Jobcentre staff have found themselves on the front line as they help people whose livelihoods have been devastated by coronavirus.

And talking to clients ’remotely’ is becoming the norm as staff come to terms with new ways of working after Covid-19.

A large part of Sarah Muller’s work is talking to people either by phone or through the internet on Zoom or Facetime meetings.

’It tends to be the younger people who prefer to do the Zoom calls but I have a lot of telephone appointments working from home,’ said Mrs Muller, who is team manager and client manager at the island’s Jobcentre.

She splits her time between working in the office, where among her duties, she can take part in face-to-face meetings, and working from home where she speaks to clients remotely.

She said: ’I think on my busiest day I spoke to 24 people in one day. But the number of people I can speak to in one day is dependent on what follow up action I may need to take.’

Mrs Muller says she often finds herself conducting CV reviews for people who are looking for a change in career and ’sometimes I rewrite them’.

She added: ’Before I worked for the Jobcentre I used to be a professional CV writer and had my own business, so I’m used to looking at CVs.’

She said she was now talking to a lot of people contemplating career changes as they examined their new outlook on life.

Mrs Muller said many people were looking at changing direction and there had been particular interest in working in offices as the business world looks to the future after Covid-19.

She spoke to Business News from the Jobcentre’s new home in Markwell House in Market Street having moved from Nivison house in Prospect Hill, Douglas.

Ralph Peake MHK, the politician with responsibility for social security, recently said: ’Throughout lockdown the Jobcentre team were able to deliver services in a completely new way, interacting with clients remotely in place of more formal face-to-face meetings.

’In adapting to remote working, the team found they were able to maintain the full range of Jobcentre services and engage in a far more flexible way, responding effectively to the needs of individual clients.’

Business News went along to meet the staff and it appears the move has indeed gone well.

It has certainly been a ’baptism of fire’ for Colin Hardman who took over as deputy director of social security operations in March after previously working in the government’s income tax depart-

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-ment. He said there was a period of time when the counters were not open during lockdown and ’that made us think about the service we were providing’.

Markwell House is now open to the public on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9am and 1pm.

Mr Hardman said: ’Before we went into lockdown we used to make appointments and there was a 68% turn-up rate for those meetings.

’Now operating remotely we are getting a 96% success rate. So when people say they are going to be there, when we contact them by Zoom or facetime or by phone, they are there.’

’We have been able to deal with far more customers because of that efficiency we have made.’

Over a month, when it was a 68% attendance rate, staff found they could only get through 158 appointments. But with the 96% rate this went up to 506 appointments.

Mr Hardman said: ’Quite often we are the first point of contact beause if people are worried financially their first instinct is to understand what financial support they can get and then we open up to talk about some of the problems they are facing.

’Naturally you hear some of those stories and that is the rewarding thing about helping people.’

Mr Hardman listed some of the services offered by the Jobcentre including:

lJob searches and applications

lCV and cover letters

lCareers advice

lOnline courses including ICT

lWork placemeents

ldisability employment services

The changes have brought both the Jobcentre and benefit administration teams into one building.

This enables financial support and recruitment advice and guidance to be delivered in the same place.