About the job

Job summary

The National Archives is seeking an energetic, friendly, enthusiastic and passionate person to proactively support The National Archives to provide excellent service to visitors and ensure that they have a positive and memorable experience.

The Quality Team, which is part of the Visitor Experience Department, is the first port of call for visitors who have something to say about any of our services. It exists to listen to what the National Archives’ users have to say, so that we can improve the quality of our services, and respond to them in a timely manner. We want to know when we do things well and what aspects of our service our users appreciate; but we also want to know when things go wrong or when people feel that our service can be improved. This gives us a chance to make things better, enhance the user experience of The National Archives, and better meet our audiences’ needs.

The Visitor Experience and Quality Support Officer will manage customer feedback and complaints as well as supporting the team to maintain a customer focused accreditation portfolio.

They will also support the visitor experience in other ways, such as supporting our Visitor Assistants in welcoming visitors, school groups and invigilating our exhibitions and displays, as we develop our offer for the public.

Previous experience in a customer service role would be desirable, but full training will be provided.

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site. Current minimum expectation is to be working onsite 60% of the time.

Job description

Full job description attached (see below).

Person specification

How to apply:

If you are an internal applicant: please do not use the link on this page. Please apply via your employee Workday account.

If you are an external applicant: to submit your application please click the 'Apply at advertiser's site' button on this page.

You will be asked to provide details of your work experience and write a personal statement. In your personal statement please explain, using examples, how you meet the essential criteria given below. You may draw on knowledge, skills, abilities, experience gained from paid work, domestic responsibilities, education, leisure interests and voluntary activities. Please note selection for interview will largely be based on the information you provide in this section.

Essential criteria:

• A flexible approach with a can-do attitude
• Excellent customer service and communication skills
• Excellent administrative, written and verbal communications and IT skills. Willingness to learn new skills and acquire role-specific knowledge
• Aptitude and enthusiasm for working within a team environment
• Ability to organise and prioritise own work and time
• Ability to gain knowledge of The National Archives’ collections or functions sufficient for managing customer feedback efficiently
• Ability to make decisions with minimal supervision within defined guidelines
• Demonstrable ability to frequently deal with sensitive information responsibly and appropriately

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £27,000, The National Archives contributes £7,290 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

Reasonable adjustments:

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact The National Archives via careers@nationalarchives.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• 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. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional

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.