Universal Credit Work Coach - Aberdeen

As a Work Coach you hold a vital role in the Department, helping individuals and their families towards financial independence through work and enabling them to claim the support they need as they progress.

Work Coaches are customer-focused, dedicated individuals and are able to deliver exceptional service with empathy and compassion to people who need their support.

As a Work Coach, you will use sound judgement to help people through some difficult, challenging times in their lives, and your tailored coaching can make a huge difference to their ability to find, stay in, and progress in a job.

If you're looking for a job that makes a clear difference to people's lives, a Work Coach role in DWP could be just what you are looking for.

Role

The Work Coach role is wide-ranging and diverse. You will be working with customers, employers and colleagues through a combination of face to face, digital and telephone contact on a daily basis. Some of the main activities are set out below:

• Providing support to customers claiming Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseekers Allowance and Income Support.
• Offering quality advice to customers about job search actions, supporting them to job search effectively in a largely digital world, and matching to suitable vacancies.
• Meeting your legal duty to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and making sure your customers get the additional support and advice to help them access our services.
• Building positive relationships with customers that encourages, motivates, and builds trust.
• Developing an in-depth knowledge of local employment opportunities and the support our service partners offer.
• Making timely decisions, based on customer needs, and referring them to appropriate help and support.
• Be accountable for performance and management of your caseload.

Person specification

Key Criteria

What We Are Looking For

• Effective communication skills both verbally and in writing to a wide range of diverse customers.
• The ability to understand complex information and give clear explanations to the customer.
• You will be able to coach customers to improve their movement in to work.
• You must be able to navigate a range of computer systems to action tasks as well as coach customers to be confident using digital work search tools.
• You’ll also be required to handle telephony queries and have the ability to manage difficult situations where required in a calm and professional manner.

Requirements That All Applicants Must Meet

• You must be able to work on site, in person, in the Jobcentre location you are posted to.
• You must be able to work with customers face to face. Telephony and digital contact will also be an essential requirement.
• You must be able to work in a fast paced, busy environment as part of a team and independently.

We have exciting, challenging and rewarding roles available across DWP.

We are looking for people who are customer focused, with the right skills, commitment and capability to deliver an exceptional public service.

If you’re looking for a career that makes a clear and positive difference to people’s lives, then being a Work Coach may be an ideal role for you! You can find out more here.

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Alongside your salary of £32,137, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £9,310 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).

DWP have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

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 and Experience.

Application

Initially you will be asked if you have the right to work in the UK and meet Civil Service nationality requirements and your personal details. (if you are successful after interview you will be asked to provide documentation to prove this. This will include proof of ID, including photo ID or equivalent biometric passport/share code and proof of address).

On-Line Assessment

Civil Service Judgement Test. This is an online test which provides a measure of behavioural potential (the potential to perform behaviours effectively in the role) and self-assessed potential to progress (career aspirations and work engagement).

After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Judgement Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended),