Information Specialist - Customer Service and Business Support Officer

Information Specialist - Customer Service and Business Support Officer (PO1)

Libraries recently launched London’s first Business & IP Centre (BIPC) Local, in partnership with the British Library, which will be delivering inclusive business support to anyone who needs it. Also as London’s first Borough of Culture and MJ Council of the Year, we are a Council bursting with culture, innovation, energy, and opportunity.

Waltham Forest is a fiercely ambitious Borough working with our customers to set out what, together, we want Waltham Forest to be by 2030; how that relates to an ever-changing world, and what that means for the services and infrastructure that we need to provide. 

Our Borough is an exciting place to live, work and visit. Community and fellowship are at the heart of our Council. If you share our values and want to work in an environment that is trailblazing and collaborative, that has a strong track record of providing a variety of career pathways to support professional development, this is an exciting opportunity you should not miss. If you too, are ambitious and committed to delivering an excellent customer experience in a fast-paced vibrant and diverse Council, this is the role for you.

This role will be based at Leytonstone Library with some flexibility to work from home 1-2 days per week. It involves supporting the Council’s BIPC team with a range of services and the ideal candidate will be flexible, open to learning a range of different things, and excited to take on new opportunities across several areas. Desirable qualities include:

• An interest in using world-class research databases, such as COBRA, IBISWorld, and FAME, and willingness to participate in training to understand their capabilities, and to attend training with the British Library’s national BIPC network
• Some business experience and understanding of business research methods
• An ability to communicate and summarise research findings
• Comfortable running small workshops (in person or online) to help people find the information they need
• Proactivity and community outreach – being enthusiastic about promoting our free business support offerings to those who might benefit from it most
• A team player who likes working in an innovative team and is passionate about helping the local business community

You must be confident in dealing with a variety of customers and stakeholders through multiple communication channels, whilst being a positive advocate for service improvement and digital solutions. You must be able to learn new software and systems, be highly organised and able to prioritise a constantly evolving workload, whilst continuing to deliver to tight deadlines. You need to be adaptable and resilient to change, approach queries and challenges in a dynamic and solution focused way and be able to apply your skills to provide a range of support to varying service areas.

Waltham Forest is committed to customer experience and this role ensures all processes are designed for the best delivery we can provide and helps to maintain the strong financial position we have achieved. We are working to create a Council that is resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven, and commercially minded; a Council that can meet the needs of all; our residents, future residents, visitors, and businesses.

We will interview applicants prior to the closing date, so please do not wait until the closing date to apply.