Correspondence Officer
London/Essex
Permanent
Hybrid
Do you take pride in giving people clear, helpful answers? Are you experienced in assessing and responding to customer queries with accuracy? Could you help one of the UK’s largest infrastructure projects give local residents timely and helpful responses? Then, this could be the next adventure in your career.
Create Solutions that will enable a better tomorrow
We are looking for a Correspondence Officer who will work as a key member of the project’s Community Engagement Team. You will be responsible for assessing incoming correspondence, working with the project team to gather the relevant information and drafting concise, understandable and helpful responses to those who’ve contacted the Project with their questions.
Furthermore, you will:
- Work with the Helpdesk Manager and Communities Team to assess individual pieces of correspondence, prioritising them and identifying where cross-discipline input is required.
- Take ownership of relevant correspondence from receipt through to response and closure, including drafting clear, concise and helpful responses in plain English that answer the questions raised by members of the public, while aligning to project narrative.
- Identify where input is needed from other teams and work with experts within the project to gather accurate, relevant and timely information, or delegate drafts, proactively following up with teams where information is outstanding so that correspondence is managed within agreed timescales, before collating the final response ready to send.
- Confidently navigate and interpret key project and technical documents, including the Development Consent Order (DCO), plans, commitments and supporting documentation, to identify relevant information and support accurate, evidence-based responses.
- Review and provide quality control for other teams’ (including contractors’) responses, checking facts and identifying any gaps or inconsistencies before issue to ensure they are accurate and complete.
- Call members of the public, either to resolve their query directly over the phone or to check for further information, so that we provide a comprehensive and helpful response, and identify recurring themes and emerging issues from correspondence to flag to the Helpdesk Manager and Communities Lead.
- Maintain confidentiality and handle personal information appropriately when managing correspondence.
- Support the Helpdesk Manager and project and contractor community teams, including maintaining templates, processes, guidance, Q&A documents and standard responses where appropriate, and using AI systems to aid efficiency and consistency in response quality and times.
Your skills. Our team. Together we design the future.
The first step to success in this role is that you are eager to collaborate with the people around you, whether they are colleagues, partners, or customers. Developing ties with others is something you do by acting respectfully and delivering on your promises. And you never get set in your ways but keep exploring new insights and ways to improve.
Furthermore, you should have:
- Experience of assessing and responding to customer queries, and of communicating complex information in plain English.
- Experience of using Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), correspondence or case-management systems to record, track and manage cases.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to draft clear, concise, accurate and helpful responses in plain English, while aligning to project narrative and being empathetic.
- Strong attention to detail and confidence finding, reviewing and pulling together information from a range of sources to make responses accurate and proportionate, with the ability to work through conflicting or incomplete information to establish what is needed to provide an effective response.
- Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across the project to support the timely resolution of enquiries and complaints, schedule work, deliver to tight deadlines, manage different workstreams, respond to changing situations and use personal initiative.
- Experience of drafting responses to enquiries and complaints, particularly where issues are complex, sensitive or technical and may require researching or interpreting detailed information, or working with technical teams, would be an advantage.
- Experience of working in the construction industry would be an advantage.
- Confidence using Microsoft 365 and digital document libraries would be an advantage
A place to work and so much more.
At COWI, we work together with our customers to shape a sustainable and liveable world. We do it by applying our knowledge and curiosity – and sometimes even our courage – to create the solutions the world needs today to enable a better tomorrow. We support our customers’ transition towards increased sustainability. We strive to lead by example by embedding environmental management, social responsibility and good governance into our business practices and the options we provide to our customers.
We value differences and development and cultivate an environment of belonging and having fun. Because that is what brings out the best in you, at work and at home.
With offices primarily located in the Nordic region, the UK, North America and India, we are currently more than 7,500 people who bring their expertise in engineering, architecture, energy and environment into play.
What we also offer:
To us, a fair reward is more than a competitive salary. We want to take care of our people professionally and personally as well.
Some of our benefits include:
- 28 days' holiday plus all UK bank and public holidays
- Formalised development plans and yearly promotion opportunities
- Private health care, for you and a contribution from you for your immediate dependents
- Flexible and hybrid working conditions
- Annual subscription fees paid for your membership of two Professional Institutions
- Group personal pension scheme – salary exchange
- Life assurance
- Maternity Leave: 1-20 weeks full pay, 21-26 weeks half pay, 27-39 Statutory (SMP) 40-52 weeks unpaid (eligibility criteria will apply)
- Paternity Leave: 12 weeks full pay (eligibility criteria will apply)
Optional benefits include:
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Electric vehicle lease
- Corporate gym membership
- Annual Rail card (available for under 30s)
Got more questions?
If you have any unanswered questions about the role or what we have to offer, please reach out to our Talent Acquisition Specialist Abhinav Khanna at abkn@cowi.com.
Get to know us even better at our website, www.cowi.com, where you can learn more about our projects, our strategy, what we want to achieve and what life is like at COWI.
Equal opportunity employer.
COWI provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to ethnicity, colour, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
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