About the job

Job summary

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) are the public sector’s property valuation experts and advisers. Our work is vital to the collection of over £60 billion of revenue which goes back into communities, touching every citizen and every business across England and Wales.

Our Customer Service Centre (CSC) is the face of the VOA, helping customers navigate our processes and working together to create an outstanding customer experience. We are looking for talented people with a passion for helping others and working together to find new and better ways of doing things to join our team and help us in our mission to ensure all customers understand their responsibilities and how to carry them out.

Job description

Job Title – Role Overview

The Customer Service Centre sits at the heart of our operations here in the Valuation Office Agency.

As Administrative Officers we play a crucial role supporting our customers’ needs and doing our best to give every customer a positive experience of the VOA. The role is really varied and on a typical day we could be doing anything from providing guidance to a small business owner on business rates and writing a response to a question on council tax, to helping a frustrated customer solve an issue with their bill and completing casework relating to stamp duty land tax.

Our work prioritises speaking to customers over the phone but we receive training on a variety of tasks to make sure we’re always able to help with the most urgent activities. It’s a busy role that can be challenging at times but the satisfaction you get from supporting customers makes it really rewarding. There’s also always someone around to help as we work in big, open plan offices so you’re never far away from a colleague or manager who can offer support.

Check out our video to hear more from us on why you should become part of our CSC team.

Inside the Valuation Office Agency - customer service careers - YouTube 

Job Title – Key responsibilities

• Providing excellent customer service via telephone, email and written correspondence.
• Ensuring that customers provide all necessary information and providing them with clear advice based on their query.
• Providing assistance including explaining procedures or policies, supporting customers to understand our processes and justifying decisions.
• General administration including using our tools and databases to gather and analyse data.

Person specification

We are looking for someone with good communication skills who’s passionate about customer service and enjoys the challenge of speaking directly with customers. Quality is central to everything we do here in the CSC and so you should be a performance driven individual motivated to meet targets and deliver against goals. To thrive as part of our CSC team you’ll be flexible, adaptable and above all willing to work as part of a team to respond to ever-changing priorities at pace, always putting the needs of the customer first.

Essential Criteria

• Customer focussed with a passion for providing high quality service.
• Good listener with the ability to communicate with different types of people with a range of needs.
• Flexible and able to switch between different types of work as needed.
• Resilient with the ability to have difficult conversations and work at pace.
• Goal orientated individual who enjoys working in a target driven environment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £25,082, Valuation Office Agency contributes £6,772 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

If you can meet our person requirements above, we are keen to hear from you.

To apply for this post, you must complete an online application with the following:

Customer Service Skills Test.

If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the next stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 20th May 2024. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.

A Personal Statement (maximum 500 words), please outline your suitability for the role. Please pay particular attention to the ‘Essential Criteria’ and ‘Person Specification’ outlined in the advert when providing your answer.

Sift – 24th May 2024 - Please note this date is provisional and may be subject to change.

We will assess you on your Customer Service Skills Test and your Personal Statement.

Candidates who pass the initial sift via the online test , may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview.

Interviews – 10th June 2024 - Please note this date is provisional and may be subject to change. This will be confirmed should you be invited to interview.

Interviews are currently taking place Face to Face. We will provide more detail if you are shortlisted for interview.

We will assess you on the Behaviours listed in the job description, Technical Questions and Strengths.

At the interview, the panel can then probe further and ask applicants to provide further specific examples that show how they best demonstrate their skills.

Application Hints and Tips

For more information on Success Profiles, tips on how to write a successful application and find out more about what’s involved in the application process please visit About the application process , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Further Information

Any move to VOA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

In the VOA, we are an office-based organisation, but all colleagues have access to hybrid working by default, as our roles have aspects which can be completed from home.

With this role we’d be looking for colleagues to work around 3 days per week in the office once they have been trained. To help you get trained up as quickly and efficiently as possible, we ask that for your training period you come into the office 5 days a week. Once we feel you are able to operate effectively without help you’ll be invited to discuss a hybrid working pattern with your manager. You and your manager will then continue to review your hybrid working pattern to make sure it meets your needs as well as the needs of the business.

The working hours for this role are determined by a rota. Whilst we try take personal circumstances into account wherever possible when setting the rotas, we are limited in allowing people to ‘fix’ set hours outside of these times. However, please do contact us if you would like to discuss any individual circumstances which may restrict your availability between these hours (e.g. caring responsibilities, or childcare) or wish to work part-time. We currently schedule our people between the hours of 7:30am and 6pm, Monday to Friday however, please be aware that this can change subject to business need. 

VOA employees only:  If you are currently in receipt of DTA as a result of a VOA office closure/restructure and it is agreed for you to take up this role in your current location, you may continue to receive DTA for the remainder of the period you can claim for.  Please check with the Vacancy Holder on preferred locations for this role before you apply.

Pre-employment Checks

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

If you would require a Certificate of Sponsorship from the VOA to undertake this role, please contact resourcingteam@voa.gov.uk before submitting your application.

Reasonable Adjustment

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition, or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.

If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, please click here for more information:

Reasonable Adjustments , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk) and contact voarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process.

Terms & Conditions

Voluntary terms apply.

Reserve Lists

If we have more successful candidates than available vacancies, we will hold a 6-month reserve list by exception. 

During that time, we may use the list to fill the same, or similar roles with closely matching essential criteria, without further testing of merit. Any appointments from the Reserve list will be made in strict merit order.

Applying

All applications for these vacancies must be made online. There are limited exceptions to this. Paper applications will only be considered if you have a disability that will prevent you from applying online. If this is the case, please email voarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished and answered all the relevant questions.

Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Concerns/Complaints

The Valuation Office Agency’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, you may make a complaint, by contacting the Central Recruitment Team at the following address: resourcingteam@voa.gov.uk

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint you have the right to complain to the Civil Service Commissioners.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.