Visitor Operations Manager

Job summary

What you’ll do…

You will be primarily based at our award-winning, sustainable visitor centre at Westonbirt Arboretum . The role will lead on the management of the visitor service areas delivering a high standard of presentation and care for our visitors. You will be accountable for the day-to-day management, health and safety and maintenance of key recreational infrastructure, e.g. play equipment, forest furniture, grass car park and barriers, including ANPR.

You will lead the Recreation Team in achieving best practice compliance and ensuring all checks and repairs are completed and recorded to safety standards. You will be supported by the District Estates Team who will lead on the building compliance while this job focuses on the visitor experiences.

You will help to strengthen the health and safety culture as Forestry England strives to fulfil our corporate value of ‘Look Out & Look After’. You will be the health and safety representative for the Recreation Team and the site’s lone working champion.

You will work closely with the Visitor Services Manager to create a positive, collaborative, and inclusive environment for staff, volunteers, stakeholders and visitors.

Where you’ll work…

Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, in Gloucestershire, England, is a world-renowned botanical garden featuring 15,000 trees and shrubs from across the globe, crucial for conservation, research, and public enjoyment with its stunning displays, especially in autumn.

Job description

• Provide day-to-day line management to the Recreation Team, which would normally include the recreation supervisors, recreation assistants and volunteers.
• Support staff in reaching and maintaining the required standards of performance, including delivery of agreed objectives and the demonstration of effective behaviours.
• Assist inducting new starters and following the probation process with a focus on customer service, health and safety practices, and sustainability.
• Work closely with the Visitor Attraction Manager, Visitor Services Manager and site business partners to create a ‘one-team culture’.
• Use effective delegation to distribute work in order to achieve the sites objectives and to help build a strong and resilient team.
• Develop a strong safety culture within the site team and ensure everyone’s behaviours match Forestry England’s values, attitudes and commitment to health and safety.
• Help staff to understand and comply with legislation and policy, and promote best practice by following relevant PPG’s and by undertaking regular audits. Complete and sign off mandatory PPG and local tasks in Forester Web.
• Act as a duty manager, which requires working regular weekends, some bank holidays and other peak periods. Share this role with other team managers (alternate weekends). As duty manager you are based at the Welcome Building dealing with visitors onsite.
• Act as a shared budget manager for the cost centre and work with the Visitor Services Manager to monitor expenditure and income against agreed budgets.
  •Promote membership to visitors to support the work of FOWA and Forestry England.
• Use Eco-online to record accidents and near misses linked to the recreational facilities. When requested, lead on the investigation, identify recommendations and lessons learnt.
• Procure goods, services and work to ensure value for money and conduct in a fair, open and transparent manner. Act as contract manager taking responsibility for the day-to-day management of the performance and administration of contracts, as well as the relationship with the contractor (i.e. PCM, risk assessment, monitoring diary, RAG safety, site safety rules). Examples of contractors: Windows and gutters, grass cutting, barriers, fire alarms, and cleaning.
• Support event delivery working with the Events Manager.

Specific

• Undertake management checks and review risk assessments, method statements and other health and safety documentation to ensure compliance with health and safety standards (CDM regulations, ROSPA).
• Communicate and support the work of the Estates and Civil Engineering Team at Westonbirt which looks after the buildings and infrastructure.
• Create opportunities for volunteers to contribute towards the Westonbirt offer (i.e. estates work, walkway, trails).
• Write and take ownership of an emergency plan and standard operating procedures for the Welcome Building. Test the team’s readiness through regular mock scenarios and drills.
• Twice yearly meet with the other district forest centre managers to discuss shared issues and opportunities.
• Contract management and procurement of third-party contractors (e.g. public areas, grass car park maintenance, car parking).
• Lone working champion for the site.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Previous experience in grounds maintenance, estates work, grass-cutting, fencing, etc. as well as carrying out inspections and quality checks.
• Managing a team and ensuring quality customer service standards are met.
• Organisation skills including multiple priorities, workloads and tasks, supporting others in their work loads and priorities whilst demonstrating strong attention to detail.
• Experience of working collaboratively with other teams including technical staff. Evidence of communicating effectively to different stakeholder groups and understanding others’ needs.
• Competent user of MS Office including Excel, Outlook, Word.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Experience in inspecting and maintaining play equipment, e.g. ROSPA.
• Understanding of heritage landscapes or the retail, hospitality and leisure sector.
• Contract management, budgeting and tendering experience.
• Full driving license.

Qualifications
Essential

• Safety qualification or equivalent, e.g. IOSH, SSSTS. Positive approach to health and safety management, including writing and reviewing risk assessments, method statements and other health and safety documentation.

Desirable

• First aid qualification or willing to train in first aid.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You will also be given a 15 minute short task at the being of the interview which looks at prioritising workloads

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Technical skills.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 500 word statement on your relevant experience and career history. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Managing a Quality Service

• Making Effective Decisions

• Working Together

• Communicating and Influencing

You will also be given a 15 minute short task at the being of the interview which looks at prioritising workloads

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Visitor Operations Manager - Westonbirt (PB5) Opens in new window (pdf, 140kB)