A large national charity are looking for 2 Complaints Officers on a part time basis to ensure that disputes, complaints and problematic situations involving members and volunteers are resolved.

You will work closely with the Volunteering Manager and the team to resolve issues that sometimes happen with volunteers and members across the UK. You will contribute to avoiding or de-escalating problems by promoting the knowledge, skills and confidence of staff and volunteers, across England, Scotland and Wales.

They are looking for people who are pragmatic, resilient, able to work on your own initiative and to take decisions. You will have to deal with lots of confidential information and work to agreed deadlines and will need to review and investigate a wide variety of issues.

Ideally you will have previous complaints, problem solving experience and will have worked with volunteers or worked in the voluntary/not for profit sector. The role is 3 days per week.

Key Responsibilities:
-Disseminate a new Problem-Solving/Complaints Policy and Procedure to staff, members and volunteers by creating and delivering training, creating written guidance for different audiences
-Ensure that staff, members and volunteers follow the Procedure in resolving problems by modelling best practice and correct procedure when directly handling a complaint or giving advice and guidance
-Maintaining up to date knowledge of all live cases, intervening or advising as necessary.
- Following introduction of the new Policy and Procedure, establish routine briefings, refresher training and updates for staff, members and volunteers
- Be the focal point for new complaints and problems from any source eg Complaints inbox; to triage these and refer on to the appropriate staff or Area volunteers for resolution, or in some cases to external regulators or police
- Risk assess serious or complex cases
- Where appropriate eg complex or very serious cases, directly take the lead on a problem solving case
- Provide expert advice and guidance to staff and volunteers who are leading on a problem solving cases,
- When an investigation is necessary, provide the Investigating Manager with guidance on the investigation and appeal process
- Ensure that staff, members and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge to pre-empt or resolve problems and complaints; encourage and promote this by delivering Training workshops, briefings, written guidance etc.
-Record the number and nature of incoming problems, and to whom they were referred
Case work - ensure up to date records, ensure any risk assessments are kept on file
-Provide a weekly Problem Solving brief to the Volunteering Manager
-Provide monthly stats, for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT)
-Ensure that training and learning events are evaluated to continuously improve them for different audiences
-Capture learning from cases; create a collection of case studies for use


Skills and Experience required:
- Significant knowledge and experience of problem solving disputes, complaints, problematic situations
- Experience of introducing policy and procedure, or similar, across an organisation
- Experience of working across a range of people (ideally in a member led organisation)
- Experience of speaking to groups and delivering training
- Experience of working with and supporting volunteers remotely, including knowledge and experience of volunteer management
- Ability to adapt written and verbal communication to suit different audiences, including senior management and Trustees, and external agencies
- Organised approach with strong administrative skills
- Ability to think critically with sound judgement
-Knowledge of risk assessment and mitigation
- Ability to work with geographically dispersed volunteers, staff, members, and members of the public
-Experience of the voluntary sector as a worker, member or volunteer
-Ability to travel in GB, and to work out of hours from time to time