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SalaryWho are we?
Wag & Company is the only visiting dog charity befriending older dog lovers in their own homes as well as in care or in hospitals across the Northeast of England.
With an hour or two most weeks, our professionally assessed volunteers and their special pet dogs provide older people, often in poor health, bereaved and isolated, with something to look forward to, some human company for a chat over a cuppa and a cuddle with that much missed furry friend.
Wag launched in 2016 so that no older dog lover in our region misses human friendship and the company of a dog wherever they are, in their own homes, in care or in hospitals or hospices.
Since launch in 2016, demand for Wag’s unique befriending service has continuously grown and will, we believe, continue to grow over the course of our three-year plan to 2027.
Why join us:
To support that continuous growth, we are restructuring our Visiting Services operation to give greater focus to the two key service areas, Home Visiting and Care & Medical Volunteer Services. This has created a brand-new role as Volunteer Services Lead.
- Our Home Visiting team is led by the HV Lead with currently 1 other member of the team to manage all home placements, their referrers, the delivery of successful outcomes for each placement in compliance with Wag’s safe visiting protocols for the individuals and their volunteers. Targets are at least 275 home placements by 2027, 95% say they’re happier and less lonely because of their visits, no one is waiting more than 8 weeks, all monitoring and Wag safe visiting protocols are carried out, volunteers are visiting on average 30 weeks of the year, efficient team management maximising the use of technology to minimise administration and maximise customer service, data accuracy and reporting.
- Our new Volunteer Services Team will be led by the new recruit with the support of 1 other member of the team – growing to a team of 3 by 2027. The team’s focus is on enabling the recruitment and assessment of all Wag volunteers – two and four legged, the effective matching and deployment of volunteers to support care and medical organisations in general and most specifically to provide sufficient volunteer teams, assessed and equipped to deliver and support the SLAs agreed with partner organisations such as local authorities or NHS Trusts. This role requires someone who is confident using technology generally and Wag’s bespoke CRM and MS 355 specifically and contributing to the general Wag user experience. Targets for this role will include growth and retention to 550 volunteers by March 2027, turnover reduced from 34% March 2024 to 25% by March 2027, compliance with Wag’s assessment and safe visiting protocols, efficient team satisfaction/headcount management, 100% SLA/partner satisfaction, volunteer satisfaction survey (to be developed by them using survey monkey) results 90% happy and 90% loving their matches!
Who are we looking for?
Our ideal candidate for this newly created role will bring solid experience of ‘processing people’ using a CRM to support data capture, maybe you have worked in a Shared Service Centre or in an SME with similar people processing responsibilities. Maybe the department you have worked in (or been the team leader or deputy) is processing applicants and/or employees in an HR team, or customers in a customer team or students in a university – alternatively you might be effectively organising trades people across a region or discipline, ensuring great customer service and efficient resource allocation. We need someone who has delivered successfully at any level in a processing, people organising types of environments using systems to capture the data and delivering great customer service throughout.
You will also ensure we maximise the use of the existing technology and procedures and maximise the opportunities to build on them to consistently improve customer service, data accuracy and reporting whilst minimising admin. You will be organised, accurate with great empathy, demonstrate great verbal and written communication skills to support interaction with volunteers as well as enabling the development of basic written materials for instance contributions to case studies and the newsletters.
Because of the nature of the work, you’ve been involved in – you will work well with management systems, communicate well with people and customers of all kinds and are detail conscious reporting detail accurately and used to complying with organisational procedures. Sensible, organised, pragmatic, resilient and happy; a love of dogs is pretty key – most importantly you will feel a real sense of purpose and will value the great work we do!
In return:
You will be joining a small but perfectly formed team based in Hexham, just off the A69. We are a close bunch who work collaboratively together, embracing and enabling Wag’s safe visiting protocols and providing excellent support – mostly remote/zoom/telephone/WhatsApp and so on – to our amazing volunteers and to our elderly friends and other placements, who are the heart of our organisation. We’re a family, a community of dog lovers.
Salary for this role depends upon experience, we’re keen to speak with candidates who can bring all of the skills, knowledge and personality we need to help us continue to deliver and grow.
