Community Liaison Officer (CLO) - 02/19 KSH

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Residence and Support Staff)

Community Liaison

Main purpose of job:

To work closely with Post Management for the well-being of all staff at Post, with primary function as advocate for and provision of support to UK-based staff and families across the One HMG platform on family and community issues, principally in the areas of information gathering, welfare and communication.

Roles and responsibilities:

A skilled and dedicated CLO makes a real difference to welfare and morale at Post. Kinshasa is not an easy posting and CLO tasks focus on family issues, in particular those relating to orientation, advice, information, health and welfare. Helping staff and dependents settle in when they arrive is also a key task. Duties include:

Information gathering for UK-Based officers and their spouses/partners and families, and Local Staff on flexible deployment (including for those not yet at Post). To include (where applicable) information primarily on spouse/partner employment at Post; children's education (through completion of separate HR School and Nursery Information Sheets of authorised schools at Post); a comprehensive information pack on childcare at post, feedback on adult education; career and training opportunities; single officer and foreign born spouse/partner issues; recreational facilities; social matters; and completion of DSFA Spouse and Partner Annual Employment Report and twice yearly Cost of Living Surveys.

Welfare at Post: welcoming all staff on posting/temporary duty/flexible deployment and accompanying families to ensure as smooth an integration as possible into the life of the Post community; conducting familiarisation and arrival tours and following up to check that the settling in process is working; being a source of referral and support where questions, problems and difficulties arise; providing short Post community induction. CLOs are not expected to be medically trained and have no medical responsibility.

Advocate for UK-based staff and families in addressing issues of importance with Post Management, including as their representative on Post Joint Management Boards, evacuation/contingency planning and housing committees, and as the chief link between Post and DSFA in London.

Communicating effectively on community and social matters across Post to all staff and receive notification of staff arrivals/departures. The CLO should participate in the Post Management Meetings and other relevant Post Committees as required. The CLO should advertise details of DSFA career support services and courses to eligible UK-Based spouses/partners at Post. CLO is expected to establish some form of communication for staff and spouses/partners across Post, such as a WhatsApp group, in accordance with the FCO social media policy.

Information management of Post Welcome Pack, input to update and review of Post Report and Fact Sheet. CLOs should be accessible and able to provide information in areas including pre-Posting information, spouse/partner employment at Post; child and adult education, childcare, recreation facilities and training opportunities. Management of Officer, Spouse and Dependants’ information to ensure, amongst other things, that the HR teams can include them on the medical insurance list.

Emergency Planning: the CLO must be aware of and involved in any Post contingency and evacuation plans. All CLOs should complete the Crisis Preparedness Management eLearning on GLO.

All the above tasks require the CLO to have strong links with senior management, relevant FCO departments, the DFID Business Contact and the DSFA’s London office.

NOTE: This job is par time (20 hours) now but will increase to full time from September when we are given additional funding. The successful candidate will therefore have the opportunity of moving to full time. If the successful candidate does not want to do this, we will advertise the post on full time and job share basis. There is therefore a risk that the jobholder’s contract will end if we do not find someone willing to job share but do find someone willing to work full time.

• A CLO must be an excellent people person, be a good listener, a strong communicator and have good organisational skills;
• The CLO is often the recipient of confidential/sensitive information from Post Management and from staff and families. For this reason, they must have strong interpersonal skills to be discreet and observe complete confidentiality.

• Previous CLO experience or experience of expatriate Embassy life;
• A good knowledge of Kinshasa, such as places to shop, eat out, socialise and meet new people and an enthusiasm for sharing them;
• Experience of working in a customer facing environment or with welfare issues

Changing and Improving, Leading and Communicating, Collaborating and Partnering, Managing a Quality Service

14 March 2019

A2 (L)

Part-Time

20 hours

Africa

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Kinshasa

British Embassy

1

$848.86

2 May 2019

Working patterns:

This currently a part time-role of 20 hours per week a flexible working pattern can be agreed with Line Management.

The CLO will need to accept calls and manage issues outside of core hours.

Please note:

From September this year the role will become full-time 35-40 hours per week. We will review this appointment at that time and may seek to advertise on a job share basis (2 people 20 hours per week) or a full-time position of 35 hours per week. The job holder and HR will be consulted.

• Please complete the application form in full as the information provided is used during screening.
• Please check your application carefully before you submit, as no changes can be made once submitted.
• The British Embassy will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position.
• Employees recruited locally by the British Embassy in Kinshasa are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Democratic Republic of Congo.
• All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit.
• The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to;
• The British Embassy do not sponsor visas/work permits except where it may be local practice to do so.
• Employees who are not eligible to pay local income tax: e.g. certain third-country nationals and spouses/partners of UK diplomats will have their salaries abated by an equivalent amount.
• Information about the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Competency Framework can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-competency-framework Please note: AA=A1, AO=A2, EO=B3, HEO=C4, SEO=C5
• Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates.