Organisation: Department of Immigration and Border Protection
Job Title: APS4 – Strategy, Assurance and Control; Health Programme Support and Coordination; Health Services
Word Limit:2000 characters | 350 words per point
Location: NSW
Contribute to Strategic Thinking: Given an example of a time when you have had to bring together information from various sources in order to increase your understanding of an issue and give accurate advice to a client or stakeholder
Within my current role as Citizenship Officer at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), I contribute strategic thinking through harnessing and collating information in order to give advice to people applying for passports and other applicants. As part of the citizenship team, we have a range of services we provide to the public, one of which is the 119 service for people who have lost their citizenship certificate and need to have it replaced. In most cases, the people applying for a 119 are in a hurry for their certificates as they are going overseas soon and have realised that they do not have all of the information they need, so this can sometimes mean they are challenging customers to deal with.
It usually takes around 7-10 days processing time to issue a new citizenship certificate to customers from the date of receipt. When people call to check on the progress of their applications, I check within the ICSE system what stage their processing is up to, bringing together all of their information. I gain an understanding of their particular situation through listening to their concerns and reviewing information I find on the system. I can gather information on the date their application was received, whether their claim is valid, whether they have paid the fee and how long it should take before they will receive their replacement certificate. In addition, I can give them the registered post number used for tracking their parcel if available. For cases where I cannot find information within the system, I ask my Team Leader to check the details and I gather the information for the clients in this way. Depending on the stage, I can then give them an accurate estimated time of delivery for their documents.
As a result of working with clients in a calm way and having the ability to gather this information about their particular case, I have been able to satisfy countless people’s enquiries with clear and accurate advice within that one phone call.
Achieves Results: Provide an example of a time when you had to weigh up options to decide on the best course of action, even though none of the available options were ideal
In my current role within the Parramatta Office, we have always had a drop box service for clients who wished to just drop in their 119 applications, rather than send them through the postal service, especially if there was any urgency in their situation. Recently, the organisation received a bomb threat through the drop box and management made the decision that the drop box service would no longer be available. Due to this closure, we have had a large amount of clients phoning through on our hotline to say that they used to use the drop box and are upset that they can no longer do so.
Due to these requests, and although not ideal for the client or us, we made a decision that if clients wanted to drop off their applications, they would have to make an appointment time and come into the office. This meant handing the documents over to a staff member in a fashion that was safe and clearly provided no threat. Our goal in this situation was to have the applications processed and not inconvenience the customer too much in the process. On dropping off at the counter, we would then be able to stamp the documents and put them in the queue earlier than if they were posted. Because this option is not that convenient for staff, I need to weigh up each person’s situation and make a decision about whether they should post their documents, or whether it is urgent enough for me to advise them of the appointment option. For example, on one occasion a woman was travelling in only a few days’ time to go and see her sick mother overseas, which I deemed as an application that warranted allowing the woman to come in a drop off her application in person.
As a result of the range of decisions made in this regard, we have managed to limit the number of face-to-face customers, but have also provided them with a service they can turn to if necessary.
Supports Productive Working Relationships: Provide an example that demonstrates your ability to liaise with a variety of people at differing levels of an organisation
Within my past role as Executive Assistant at Allied Mills, my ability to support productive working relationships was demonstrated at all levels of the organisation. As Executive Assistant, I was responsible for supporting all seven General Managers within the organisation, requiring my ability to liaise and work to support them and their staff.
One specific task was the gathering and collating of information for the monthly board meeting of the organisation. To put together the papers for the meeting, I liaised with the managers and staff from all areas of the business, including logistics, finance and sales to obtain the statistical and other information to be submitted to the Board. Staff with which I liaised with included everyone from the general manager, down to the assistants, customer service staff and others as required. I always made sure I disseminated due dates for this information in advance, to give the area plenty of time to gather and send me the required information. This not only helped me, but meant the staff were grateful for the advance notice because it gave them time to get organised. By fostering good working relationships with these staff and managers through a positive and helpful attitude and being respectful of their workloads, I was able to maintain productive working relationships and gather required information.
As a result of my relationship building and organisation, I managed to disseminate the Board papers to board members within the deadline each month of my tenure.
Acting as Team Leader within my current role as Citizenship Officer has meant developing relationships with other Team Leaders and managing the team to successful outcomes, including training of new staff into their roles. I have achieved positive outcomes through understanding and building relationships with colleagues in order to maintain a positive working environment and, in fact was called back for a second contract on the basis of my excellent performance in the job.
Displays Personal Drive and Integrity: Provide an example of a situation when you have recognised the need to be discreet and professional when dealing with sensitive information
There are many occasions within my current role as Citizenship Officer at DIBP where I have had to treat information as sensitive and confidential. When dealing with and speaking with applicants, particularly via the hotline calls, it is imperative that I determine who I am speaking with in the appropriate way. I am permitted to only talk to the applicant or authorised contact for the applicant about their applications, and cannot give out any information outside of this. On numerous occasions on these calls, I have been in a situation of asking the actual applicant to come onto the phone, and letting them know that we can get an interpreter to speak to them if that is why they are getting someone else to call. Often this is the reason and I have been able to sort the situation out via our interpretive service.
As a further example, recently our staff attended a meeting where we were informed of a new assurance project, which is currently being implemented in our organisation. Within this meeting, we were informed that any documents we received in relation to this project were not to be shared, given or copied at any point, and then were given documents as a reference resource for the project. All of the documents were numbered and recorded. The information contained in the documents relate to a range of countries and their citizen’s visa sub-class categorisation, depending on their country of origin. This information has the potential to upset people if their country is, or is not on the list and therefore needs to be kept confidential at all times, even after hours. It needs to be put away at any time when not being used.
Understanding the importance of this, I have been diligent in putting the document away when I am not in use of it, when I am going home and during any interviewing process within the office. As a result, I have ensured that I have not contravened my role nor given any opportunity for the information to be shared.
Communicates With Influence: Describe an example of a situation you have experienced in which you had to persuade someone to take a particular course of action or accept a particular point of view
As Citizenship Officer, I receive numerous applications and am required to review and ensure completion of these applications before they go to the next step. The guidelines relating to the applications clearly state that applicants require three forms of identification attached in order to have their application processed. I often receive calls from clients, wondering why their application has been returned to them. On explanation of the identification requirements, many clients state that they do not actually have three forms of identification, as they have come to this country with nothing, or have changed their name.
Because Australian government legislation does not recognise marriage certificates from other countries as evidence for change of name, I often need to inform people that they need to apply through Births, Deaths and Marriages for a certificate in proving their marriage. This unfortunately costs the person another fee, which they can get quite upset about. At these times, I often have to not only persuade them that this is the course of action they need to take, but also that it will be the quickest course of action if they want to have their application processed.
If the client gets particularly upset with me, which has happening on numerous occasions, I gently remind them that the legislation states they need to have this identification and that I also have no control over their situation. At this point, they often calm down and realise that I am simply performing my role.
As a result, whilst they are not usually happy about the situation, they will usually then go and get the appropriate evidence and add this to their application, at which point it can be processed.
Demonstrates Professional or Technical Proficiency: Think of a time when you had to explain the details of a complex client issue to a supervisor, colleague or member of another work area
In your responses, please take into account the Work Level Standards and Capability Development Framework
An example of an explanation given to a supervisor was recently when a pile of 10 applications simply went missing within our office. Understanding the integrity aspects of our roles, I went to our supervisor and explained the situation. The supervisor told me that we needed to call the clients as soon as possible to explain the situation. Using my communication skills, I called a large percentage of the affected clients and clearly and concisely explained the problem. This issue was made complex by the sensitive nature of information that was missing and the understandable reaction of clients when they were told they had to go and get all of their documents re-certified to apply again.
In an attempt to support positive relationships with the clients, I explained that although unfortunate, the quickest and most strategic way forward, would be for them to re-submit their application, in case they simply were not found.
A number of days after communicating with all of the clients, the missing applications turned up, having been placed anonymously on someone’s desk. This turn of events meant, after explanation to my supervisor, we had to then call of the clients back and explain that we had found their applications and they would now be fast-tracked through the process. As much as clients were pleased about the finding, they were also very upset by the whole process. Given that I had fostered a relationship with these clients when I called them the first time, the response was not particularly difficult and I was able to explain the next steps to them and gave them an expected date for their applications to be processed by.
Given my knowledge of both the work level standards and capability statement for this level, I have and will ensure that my work standards are maintained at an appropriate level, as demonstrated within each example throughout my criteria.
