Team Leader, Verification and Profiling Team, Visa Section
British Embassy Abu dhabi
Total years of experience :23 years, 9 Months
Profiling and Verification - Team Leader (April 2013 - Present)
• Allocates workflow and monitors processes to ensure operational efficiency and agreed benchmarks and target expectations are being met.
• Designates and assigns responsibilities and tasks within the team fairly on a daily basis.
• Prepares daily operational statistics for Manager's review and daily manager's meeting.
• Gathers and manages the team statistics on a daily basis from information received team members, compiling this information on to the master spreadsheet, highlighting any poor performance
• Ensures that the team reports non-genuine documents and emerging patterns of abuse within 24 hours.
• Feedbacks to Staff's line managers for appraisal reporting.
• Proactively identifies gaps in training and oversee the training and mentoring of new team members.
• Sends a weekly team summary incorporating percentile values and a “case of the week” to the Operations Manager's every Monday by 10:00 for inclusion in the Comms Brief.
• Holds team briefings at least once every week to deliver performance updates and to invite team feedback on operational effectiveness and risks and to consider ideas to improve or address these.
• Implements process changes through consultation with the Operations Supervisor or Profiling Entry Clearance Manager.
Casework and Correspondence - Deputy Team leader (Jan 2012 - April 2013)
• Accurately responded to electronic, phone and written enquiries from customers and other stakeholders within benchmark timescales and within the customer service standards.
• Dispatched faxes, letters and other correspondence when required by the offiicers and Risk Profile team.
• Responsible for maintaining the notice board for Correspondence team for updates and policy changes..
• Escalated requests for facilitation and other urgent, compelling and compassionate requests to the appropriate managers.
• Identified and escalated potential complaints, where appropriate, in accordance with the escalation and complaints policies
• Conducted a quality control check/dip sampling of responses sent out by Correspondence team.
• Responsible for handling pre action protocol requests, logging and gathering all information for Entry Clearance Manager action.
• Acted as Team Leader for the Correspondence and Casework team and Gulf Desk.
Appeals and Pakistan Desk - (May 2009 -Dec 2012)
• Uploaded and dispatched new appeals in line with agreed processes; errors identified and corrected and maintain 100% accuracy, meeting agreed daily productivity benchmarks.
• Responded to IAFT/POU requests for missing/late bundles within the same working week, ensuring that the team target for bundle submission is met.
• Reviewed all determination documentation carefully to correctly identify outcome, including Specialist Appeals Team (SAT) minutes.
• Updated Proviso and stats spreadsheets meeting agreed daily productivity benchmark and tracked received passports ensuring that Proviso is updated reflecting passport movements; reconcile received passports with those dispatched by the VAC to ensure an accurate audit trail.
• Uploaded allocated applications, meeting agreed daily productivity benchmarks, following the latest streaming guidelines. Applications to be uploaded with 100% accuracy in the biographical field and 100% accuracy on other fields.
• Ensured that all appropriate applications were streamed to the Profiling team, following the latest Risk streaming profiles.
• Created a document library to archive all hard copies of construction packages, drawings, as built, specifications, procedures, calculations, vendor manuals, and issuance of all outgoing documentation.
• Assisted with the administration of the Engineering Department and Construction staff and Commissioning Group in relation to construction documents and drawings.
• Prepared and compiled QA/QC document dossiers, test packages, material specifications, system documents, and all client drawings QC dossiers and inspection reports.
• Prepared daily reports of all outstanding punch lists as required by the Turnover Manager, Engineering Manager and Project Manager.
Interview and verify identities of passport applicants.
Answers phone inquiries, assists applicants, and handles customer complaints
Train and orient new employees of proper procedures.
Inform employees of measures and new policies of the Department.
Handles incoming and outgoing correspondence addressed to the Passport Director’s Office from Posts, other government agencies, private companies and individuals.
Responsible for undertaking various admin work such as data processing, making weekly and monthly reports
Directly reports and submit correspondence made to the Passport Director for her approval.
Advice applicants of the required documents/identifications to be submitted in order for
their applications be approved.
Responsible for verifying the authenticity of documents submitted by applicants
by making and sending letters by fax or by mail to their respective issuing office.
Interrogate applicants who assume identity of another person
Responsible for the preparation, for the Passport Director’s approval, the DFA Watch list and the removal of the names of those who are included in the lists.
Ensure all files and records are kept in accordance with the Department’s filing system.
Assist when required to attend to Director’s internal meetings for minutes taking.
Encodes data of passport applications in the system.
Handled the number One Branch of Western Union Money Transfer.
Attends to walk in Customers, answers phone inquiries, handles customer complaints and assist sub-agent/banks for Western Union transactions.
Assists in the counter, sending, or paying out transactions as well as cash handling in cases when there are long queue.
Handles foreign currency exchange service.
Handled marketing and sales strategies and tactics for optimum growth of the Branch in terms of sales, profitability and volume generation.
Handled the trainings and orientations of new employees of the company.
Ensure that my team is always updated with company’s new products, procedures and policies.
Develop and maintain close relationship with the customer.
Maintain awareness of competitor product offerings and returns, developing promotional strategies aimed at achieving maximum market penetration and exposure.
Budgets, plans, forecast and implement the performance measures of the branch
Responsible for planning and presenting to Operation Manager and Marketing Manager, annual promotional activity plans and financial budget of the Branch.
Budget the needs of the branch like office supplies and maintenance supplies,
Performs daily audit of inbound and outbound transactions, as well as the petty cash funds of the branch
Forecast the volume of cash flow and projects customer volume trends.
Oversee the acquisition of emergency funds from another branch in cases of shortage.
Oversee security and access control of the branch.
Appraise, on a yearly basis, the performance of my team.
Manage the daily calendar schedule of the EVP
Attends to visitors, phone calls of the EVP
Coordinates and arranges meeting of EVP with other Senior Officers, Area Managers and other staffs of the company, with clients of the company.
Prepare agendas, attends to meeting and summarizing them as required.
Informing and following up the management team of the weekly and monthly reports
Arranges appointments and travel needs of the EVP.
Handles incoming and outgoing correspondence addressed to the EVP.