Rehoming and Engagement Advisor

Rehoming and Engagement Advisor

Reports to: Head of Rehoming and Engagement
Location: RSPCA Cornwall Branch, St Columb
Hours: Full Time
Salary: £12.71 per hour

Purpose of the Role

The Rehoming and Engagement Advisor plays a key role in finding the right homes for animals in our care and supporting adopters and foster carers throughout their journey with us.

This is a busy, people-focused role for someone who enjoys making things happen. Working closely with colleagues across the animal centre, our Advisors help move animals through the rehoming journey, from responding to initial enquiries and matching potential adopters, through to successful placement and post-adoption support.

Alongside rehoming and fostering, the role provides excellent customer service to people contacting or visiting the centre and ensures the administration behind every placement is accurate and well managed.

We are looking for someone who can combine warmth and empathy with organisation, initiative and the confidence to take ownership of their workload. Ultimately, this role is about helping animals move successfully into the right homes while ensuring the people adopting or fostering them feel informed, supported and confident.

Key Responsibilities

Adoption & Foster Engagement

● Act as a welcoming and knowledgeable first point of contact for adoption and fostering enquiries by phone, email and in person.

● Proactively manage adoption enquiries and help progress suitable matches from initial enquiry through to successful placement, providing timely and compassionate communication throughout.

● Take ownership of progressing rehoming activity, identifying delays or barriers and working with colleagues to help animals move into suitable homes as efficiently as possible.

● Build positive relationships with prospective adopters and foster carers, helping them understand individual animals and make informed decisions about the right match for their circumstances.

● Provide post-adoption and ongoing fostering support, responding appropriately to questions or concerns and helping to support successful, sustainable placements.

● Support the Head of Rehoming and Engagement with the recruitment, onboarding and ongoing support of foster carers.

● Maintain an up-to-date understanding of animals available for adoption or fostering and actively contribute to identifying suitable opportunities for them.

● Work closely with the Animal Welfare, Behaviour and Clinical teams to ensure animal needs and adopter or foster expectations are well matched.

● Provide input into the promotion of animals by sharing relevant updates with the Social Media & Marketing Lead and helping to ensure profiles are accurate, engaging and reflect each animal's individual needs and personality.

● Support the animal care team with adoption and foster meets when required, helping prospective adopters and foster carers have a positive and informative experience.

● Promote adoption packs and other relevant branch services that may benefit and support adopters and foster carers.

Customer Engagement

● Provide a warm, helpful and solution-focused service to people contacting or visiting the animal centre.

● Answer the centre's main phone line during working hours, responding to enquiries where possible and triaging calls appropriately to colleagues across the branch.

● Take responsibility for ensuring messages and enquiries requiring follow-up are accurately recorded and directed to the appropriate person or team.

● Provide support for front-of-house interactions during working hours, recognising that people's reasons for contacting an animal welfare charity can sometimes be emotional or sensitive.

● Support volunteers involved in phone handling and front-of-house enquiries, helping them develop the knowledge and confidence to respond appropriately.

● Contribute to the development of useful guidance, frequently asked questions and other resources that help us provide a consistent and positive experience to people contacting the branch.

Administration & Systems

● Manage the administration associated with adoption and foster placements, ensuring paperwork is accurate, complete and processed promptly.

● Complete intake documentation for animals arriving at the centre and ensure relevant information is uploaded to Shelter Manager.

● Maintain accurate digital records across Shelter Manager, our CRM and other internal systems, including adoption status, adopter information and follow-up activity.

● Prepare and issue adoption packs and complete microchip updates, pet insurance activations and other associated administration as required.

● Maintain relevant internal tracking tools, including Google Sheets, ensuring information relating to foster availability, animal placements and rehoming activity is current and accessible to colleagues.

● Take responsibility for the accuracy and quality of records within the areas of the role, identifying and resolving missing or incomplete information where possible.

Working as Part of the Team

● Work collaboratively with colleagues across the branch to ensure animals experience a smooth journey through our care and into suitable homes.

● Communicate clearly with colleagues and raise potential barriers to rehoming or fostering at an early stage.

● Use initiative and sound judgement to resolve day-to-day issues within the responsibilities of the role, seeking support where appropriate rather than allowing matters to stall.

● Contribute ideas for improving the adopter, foster carer and customer experience and for making our rehoming processes more effective.

● Be flexible in supporting the wider work of the branch where reasonably required, particularly during busy periods.

Person Specification

Essential

● Previous experience in a customer-facing, administrative or similarly people-focused role.

● Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate warmly and professionally with a wide range of people.

● A proactive approach, with the confidence to take ownership, use initiative and follow things through to completion.

● Excellent organisation and time-management skills, with the ability to prioritise effectively and maintain momentum in a busy environment.

● Good digital literacy and confidence using databases, email, shared documents and other workplace systems.

● A calm, patient and empathetic approach, particularly when dealing with emotional, sensitive or challenging situations.

● Confidence speaking with people by phone, email and face-to-face and adapting communication appropriately.

● The ability to work collaboratively while also managing an individual workload and taking responsibility for getting things done.

● Genuine enthusiasm for engaging with people and helping create successful matches between animals and adopters or foster carers.

Desirable

● Knowledge or experience of animal welfare, rescue or rehoming.

● Experience using Shelter Manager or a similar animal welfare or database system.

● Previous experience working with or supporting volunteers.

● Experience of working within a charity, customer service, community or similar service-delivery environment.

● An understanding of the work of the RSPCA and the role of independent RSPCA branches.

Working Environment

● Based at the RSPCA Cornwall Branch animal centre in St Columb Major.

● Regular weekend working will be required as part of a rota.

● The role works closely with colleagues across Rehoming and Engagement, Animal Welfare, Behaviour, Clinical and Community teams.

● The role involves regular interaction with members of the public and animals within the centre environment.

● There may be occasional off-site activity, including community outreach, events or other branch activities.

● As with all roles within a busy animal welfare charity, some flexibility may be required to respond to changing operational needs.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: £12.71 per hour

Benefits:

• Company pension
• Health & wellbeing programme
• On-site parking
• Sick pay

Work Location: In person