Adoption Specialist Jobs in Colorado (NOW HIRING)

Eac Specialist

Wage: $17.63/hour, Full-Time

Open availability, including weekends and holidays

Required: Two years of customer service, OR two years of animal care experience, OR a relevant combination of experience.

Preferred: Experience working in a shelter setting.

Benefits: Medical, Dental. Vision, SIMPLE IRA, First Stop Health for mental health support, premium holiday pay for 4 major holidays

General

Under the direction of the EAC Manager, the EAC Specialist is responsible for providing daily care to the animals at the Everyday Adoption Center, and for interfacing with prospective adopters to match them with an animal to join their family. This team ensures the environment is clean and welcoming for pets and people, building strong connections with the community. The EAC Specialist position represents Animal Friends Alliance in a professional and courteous manner and provides quality customer service. This includes educating prospective adopters on the adoption process and proper care for adopted pets. In addition to customer service, EAC Specialists are responsible for the feeding, cleaning, and basic care of EAC dogs and cats, maintaining their wellbeing through enrichment and thoughtful adoption matching. Understanding and following a wide range of policies and procedures is necessary. This position often works independently, requiring attention to detail, excellent time management skills, the ability to problem solve, and excellent communication skills with other members of staff, volunteers, and the general public.

Major Adoptions Duties and Responsibilities:

• Represents Animal Friends Alliance in a professional and courteous manner at all times.
• Cultivates positive client relationships to develop rapport and insight for pairing animals with loving homes.
• Facilitates client/animal interaction to ensure a safe, pleasant adopting experience. Observes these interactions between prospective adopters and animals to aid in ensuring successful placements.
• Educates client to the adoption process including the ability to explain and have meaningful conversations about
• the adoption questionnaire;
• adoption contract;
• and medical history and any other paperwork that needs to be covered with clients.
• Completes pet adoptions, ensuring all transaction paperwork and computer records are complete and accurate.
• Provides quality in-person, online and telephonic adoption support.
• Educates clients on responsible animal guardianship, animal care and local ordinances.
• Ensures that the morning/closing checklists are done accurately and completed as assigned.
• Takes appropriate photos and videos of adoptable animals, and creates biographies for adoptable animals.
• Solicits adoptions online, in person and through other applicable means.
• Supports and assists EAC Manager with events and tasks as requested

Major Animal Care Duties and Responsibilities:

• Thoroughly cleans and sanitizes animal kennels and other work areas.
• Ensures all animals are fed
• Assist with coordination of kenneling and movement of animals.
• Ensures the behavioral and enrichment needs of all EAC animals are met
• Assesses animals and makes recommendations regarding their disposition.
• Performs or assists with maintenance of equipment.
• Monitors and maintains food and supplies.
• Performs data entry and documentation to update animal records.
• Follows proper safety procedures and meet standards, reporting concerns or violations to the EAC Manager or Director of Shelter Services immediately.
• Communicates supply needs to the EAC Manager.
• Notifies the EAC Manager or PetSmart store leadership of maintenance and repair needs.
• Ensures that morning/closing checklists are done accurately and completed as assigned.
• Takes immediate action to address hazardous situations.
• Ensures staff and volunteers follow appropriate safety measures.

Other Duties:

• Promotes teamwork by demonstrating a cooperative, flexible, adaptable and helpful attitude with all staff and volunteers.
• Completes appropriate cleaning for disease control in public areas daily, and ongoing throughout the day.
• Encourages donations from clients, and assists with any donations being made whether monetary or in-kind.
• Assists with transporting animals to and from the EAC as needed.
• Assists with administering necessary medical treatment.
• Performs other duties as needed.

Organization Wide Duties:

• Treats animals humanely, with compassion and concern, both on and off the job, and conveys these values to others, in word and action.
• Represents Animal Friends Alliance in a professional and courteous manner at all times.
• Provides quality service to customers, volunteers, and staff, recognizing their individual contributions to Animal Friends Alliance. Monitors, supports, motivates and champions volunteers and their work.
• Solicits monetary and in-kind donations by raising awareness of the organization's work, goals, and financial needs.
• Follows all safety rules to ensure a safe work environment at all times. Takes immediate action to address any safety concerns or noncompliance issues that could put an animal, employee, volunteer, visitor, or the organization at risk.
• Learns basic duties of other departments, and supports other departments and staff.
• Monitors, supports, motivates and accredits volunteers and their work.
• Understands and operates by Animal Friends Alliance's core values.
• Regular and timely presence onsite.

Work Environment:

• Work performed in an animal shelter setting
• Prospective for exposure to zoonotic diseases and cleaning chemicals.
• Prospective for exposure to dangerous and fractious animals.
• Prospective for animal bites and scratches while handling animals.

Unusual Demands:

• Work is subject to frequent interruptions.
• Employee is subject to work weekends, holidays and beyond the normal scheduled hours of work.

Requirements

Education/Experience:

Education

• Required: High school diploma or equivalent.

Experience:

• Required: Two years customer service OR two years animal care experience OR a relevant combination of experience.
• Preferred: Experience working in a shelter setting.

Miscellaneous

• Valid Driver's License: Required
• Sincere interest in Animal Friends Alliance's mission & vision

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of cat and dog breed, behavior, handling and care.
• Knowledge of Google Suite, including Gmail and Google Drive.
• Basic technical procedures used in giving shots and medicating animals

Skills:

• Effective verbal and interpersonal skills for in-person, written and telephone communication, for interaction with the public and colleagues.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• High level of professionalism.
• Emotional intelligence, work ethics and integrity.
• Strong computer skills.
• Detail-oriented.
• Preferred: bilingual (spanish preferred)

Abilities:

• Able to understand and use a database.
• Able to prioritize duties and perform multiple tasks.
• Able to work in a high-stress, fast-paced environment.
• Able to learn, retain and communicate a wide variety of information.
• Able to work autonomously.
• Able to plan, schedule and organize multiple priorities and a high volume of work.

Physical, Sensory and Mental Requirements

Physical

Frequent

• Sit, stand, walk, bend, squat, kneel, crawl, reach above head, and push/pull objects.
• Write legibly.
• Exposure to hazards: Biologic, chemical, noise, and sharp instruments.
• Potential for exposure to zoonotic diseases and cleaning chemicals; Potential for exposure to dangerous and fractious animals; Potential exposure to high noise levels when in the kennel area or when around animals; Potential for animal bites and scratches while handling animals