Casual Museum Assistants Weybridge, England
Job description
We're looking for Casual Museum Assistants to join our Front of House team!
Salary: £10.42 per hour, plus holiday pay
Please note that we will be interviewing for this role on 28th March so if you wish to apply then please keep this date free
We are looking for a number of Casual Museum Assistants to support us during our busy operational periods and our event days.
Whilst as a Casual Museum Assistant there are no set days, our busiest time are generally weekends and holiday periods.
About the Role
Brooklands Museum welcomes over 185,000 visitors each year, these are made up of members of the public, Brooklands Members, VIPs, corporate hospitality guests and school groups.
As part of the Visitor Experience Team, you will report to our Admissions and Retail Manager and play your part to ensure that the Museum consistently provides a high-quality experience to all.
Museum Assistants work flexibly across the Museum supporting a wide range of museum activities. Although much of your day will be spent on front of house activities you will also help with a variety of behind-the-scenes tasks.
Front of house activities include providing a warm welcome to all visitors, providing orientation to the site with suggestions of things visitors might like to see and do, selling merchandise on our shop, recruiting Brooklands Members or supporting our hospitality team.
Your interactions with visitors can make or break someone’s visit. With knowledge and enthusiasm, you will help visitors to find their way around our collections, share stories and facts about the Museum to help every visitor understand ‘it happened here at Brooklands’.
Supporting activities, events and Collection demonstrations you will help bring Brooklands Museum to life for our visitors – we may even ask you to wear period costume to enhance the visitor experience.
But of course, everything we do needs preparation in advance so you will get involved in a variety of behind-the-scenes activities including helping out with administration, supporting event set up (moving barriers and putting out signage) and supporting our volunteers.
We are looking for confident communicators with a “can do” attitude, enthusiasm, and a passion for creating memorable experiences for visitors.
With a sense of pride you will help maintain Brooklands Museum presentation standards - never walking past a piece of litter or ignoring an item that isn’t quite looking its best. You’ll always seek to address issues in a timely manner, reporting or escalating matters as required.
Main areas of responsibility:
Providing a warm and friendly welcome to all visitors at Admissions; you will meet both our customer service standards and income generation targets. You will always present Voluntary Donation and Gift Aid admission prices and upsell Concorde Experience tickets, Guidebooks, Brooklands Museum Membership.- Ensure our visitors experience the warmest of welcomes from you whether it is through a car window on arrival in our car park, at our admissions desk, or through another entrance on an event day.
- Helping visitors to discover more about the Museum – e.g. Handing out welcome maps, making recommendations about what to see/do and answering any questions they may have.
- Actively engaging with visitors and providing relevant information about the Museum, its collection and stories.
- Selling merchandise in the shop or pop up retail venue on site, helping to keep the shop well stocked and presented to a high standard. You will be involved in the manual handling of stock and will assist getting stock ready to be put on the shop floor, e.g. pricing and displaying clear point of sale. Lifting heavy boxes may be required from time to time for which training will be provided.
- Operate Campbell gate or Campbell gate hut admitting and directing customers.
- Supporting our volunteer teams, this may include providing cover for stewards or the welcome team for breaks or absences.
- Help to boost repeat visits and recommendations to others through positive visitor experience.
- Preparing the site for indoor and outdoor events which may involve manual handling of barriers, furniture signage and event materials.
- Supporting delivery of events and activities, which could include greeting people, assisting with visitor car parking and directions, providing activities for children or school groups, assisting with delivering demonstrations, training to drive some of the vehicles in our collection, school holiday activities, giving talks, ushering or acting as hosts and running check in/registration desks.
- Supporting the Reception team by helping to deliver parcels and post to staff across the Museum.
- Operating or assisting those with mobility issues with operating the Clubhouse stairlift.
- Providing cover for the Reception team, being a central point of contact for visitor information, operating security gates and operating switchboard. This may be for full shifts or lunchbreaks/absence.
- Adhering to health and safety policy and procedures and ensure emergency or unexpected situations are responded to appropriately and effectively. You will be aware of risks and ensure that these are minimized, including cash handling processes.
- Attending staff meetings and training when necessary, some of this may be out of hours.
- You will be asked to work on your own remotely in other areas of the Museum site and may be outdoors in a variety of weather conditions.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Desired Knowledge
Previous experience working in visitor attractions, museums or retail is desirable.
Skills & Competencies
- Customer aware and take pride on delivering excellent customer service, all day every day.
- Confident using IT systems.
- Excellent communication skills, friendly and confident about approaching visitors of all ages and backgrounds, you will confidently initiate conversations with visitors and respond to their questions.
- Comfortable working as part of a team.
- Ability to remain calm and professional when working under pressure and deal with large numbers of visitors.
- Positive approach and a ‘can do attitude’ with a willingness to be flexible and ‘get stuck in’ as needed.
- Have a willingness to embrace and adapt to change and to try new approaches.
- Display behaviour that is professional, respectful, engaging, confident and enthusiastic.
- Take ownership and accountability for own behaviour, actions and outcomes and recognise the impact these have on others.
- Have an understanding of the need for flexibility in role activities and respond accordingly, be adaptable to sudden situation changes and willing to work in a variety of locations, including in the office, in and around our exhibits which will mean being outdoors.
- Must be fully flexible with hours – weekend and bank holiday work is required.
- Willingness to wear uniform daily and costume on occasions.
Our Culture:
We have invested a lot in our organisational culture over the past 2 years and encourage everyone to be their true self at the Museum. The team have committed to ensuring we all feel involved, supported and appreciated, by working as one team, communicating thoughtfully, being proactive and showing we care.
We are working together internally and with external partners to promote a more inclusive and diverse environment, not just at the Museum but within the industries with which we have links, such as Motorsport.
We are proud to be a mindful employer and have trained mental health first aiders to support our team.
We welcome applications from candidates of any background.
