Concerns Handling Officer (Band 5/ EO)

We contribute to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) strategy - Protecting People and Places. Our contribution is to protect people at work and those who are impacted by a work-activity by ensuring risks are properly managed.

The Customer Service Team is a high volume, fast-paced, operational, front-line team. Receiving 50k new workplace health and safety concerns (Tell us about a health and safety issue), and advice requests per year. In our efforts to continuously improve, we seek to adopt the digital approach as new opportunities arise.

Working in the Customer Service Team, your role will be to assess / triage health and safety risk, contact businesses and customers, and to ensure cases are resolved in line with expectations and service levels.

Working Pattern

Part time working hours are available for this role. We can accept part time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 30 hours per week over 5 days.

Please be advised that whilst this post falls under the HSE hybrid working policy, for the initial training period you will need to attend the office 5 days a week. Upon completing the initial training the required office attendance will be reduced in line with HSE's hybrid working policy.

We are looking for motivated and dedicated customer focused people to join the team and play an important role in ensuring that HSE provides a professional response to health and safety concerns and advice requests within strict deadlines.

You will be responsible for processing your assigned work and making an assessment on information received about the matters. You will work collaboratively with internal and external customers to obtain accurate and relevant information. In addition, you will ensure that responses are professional, accurate and timely, and work is recorded correctly on systems.

Key Responsibilities

You will work with the Customer Service Team who handle technical aspects of concerns and advice requests received in HSE, your role will be to:

• Make decisions on whether the matter falls within HSEs enforcement remit.
• Risk assess matters within HSEs enforcement remit to establish which cases require following up and whether this can be handled administratively by the Customer Service Team or requires referring to HSE Inspectors;
• Clearly set out, explain and justify your decisions.
• Effectively engage and communicate with internal and external customers to achieve efficient, effective and proportionate resolutions;
• Apply regulatory judgement to evaluate the sufficiency and content of any evidence provided by the duty holder.
• Contribute effectively to the successful delivery of our team and organisational objectives;
• Provide technical support for other operational front-line work including advice requests and keep accurate records, and update HSEs case management systems accordingly.
• Work with others in the Customer Service Team to create a culture of collaborative working and continuous improvement;

We are looking for motivated and talented individuals with the commitment to learn about new areas of work and responsibility and to build on their skills and knowledge in the workplace (health and safety management) as well as having experience of working in a customer focused environment

Essential Skills and Criteria

• Proven written and verbal communication skills to enable you to convey information in a clear and concise way, this should include the ability to probe and question further and show sensitivity when necessary
• Proficient IT skills to allow for accurate and timely recording of information in various HSE systems
• Be able to organise yourself and prioritise work as necessary.
• Analytical skills to enable you to interpret and digest information from a range of different sources.
• The ability to make effective decisions using your own initiative, intuition, and communication skills.
• Experience of working in a front-line delivery role.
• The ability to seek out new and improved ways of working, to make suggestions to colleagues and managers regarding improvements and always strive to deliver to the highest standards.

Hybrid Working

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement, and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work.

There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities, e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, you will be expected to attend the office, or other business-related site, for 60% of your working week. The arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account.

Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.