Escalations Officer

Department of Government Services; Ballarat; On-site; AUD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The Department of Government Services in Ballarat is seeking an Escalations Officer to evaluate and respond to consumer complaints and input from the public. You will act as frontline service for Consumer Affairs Victoria and assist with dispute resolution under applicable legislation.

The role supports continuous improvement of the Information and Dispute Services Centre and the regulation of markets, providing consumer protection services and contributing to a risk‑based, intelligence‑led

Qualifications

• Experience in regulatory, compliance, enforcement, or legislative environments is highly regarded.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, compliance frameworks or regulatory policies, or the ability to acquire quickly.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to learn new systems, processes and technologies.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate and respond to complaints and contacts in line with legislation and guidelines.
• Increase accessibility to frontline services and deliver efficient resolution of complaints.
• Liaise across agencies and provide information on rights and obligations under the legislation.
• Prepare general correspondence and contribute to daily activity coordination.
• Work autonomously and manage workload to provide high‑quality service.
• Handle rental increase investigations and ensure resolution within policies.

Skills

Resilience

Judgement

Regulatory experience

Compliance knowledge

Organisational skills

Public sector values

Job description

Department of Government Services – Ballarat VIC

The Department of Government Services (DGS) wasestablishedon 1 January 2023 to improveeveryone’s experience of doing business and interacting with the Victorian government. We bring important day-to-day services together in one department to make things easy and seamless for Victorians and businesses. We are doing this by connecting and digitising our systems and platforms across state and localgovernment as well as streamlining our corporate and procurement services.

You can find out more aboutour Ministers,leadershipand entitieshere:Department of Government Services.

The Whole of Victorian Government Contact Centre Branch

TheWhole of Victorian Government Contact Centre Branch(WoVGCC)bringstogether the contact centres from Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM), Service Victoria (SV), Workers Screening Unit (WSU)and the Victorian Government Contact Centre (VGCC)intoaconsolidatedteam within the DGS Digital Transformation Projects division. This strategic consolidation underlines the departments commitment to streamlining operations andleveragingcombinedexpertiseto enhance public service delivery.

About the Role

Reporting to the Team Manager, the Escalations Officer role is part of a team who evaluate and respond to consumer complaints and other types of input received from consumers.

As the frontline service for CAV for written consumer complaints, the team identifies and responds to issues in the marketplace and determines the initial response to consumers. This role also has the responsibility of providing dispute assistance in response to complaints where there is a likely breach of legislation administered by CAV or a failure to comply with legal obligations.

This role influences the development and review of strategies and projects to enhance the delivery of industry compliance and consumer protection services.

The role is important in supporting the continuous improvement of the Information and Dispute Services Centre (IDSC) and the regulation of markets, providing consumer protection services and contributing to CAV being a risk based and intelligence led organisation.

Key Accountabilities

• Evaluate and respond to complaints and contacts received by CAV in accordance with the relevant legislation and case management guidelines. This includes contacting parties by phone in the first instance always.Liaise across CAV, to share intelligence in line with the Escalations Framework and connect to a range of other agencies when appropriate.
• Increase accessibility to CAV’s Front Line Compliance Response (FLCR) service to deliver an efficient and effective resolution of complaints. Initiate appropriate action of complaints & FLCR cases to achieve resolution or compliance within Consumer Affairs Victoria policies and procedures. Identify risks and effectively handle systemic and emerging issues by utilising intelligence.
• Liaise across CAV to action compliance issues and share intelligence in line with the Escalations Framework and connect to a wide range of other Agencies when appropriate. Provide information to traders, community groups, consumers, employees of CAV and other parties as to the rights and obligations under the legislation administered by CAV, to constructively encourage compliance.This role is tied with CAV’s frontline response and depending on business demands may need to change priorities to assist by answering inbound calls or support other frontline functions.
• Prepare general correspondence on a range of issues, including letters to consumers and businesses. Contribute to the coordination of daily activities, initiate process improvements and other team and branch wide activities.
• Work autonomously and manage workload in an efficient and effective manner to provide a high-quality service.
• Evaluate and respond to renter requests for CAV to investigate a proposed rental increase from their rental provider in accordance with the relevant legislation and case management guidelines.
• Initiate appropriate action of rental increase assessment/investigation requests to achieve a resolution within CAV’s policies and procedures.
• This role is tied with CAV’s frontline response and depending on business demands may need to change priorities to assist by answering inbound calls or support other frontline functions.

About You

We are seeking applicants who have demonstrated experience from the following criteria:

• Resilience and sound judgement, with the confidence to provide advice, respond constructively to feedback, and manage competing priorities.
• Experience working in a regulatory, compliance, enforcement, or legislative environment is highly regarded.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, compliance frameworks, or regulatory policies, or the ability to quickly acquire this knowledge.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to learn new systems, processes, and technologies quickly.
• A commitment to public sector values, inclusion, and delivering outcomes that positively impact the community.

There are multiple ongoing positions available. These positions are only open to applicants with relevant rights to work in Australia.

For more information, please see the Position Description

Other relevant information

To be eligible for appointment to this role, applicants will possess corresponding work rights for the advertised employment period. Appointment to an ongoing role is only available to an Australian/New Zealand citizen or an Australian Permanent Resident. Preferred applicants will be required to undertake pre-employment screening. DGS actively promotes diversity, inclusion and an equal opportunity workplace. We welcome applicants from all diverse backgrounds, including people with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. All roles at DGS can be worked flexibly, however it may differ from role to role.