Contact Centre Advisor

Job summary

Are you an excellent communicator who enjoys helping others?

Do you love working as part of a team, bringing an enthusiastic approach every day?

Would you like to make a difference by supporting customers across the UK?

If so, then we’d love to hear from you!

The DVLA maintain the licensing of drivers in Great Britain and the registration and licensing of vehicles, together with the collection and enforcement of vehicle tax in the UK.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Department for Transport Careers

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity for hardworking individuals to join our Contact Centre. Located in Swansea Vale, Llansamlet, your role as an advisor will be to answer inbound customer queries, providing our customers with support, information, and an outstanding service.

The role does not involve any sales or cold calling.

You will play a pivotal role in being part of a supportive and welcoming team environment. You will be coached to develop excellent customer service skills and techniques, combined with a potential requirement to utilise a range of multi-channel services, such as email, webchat, and phones, in a fast-paced environment.

You will be the first point of contact for providing guidance, support, and advice to the British public, supporting us to get the right drivers and vehicles taxed, and on the road, as simply, safely, and efficiently as possible.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• To deliver excellent customer service, through a variety of customer channels (telephony, multi-channel, wider operational functions) by investigating and resolving customer issues, complaints, cases, and processing customer payments in a professional and timely manner, to aid accuracy and enforcement in line with Agency policy and legislation.
• To provide and seek advice/information from relevant customers and/or stakeholders to ensure swift resolution to enquiries/complaints.
• To work well with colleagues, listen to the views of others and try to see issues from other’s perspectives, continuing to develop and take on board feedback to continuously improve.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

To be successful in this role, we are looking for individuals with the following:

• Individuals with strong communication skills who are passionate about providing an excellent service to our customers. Someone who can adapt their approach to suit individual customer needs and break down information to improve the customer understanding. You will take pride in completing your work to the highest standard and be resilient when managing a fast-paced workload.
• Someone with excellent reliability, punctuality and time management skills to ensure commitments, deadlines and working hours are consistently met.
• Confidence in using IT systems would be beneficial, as the role requires navigating multiple computer systems across dual screens while responding to customer enquiries.
• No previous experience or qualifications are required. We are looking for hardworking, resilient team players who are enthusiastic, eager to learn, and genuinely motivated to support customers and meet their needs.

Additional Information

The Contact Centre actively encourages development and for all colleagues to use and stretch the skills they have to fulfil their potential and support the business. We welcome applications from candidates who can speak Welsh and English, which will allow you to answer calls from our Welsh speaking customers. We also offer opportunities for all staff to improve their Welsh language skills once they join us.

Customer facing roles in DfT require the ability to converse with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English.

This will be assessed during the selection process. Please refer to the English Language Code of Practice for more information. Welsh language skills would be useful in this role, but it is not an assessment criterion, so it won’t put you at any disadvantage during recruitment if you aren’t a Welsh speaker.

Please note that the advertised assessment process will be held in English.

About Operational Delivery Profession

Operational Delivery Profession (ODP) is the largest and most diverse professional community across the Civil Service. Many of us will have an association with several professional communities or specialisms, ODP applies to all public facing roles / or a role that is primarily aligned to supporting the work of those with public facing roles. All critical to the delivery of UK public services .

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week. Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 25 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

The Contact Centre’s current operating hours are between:

• 8am and 7pm Monday to Friday and 8am and 2pm on Saturdays.

You will be expected to work full time hours in your designated workplace during the initial training period (up to 8-10 weeks) which will generally take place Monday to Friday, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.

Following the initial training period, you will work a flexible shift pattern within the hours of 8am and 7pm Monday to Friday, and 8am and 2pm on Saturdays.

A standard full-time employee will work 8 hours over 4 days and 5 hours on 1 day.

You will be allocated a day off during Monday to Friday if you work on a Saturday. Shifts are provided on a rolling weekly basis, 11 weeks in advance.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Most of the positions will be based in the Contact Centre. However, if successful, you could be offered a position in the Contact Centre in Swansea Vale, or the Operational area at our Morriston site. This will be dependent on availability and business requirements at the time of recruiting. The operating hours within the Operational area are between 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday.

Visa Sponsorship

Please take note that DVLA does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Sponsor License and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• DVLA Contact Centre Resilience Behaviour Framework - Self Control

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,607, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency contributes

£7,708 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.

Find out more about the benefits of working at DfT and its agencies (opens in a new window).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Technical skills.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's skills and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

• Stage 1: Personal information & Online Test
• Stage 2: Assessment - Customer Service Exercise
• Stage 3: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Personal Information & Online test

After submitting the first stage of your application (personal details), you will be invited to complete the Civil Service Styles Assessment (CSSA). This assessment must only be completed once. Candidates who submit more than one CSSA attempt will be withdrawn from the recruitment process. At this stage, you will be assessed against the Behaviours element of the Success Profiles Framework.

You will be assessed on all 9 Civil Service Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Changing & Improving, Making Effective Decisions, Leadership, Communicating & Influencing, Working Together, Developing Self and Others, Managing a Quality Service & Delivering at Pace.

If you successfully pass the assessment, you will be invited to the next stage of the application. (please see ‘stage 2’ for further information).

Please complete the online test as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended) to give yourself enough time to complete the full application. The online test must be completed by the closing date on the advert, otherwise your application will be rejected.

There is comprehensive candidate guidance for the Civil Service Styles Assessment (CSSA) . We strongly recommend candidates to read the assessment guidance, watch the information