Team / Directorate: Customer Hub / Communications, Customer and Commercial
Starting salary: £36, 246 rising to £39,942 per annum through annual increments being paid each year (pro rata for part time applicants)
Contract type: Permanent
Work pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week (Part time, annualised hours, compressed hours or term time working considered - discussions at interview stage welcome)
Interview date: To be confirmed
Post number: 201779
The role
Are you committed to enhancing customer satisfaction and upholding the highest standards of complaint handling, in line with the expectations of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales?
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is looking for a Senior Complaints Specialist to play a pivotal role in delivering service excellence and driving fair, transparent and effective resolution of customer complaints.
In this key position, you will lead on managing complex and sensitive complaints, applying a rigorous and empathetic approach that reflects best practice and meets the standards set by the Ombudsman. Acting as a customer advocate, you will conduct thorough investigations, provide thoughtful and evidence-based responses, and collaborate across NRW to promote continuous improvement in our approach to complaints.
Your expertise will help shape and enhance NRW's complaints processes, building organisational capability, and foster a customer-centric culture across the organisation.
If you are motivated by the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in public service and contribute to best-in-class complaint handling, we welcome your application.
As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the nearest NRW office to your home and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.
For informal enquiries, please contact Miriam Jones at
Interviews will be held on Microsoft Teams.
Successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check. Appointments are normally made within 4 to 8 weeks of the closing date.
About us
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is the principal environmental body for Wales, responsible for safeguarding, maintaining, and enhancing the natural environment, while supporting the sustainable use of our natural resources for the benefit of current and future generations.
This position is based within the Customer Management Team, which forms part of our Communications, Customer and Commercial Directorate. The Directorate leads NRW's external engagement and is instrumental in building public trust, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and supporting the delivery of our corporate strategy. In particular, it plays a central role in advancing our commitments to transparency, customer focus, and digital transformation.
The Customer Management Team at Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is responsible for key services areas including complaints and commendations, access to information, and complex information requests. In this role, you will take on specialist responsibility for one of these core areas, while also providing operational resilience across the wider team functions
What you will do
Handle all complex customer workload on behalf of the business, to include Complaints Stage 1, 2 and Ombudsman, Access to Information Appeals and escalations, complex data licensing and Enquiries.
You will be responsible for ensuring that NRW meets its legal requirements under various legislation and adheres to NRW's Complaints policy and Customer Service Standards.
Deliver excellent customer service and participate in continuous improvement projects to ensure all our customers have a great experience with NRW through the development of the Customer Hub.
Be responsible for a particular customer specialism ensuring compliance against activities and delegating and monitoring casework as appropriate.
Supervisory role with no direct line management, but responsibility over the standards and completion of workload across the team.
Provide performance management data and highlighting compliance and standard issues to Team Leaders.
Provide resilience to the other specialist team members.
Contribute to the strategic development of the Complaints and Requests for Information function within NRW and assist with the implementation and improvement of systems required under current Legislation, and as part of developing the customer hub.
Support colleagues with advice on contentious/complex requests working together to provide a customer focussed response.
Work with the SIRO support officer to ensure continuing business compliance with GDPR.
Work flexibly as part of the Customer Management Team and strive to develop the role, helping our organisation to become a leading provider of customer service within the public sector.
Be an exemplar for excellent customer care across all our activities, ensuring the highest standards of customer service are adopted and maintained across all activities.
Take an active role in relevant professional and networking events and contribute to discussions at internal and external governance meetings.
Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy, together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.
Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills
In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method .
Excellent customer service skills with the drive to provide a first-class service to all our customers.
In-depth knowledge of the organisation and the ability to influence and inform at all levels of the organisation.
In-depth knowledge preferably with a recognised qualification around your specialist area of work.
Excellent working knowledge of various legislation we are bound by and NRW's Complaints and Commendations and charging and data licensing policy, with the ability to interpret legislation and develop policies.
Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage your own workload and monitor the workload of others, work to strict timelines and adapt to changing priorities when necessary.
Experience of developing strong working relationships with internal colleagues, communicating ideas clearly and persuasively, and the ability to present compelling arguments to influence and negotiate satisfactory outcome.
High level of creativity and innovation with an ability to proactively work with business area leads to improve the information available to the public.
Welsh language level requirements
Essential: C2 - Higher proficiency level (fluent in both spoken and written Welsh) previous Level 5
Benefits
This role will offer a range of benefits, including:
Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
commitment to professional development
health and wellbeing benefits and support
weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose
See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.
Please keep reading
We're passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.
We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.
We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.
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