Client Support Specialist for Asylum Seekers

The position

As a Client Support Specialist for Status Holders, you will guide newcomers toward successful and sustainable integration and participation in the city of Amsterdam. You are sensitive to the vulnerabilities of status holders and help empower them. Drawing on your knowledge of available opportunities, you will seek the right balance to help clients realize their full potential. You will work closely with various partners, including the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), language providers, and neighborhood teams.

You will work with your clients (up to 60) to discuss their progress in the integration process. You will listen attentively to their challenges and proactively draw on your extensive network to help overcome obstacles. You will monitor and supervise ongoing activities and ensure smooth and accurate administrative processing.

Your success is a self-reliant client who, after successfully integrating into society, can begin a suitable educational program, volunteer in the community, or find a job to shape their future in Amsterdam.

This position offers opportunities for professional growth and deeper engagement in working with asylum seekers. Seize this opportunity to expand your knowledge of laws and regulations and the social services sector!

Here's what you do on an average day

We’d like to give you an idea of what your role as a Client Support Specialist for Status Holders might entail:

• You start the day with an intake interview with a Syrian newcomer who is eager to put his skills to use in the Dutch job market. You discuss his previous work experience as a technician, the integration program, and make clear agreements with each other.
• An ambitious Eritrean newcomer is determined to work full-time to provide financial support to her family, who still live in Eritrea. However, she is finding it difficult to balance her responsibilities related to the integration program with her desire to support her family abroad. Being the creative person you are, you team up with the Dutch Council for Refugees to explore possible solutions.
• After each meeting, you’ve set aside time to carefully enter your findings into the systems and outline your next steps, and then you discuss a dilemma with your colleague.

This is where you get started

We strive to be a great employer that ensures all our colleagues feel seen and valued. We embrace the differences among our colleagues; these differences lead to better results for both our organization and our city. We aim to build a workforce that reflects Amsterdam’s diverse population. So, whoever you are, you’re more than welcome here!

The Work, Participation, and Employment (WPI) Department aims to enable every Amsterdam resident to participate in society, each according to their own abilities. This is also the goal of the Integration & Language Department, where we focus on a specific target group: status holders. Within the Integration & Language Department, you will be working on the Status Holders team. The team members look out for one another and work passionately and closely together. The department is constantly evolving and developing. That’s why there are many opportunities in our department, making your work—which is already very varied—even more interesting.

What you bring

For this position as a Client Support Specialist for Status Holders, you must have:

• At least 2 years of work experience in a supervisory role that involves direct contact with people. Please explain this in your cover letter.
• At least 2 years of experience managing your own caseload, in which you handle at least 10 cases or issues simultaneously. Please explain this in your cover letter.
• At least 2 years of experience recording and/or reporting administrative data in one or more digital systems.

You should have the following skills:

• Judgment: Reaches a well-considered and realistic conclusion based on information and analysis of a given situation. If necessary, involves others in the decision-making process at the appropriate time;
• Customer focus: Responds to the customer’s wishes and needs, coordinating the use of resources and collaborating with various (supply chain) partners;
• Results-oriented approach: Using specific goals as a starting point for one’s own behavior and sticking to them until the goal is achieved;
• Customer Relationship Management: Builds personal relationships with customers and other contacts, maintains them, and leverages them for the benefit of the customer;
• Empathy: Able to put oneself in another person’s shoes. Adjusts one’s own behavior to others’ feelings and is sensitive;
• Stress-resistant: Mentally resilient, able to put things into perspective, let go of difficulties, and move on after a challenging situation; you are also able to discuss this with a colleague or supervisor if necessary.

What we offer you

As a Client Support Specialist for Status Holders, you will join our team for 32–36 hours per week and can expect the following terms of employment:

• A gross monthly salary ranging from €3,317 to €4,752 (pay scale 9) based on a 36-hour workweek. The exact salary will be determined based on your education, knowledge, and experience.
• A one-year employment contract, with the possibility of a permanent contract thereafter, if you do not currently have an employment contract with the City of Amsterdam, or if you have only a temporary one.
• If you already have a permanent employment contract with the City of Amsterdam, you will retain it and be transferred.
• Opportunities for professional development and training. Our in-house training center, the Amsterdam School, offers a variety of training programs, professional development tracks, and on-the-job coaching to help you continue to challenge yourself.
• An individual flexible budget (IKB) equal to 17.05% of your salary, which you can use for things like additional pension contributions or extra days off.
• A pension plan with ABP, the pension fund for the public sector and education.
• A travel allowance of €0.10 per kilometer, up to a 45-kilometer one-way commute, for the number of days you work in the office, and/or a work-from-home allowance of €3 net per workday that you work from home.
• A monthly contribution toward health insurance.
• Hybrid work: In this role, you can work partly from home and partly in the office. We provide the necessary equipment to help you set up a safe and healthy workspace at home.
• A cell phone and a laptop.
• An (electric) rental bike that lets you travel between work locations in a sustainable and healthy way.

Want to know more about our employment terms and conditions? Check out the Amsterdam Municipal Personnel Regulations (PGA) atwww.amsterdam.nl/pga/.

Apply for this job

• If this job opening interests you, please submit your application by March 22, 2024, usingthe application formaton our website.
• We would like to receive your cover letter, in which you explain—in no more than one A4 page—your experience in a supervisory role that involves personal contact, as well as your experience managing your own caseload while handling at least 10 cases or issues simultaneously. Finally, please explain why your skills are a good fit for this position. Your cover letter will be taken into consideration during the selection process.
• The selection process begins immediately after the application deadline and consists of a CV/cover letter review, an interview round, and a selection assessment. The selection committee consists of three members: a client advisor, a team manager, and a recruiter.
• If your resume meets the job requirements, we would be happy to invite you for an interview.
• The interviews will take place during weeks 15 and 16 at our office located at Jan van Galenstraat 323 in Amsterdam. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate that you possess the necessary skills using specific examples.
• The assessment consists of a personality questionnaire, an interview, and a role-play.
• This job opening is being advertised internally and externally at the same time. Employees of the City of Amsterdam will be given priority in the hiring process.
• We require a recent Certificate of Good Conduct (VOG) from every candidate who joins our team. We do not appreciate unsolicited outreach from recruitment agencies, and such contact may result in exclusion from our future recruitment efforts. We also consider the unsolicited submission of resumes by agencies to our employees to be a form of solicitation. We will not review such resumes.

We do not appreciate unsolicited solicitation from recruitment agencies, and such actions may result in exclusion from our other recruitment initiatives. We also consider the unsolicited submission of resumes by agencies to our employees to be solicitation. We will not review these resumes.