. period: Internal applicants who have already completed their probationary period would not normally be expected to complete this again.

Notice Following completion of the probationary period, this post will be subject period: to a notice period of one calendar months on either side.

Living our values – 4 Cs At work, the way we do things matters as much as what we do. At Somerset County Council we have four key values – the 4Cs – that all employees are expected to work to. They will form part of every member of staff’s personal review.

Customer focus This is about putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. Collaboration This is about working with others to deliver our services. Can do attitude This is about getting the job done and doing it well. Care and respect This is about treating others as they would wish to be treated – with care, respect, dignity and understanding.

What does this look like in practice? The 4Cs describe our values. In practice, this means that we think from a customer or a community perspective to make sure we get things right first time and continually improve the services we provide. We must have a clear view of what our customers and service users say they need, rather than build services based on what we think they need. We operate a ‘no wrong door’ policy – whichever authority or department deals with the customer’s query, we help them get there. As we build links with other authorities and organisations we talk to each other and our managers about how we think we could change, even the smallest things, for the better. We work together, establishing positive, respectful and empowering ways of working as strong teams. We act with integrity, communicating clearly, admitting to our mistakes and striving to learn from them. When we think we need to speak out or challenge, we are prepared to do so in a constructive and positive way, but we remain objective.