apas expects.....

apas expects a lot of its Telephone Advice Workers.  TAWs are our front door, they are our best advert, they bring in 99% of our business.  They need a varied package of skills and they need to exhibit flexibility and judgement in the use of their knowledge.

We hope that you will get hooked - not on alcohol itself (!) but on the whole subject area.  We are keen to encourage you to widen your knowledge and develop in any specialist area you might choose.  We have a resource library which you are welcome to use.  Individual members of staff are available to have their brains picked.  We will be impressed by those of you who exploit the opportunities that are available.  Full-time staff are very busy, so it is up to you to grab them and ask for their time.  

We welcome too your ideas.  We may not agree with all of them, but when you have been working here for a few months you may have some valuable suggestions about how to improve working practices or to generate more income so that we can provide more, different or better services.

We ask for a commitment of 4 hours per week of your time for one year.  In exchange we give you a minimum of 60 hours' training, regular supervision, administrative support and indemnity in the region of £2 million.   At the end of your time with us we will be happy to supply a report on your work with apas and / or a full reference.

If you wish to continue to offer us your time on the telephone rota after your year is ended, we shall be very happy to have you stay on.  Please speak to the Head of Client Services about any variations in arrangements.

In the unlikely event of any TAWs work being deemed unsatisfactory, this will be dealt with in an open and assertive manner by Supervisors or Head of Client Services.  Our first commitment has, of course, to be to the clients of our service.  TAWs will be given every opportunity to access the help and support they need to attain and maintain the required standard.

Should you be unhappy about any of our working practices, we expect you to tell us directly through the line management system, so that we can discuss issues and iron out any misunderstandings.   We need to model the principles of honest communication , responsibility and respect to our clients by relating to each other in an open, responsible and respectful way.  

We hope you will have fun too! For the low down from our two of our volunteer TAWs see Volunteer Life.