Complaints Officer

Essex County Council; Chelmsford; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 31,000

Job description

Complaints Officer

Fixed Term, Full Time

Salary: £25,785 to £30,335 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Please note this vacancy is available as a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity for up to 12 months.

The Opportunity

A 12-month fixed term contract opportunity has arisen to join our Compliance and Complaints Team, responsible for handling Statutory, Corporate and Ombudsman complaints. This is an exciting opportunity for someone to be part of a busy and high achieving team, full of variety and challenges.

As a Complaints Officer, you will be responsible for managing a caseload of complex complaints from residents and service users in Essex, supporting directorates with good complaint handling and providing consistent responses within statutory complaints timescales. Excellent inter-personal, communication and organisational skills are required to liaise with managers and complainants to ensure responses meet the required standards and the procedure is appropriately followed within designated timescales.

You will need a customer centric approach, actively communicating with customers by telephone and writing formal complaint responses on behalf of the council.

We are passionate about supporting service areas to use learning from customer feedback and complaints to identify actions which make a difference to Essex Residents.

What's in it for you?

• Healthy work life balance; flexible and hybrid working options.
• Wide range of learning and development opportunities.
• IT equipment and home-working equipment supplied.
• Competitive annual leave + bank holidays + choice to buy extra.
• Generous Local Government Salary related pension scheme.
• Access to our health and wellbeing support platform with Vita Health Group.
• Access to hundreds of discounts and benefits through Essex Rewards.
• Up to 4 days per annum volunteering leave.

What will you be doing?

• Undertaking a broad range of activities to ensure ECC remains compliant in relation to complaint management and delivering a high standard of responses to escalated executive enquiries, corporate and statutory complaints.
• Working with colleagues across ECC to ensure that complaints are responded to within the relevant timescales and the complaints policy is adhered to.
• Taking ownership and responsibility for complaint case management, including undertaking research and identifying learning opportunities, making recommendations to the organisation.
• Preparing and quality assuring complaint responses for Managers, Senior Leaders and Chief Executive to sign off.
• Telephone customers to discuss and understand their complaint and identify appropriate outcomes to be considered.
• Taking part in complaint awareness raising collaboration sessions and training at offices around the council.

The Experience You Will Bring

Essential:

• Experience of working within a customer resolution environment, particularly with sensitive information.
• Excellent communication skills both oral and written.
• Good organisational skills and an ability to work to tight deadlines.
• Previous experience of dealing with dissatisfied customers.

Desirable:

• Knowledge and experience of complaint handling in a local government/health setting.
• Experience of writing complaint responses to customers.
• Knowledge of identifying outcomes and remedies to resolve complaints.
• Excellent attention to detail and collaboration skills.
• An awareness of client confidentiality and data protection.

To apply for the post please ensure that you evidence how you meet the essential and desirable criteria in your personal statement section of the application.

Interview Details

Once the advert has closed and the applications have been reviewed, successful candidates will be contacted to complete a timed written assessment prior to attending a face-to-face interview.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we're committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC), should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, please join The Essex Talent Community.

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail].