Location: Venue-based - most of your time will be spent in our venue on Bristol Harbourside interacting directly with visitors.
Department: Operations
Report to: Visitor Experience Team Leaders and Visitor Experience Manager
Responsible for: No direct reports
Salary: £12 per hour starting salary, rising to £12.22 per hour and £12.54 per hour upon completion of progression milestones.
Contract: Permanent. Contracts available are 24 and 33 hours per week. You can let us know in your application which hours you'd prefer.
Working hours: Shifts are usually worked between Tuesday –Sunday on a rota basis, mainly between 9:00am-5.30pm. Some shifts will be half day shifts typically 10:00am – 2:00pm. This role is based in our venue and does not include remote working options.
During School holidays we will be open on Mondays and there might also be some occasional Monday training shifts.
There will be occasional evening work on Thursdays during term-time for our weekly Planetarium nights shows.
Weekends are our busiest time and as such the role will require frequent weekend availability.
About We The Curious
We The Curious is an educational charity and South West England's leading science centre.
We produce experiences that bring people together to play, get creative with science and explore different ideas.
We work with partners, locally and nationally, supporting people to be inquisitive, develop new skills and improve their wellbeing.
We are progressive, inquisitive, collaborative, playful and creative.
Our mission
Our aim is to connect and empower people through sharing creative experiences which celebrate unknowns in science.
Our work as a charity is driven by five key pledges:
_Cultivate Curiosity
_Include Everyone
_Open Up Science
_Sustainable Futures
_Build Resilience
You can find out more about these in our Manifesto.
About the role
As We the Curious gets ready to re-open, the Visitor Experience Team are recruiting new team members! This is a really exciting time for We the Curious, and for our team, as we work towards welcoming back our visitors and members, and re-acquainting ourselves with our wonderful venue.
The Visitor Experience Team Member role represents the welcoming face for We The Curious. You will be based mainly in the foyer and the gift shop, and as such you will be supporting our visitors from their first to their final interaction with us, ensuring they have the best time possible.
Responsibilities will range from welcoming visitors through the front doors, answering queries at the front desk, and delivering excellent customer service in our shop.
You will be supporting different audiences from school visits to general public and community groups through the week and on weekends. As we experience busy and quiet periods throughout the day, the role ranges in demand. The quieter periods will allow for ensuring our public spaces are well presented, as well as time for some administrative tasks and training. Due to the nature of this role, teamwork, excellent customer service, and communication skills are essential.
The Visitor Experience Team forms part of the Operations department at We The Curious. We work closely and collaboratively with the Venue Hire, Operations Admin, and the Live Science Teams to create a safe and welcoming experience for our visitors. You will be supported by Visitor Experience Team Leaders and the Visitor Experience Team Manager. The role offers progression such as enhanced pay and professional development through training and shadowing.
What will you do in this role?
Role specific responsibilities
_You will ensure all of our visitors are greeted in a welcoming and inclusive way.
_You will be an approachable figure with a strong knowledge of what We The Curious is and offers. You will proactively chat to visitors, offering information and guidance when required with a prompt, approachable, and friendly attitude.
_ You will deliver arrival speeches to large and small school groups and support teachers and students when needed.
_You will use our CRM system to sell tickets and memberships but also handle any ticketing related queries. You will also scan visitors' pre-booked tickets using our NSCAN system.
_You will know and promote our membership offer and support membership sales and queries at the front desk.
_You will serve customers in the shop, restock and maintain shop displays, as well as support the fulfilment of online retail orders.
_You will make announcements on the Tannoy system for our Programming and Planetarium shows throughout the day.
_You will support the delivery of our special events.
_You will ensure our visitors are looked after including managing potential complaints or difficult situations. You will gather and accurately log visitors' feedback.
_You will maintain the general upkeep, safety, and appearance of the foyer and shop spaces.
_You will use radios appropriately for maintaining communication across the venue and with other team members. You will assist in evacuation procedures.
_You will be safeguarding our visitors in line with WTC policies, and you will be delivering First Aid when needed (training provided).
_You will be assisting the Visitor Experience Manager and Retail Manager when needed.
As well as supporting our other visitor-facing teams as required. When there are opportunities to do so, you may also work with other departments to support We The Curious' mission and vision. This can include some meetings and office-based work.
What will you do in this role?
Shared responsibilities across the organisation
_ Embody and demonstrate our values; Collaborative, Creative, Inquisitive, Playful, Progressive.
_ Responsible for carefully following safeguarding policies and procedures and raising any concerns to manager/Designated Safeguarding Officer.
_ Due to the responsibilities of this role, you will be required to complete an enhanced DBS check.
_ General responsibility for departmental compliance with GDPR.
_ Promote charity messaging across your area of work wherever possible, with support from the Development and Marketing teams.
What we're looking for from you
_You have previous experience in customer service, or working with a public audience, and are confident working with the public and being in a public facing role.
_You have excellent communication skills and are able to engage both individuals and groups of people. You can easily adapt to people of different backgrounds, age and ability to make a variety of audiences feel welcome and supported. You feel confident about public speaking.
_You have excellent listening skills, and an understanding of visitor needs and expectations and have a positive attitude to solving problems and handling customer issues.
_You are comfortable adapting to quickly changing circumstances and remain calm and professional in developing or rapidly changing situations. You are able to multitask.
_ You can work on your own and as part of a team. You are happy to support other team members as well as bring enthusiasm, self-motivation, and a positive outlook as the role consists of both very busy and very quiet periods.
_You are comfortable working in a large public venue that can get quite loud and busy.
_You have good time management skills.
_You are comfortable carrying out basic manual handling tasks, spending a lot of the day walking around our venue, and participating in active tasks – if this is a barrier for you, we are happy to discuss access requirements.
_You are comfortable with using Microsoft Teams and email to communicate with your colleagues, as well as complex CRM and EPOS systems when interacting with the general public, and are happy to learn this as part of your role.
_You have an interest in public engagement, accessible science, and a creative outlook
Training
_Training is provided throughout your time at We the Curious, and you can progress through steps of pay as your skills and experience grow.
Application process
Deadline for applications: Sunday 9th June at midnight
Interview date(s) and location: 20th or 21st June at We The Curious.
Start date: Tuesday 23rd July 2024.
Application process: If you would like to apply, please complete the application form. It contains questions designed to access your experience and suitability for the role.
Please do not send in CVs or covering letters as we don’t review them.
We appreciate interviews can be stressful, so if you are invited for interview, we’ll send you the structure of the workshop and the questions that you’ll be asked beforehand so that you have time to prepare.
If you would like to talk about the role, the application or interview process, please email people@wethecurious.org.
You are welcome to apply for any role that is being advertised in the run up to our re-opening, your applications are anonymous, and they will not be compared.
Support during the process
We The Curious is a Disability Confident Employer and we welcome applications from candidates who self-assess themselves as having a disability. We will guarantee an interview to applicants who advise that they have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy. To help you, under the Equality Act 2010 a person is defined as having a disability if a) they have a physical or mental impairment, and b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
We want to work with you to ensure the recruitment process is accessible for you.
If you are disabled, neurodivergent, or if you have a long-term health condition, we’ll be happy to make reasonable adjustments to our processes for you.
You’ll have the opportunity to let us know about any adjustments you may need throughout the application and selection process. We’ll continue this conversation if you join us as a staff member, and we’ll work with you to make sure you have the adjustments you need to succeed in your role.
Examples of adjustments could include:
_providing alternative formats at every stage
_options to apply
_extra time for tasks
_providing some extra information about what to expect
_office orientation before an in-person interview.
Including everyone
We value the positive impact greater representation will have on our organisation, programmes and culture. It’s our goal to become an inclusive place to work and for our teams to better reflect our city and the people who visit us.
We welcome applications from people of all lived experiences and particularly those that are not well represented* in the science centre sector.
We want to work with you to ensure the recruitment process is accessible for you, please contact us if you have questions about We The Curious, our accessibility or recruitment process at people@wethecurious.org
*By not well represented we mean people with lived experience including but not limited to:
_African and African-Caribbean heritage
_South Asian and East Asian heritage
_Other global majority ethnic groups
_Disabled
_Neurodivergent
_Visually Impaired
_Deaf community
_LGBTQIA+ and/or non-binary
_Working class background
_Didn’t go to university or first in your immediate family to attend University
Working with us
We value the people that work with us. Our staff have access to the following:
Wellbeing & support
_Mental Health First Aiders
_Confidential advice & counselling through the Employee Support Programme
Leave
_28 days holiday plus double pay on bank holidays (pro-rata)
Facilities & discounts
_Free entry to the venue at any time with up to four guests, plus 12 additional entry tickets per calendar year to give away.
_20% off in the We The Curious café plus £3 lunch deals
_20% off in our shop
_Range of discounts with local businesses and free entry to other local attractions.
_Free parking
_Secure cycle storage
Pension
_We offer a pension scheme with 5% company contributions.
Death in service benefit
_Four times your annual salary.
New Parent Policy
We are proud to be a family friendly organisation, which is why we work to develop our people practices in line with that value. We have recently introduced a none gendered approach to Maternity and Paternity, re-branded as our “New Parent Policy”. There are eligibility criteria and terms and conditions, but the key take away is that anyone who is due to become a new parent, regardless of their gender, can take one year off work, and we’ll pay your full salary for the first five months.