View Vacancy - Consular Officer, Consular Contact Centre (ESP20.264)
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, 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.
Job Category  
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Consular Roles)
Job Subcategory  
Consular

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)  
Due to COVID-19, you may experience some delay in the progress of this recruitment campaign. We are working hard to minimise any disruption. You may find more information in the Additional Information section below.
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 a Consular Officer based in Malaga. 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 CCC operation is a supportive working environment which also embraces flexible working.
Main purpose of the job:

• To provide first contact to our Consular customers across the globe by answering calls, through digital communication, via email and social media. Provide detailed advice, signpost to relevant competent authorities or escalate as required to stakeholders.  The Job Holder will need to record all information relating to calls & emails and ensure this information is up to date and accurate. The Job Holder will also need to deal with Crisis, GCT/GRC (Consular Assistance) calls, MP Hotline, EU-Exit enquiries and supporting other teams as required.
• Update tools used by the CCC for resource management, resilience and business as usual needs. Resolve calls and lead on carrying out UAT and other technical tests for new applications to be used by the contact centre. The job holder will also be required to train the contact centre staff on new systems and lead the shifts. The JH will need to liaise with the global contact centre team to carry out these responsibilities.
• THIS POSITION INVOLVES UNSOCIAL HOURS. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities:
Customer Contact (ca. 80% of time)

• Responsible for receiving calls and emails during shift time, responding accordingly to consular and EU-exit enquiries, recording actions taken. The Job Holder will deal with difficult customers and complaints (escalations). Logging cases on our database, passing calls and cases to consular teams around the globe.
• Leading on all aspects of first contact with a focus on enquiry handling
• Social media monitoring 

 Stakeholder / Post Management (ca. 10% of time)

• Responsibility for ensuring core scripts and guidance are consistent with FCO policy and service in line with SLA;
• Responsibility for Post Essential Information (PEI) and contact information, ensuring it is accurate and up to date. Developing our scripts and essential tools to ensure handlers are able to provide essential information for over 100 countries.

 Customer Knowledge Management (ca. 10% of time)

• Assisting the Customer Experience Team with call data received, ensuring that all data is recorded accurately and anomalies reported for action;
• Being a key part of our customer knowledge management and quality control initiatives, helping to collate accurate feedback on what our customers are saying and helping to test the quality of our service.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience  

• 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 service skills;
• Good geographical knowledge;

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience  

• Previous experience working with a contact centre or customer service environment;
• Any other language will be an advantage;

Required competencies  
Changing and Improving, Leading and Communicating, Collaborating and Partnering, Managing a Quality Service

Grade  
A2 (L)

Type of Position  
Full-time, Permanent

Working hours per week  
37.5

Region  
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia

Country/Territory  
Spain

Location (City)  
Malaga

Type of Post  
British Consulate General

Number of vacancies  
23

Starting yearly salary (EUR)  
29,632.14

Start Date  
1 October 2020

Other benefits and conditions of employment  
This is a full-time permanent position and the working hours are 37.5 hrs per week. 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: Candidates 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. Additional requirements may become necessary after 31st December 2020.

Additional information  
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.
Additional Information (due to Covid-19):

• You may experience some delay in the progress of this recruitment campaign and we are working hard to minimise any disruption;
• Interviews will be done remotely if the existing situation determines this to be the right course of action;
• Starting date may be delayed depending on circumstances at the time and it will be agreed with the selected candidate.