Job Description
Position Details
Winterbourne House and Garden, Campus Services
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
This is a front-of-house role and therefore not suitable for hybrid or home working.
hours are 10am to 5.15pm March to October and 10am to 4pm November to February.
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £23,764 to £24,855
Grade: 2
Part Time (Annualised 0.9 FTE) Please note: The role works 5 days out of 7 on a rolling rota, including regular weekends and Bank Holidays. WorkingPlease note: The role works 5 days out of 7 on a rolling rota, including regular weekends and Bank Holidays. Working
hours are 10am to 5.15pm March to October and 10am to 4pm November to FebruWorkWW Working hours: The role works 5 days out of 7 on a rolling rota, including regular weekends and Bank Holidays. Working hours are 10am to 5.15pm March to October and 10am to 4pm November to February. An example rota can be viewed here .
Permanent
Closing date: 24th August 2025
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
Campus Services (CS) employs over 900 staff with a turnover exceeding £65m in the last financial year. CS plays a key role in the quality of the student, staff and visitor experience, providing services across diverse areas such as the University’s sporting facilities, food and beverage, cleaning, conferencing, hotel operations, day nurseries, Portering, post, branded and own-brand retail outlets, visitor services and attractions (e.g., Winterbourne House & Gardens), student housing, transport, waste disposal and recycling. CS is a highly commercial organisation operating within the University context and has an ambitious strategic agenda, in terms of growing our service profile across both our Birmingham and Dubai campuses.
Winterbourne House and Garden is an Accredited Museum and Botanic Garden, open to the public 7 days a week, welcoming over 90,000 visitors a year.
Role Summary
The Visitor Services Assistant – Reception postholder is the first point of contact, working on our busy Visitor Reception and occasionally in the Shop, welcoming visitors, issuing tickets, selling memberships and providing excellent customer service.
Main Duties
Front of House
- Working in Visitor Reception or the shop, be familiar with and implement agreed Winterbourne House and Garden Service Standards, projecting a welcoming and friendly presence to all visitors to the site.
- Open the Reception and prepare the house daily for visitors, carrying out relevant Health and Safety checks.
- Welcome all visitors to the property, issuing tickets, checking Membership cards etc.,
- Actively promote Gift Aid on Entry to meet agreed targets.
- Sell Winterbourne Membership and Guidebooks.
- Conduct visitor surveys in line with scheduled targets.
- Monitor visitor flow in order to efficiently minimise queues and prevent overcrowding.
- Ensure that the various constraints on visitors, which are essential to the safekeeping of the property and its exhibits, are applied in a sympathetic manner.
- Operate electronic cash register/card transaction machines with the appropriate levels of skill and accuracy.
- Acquire a sound knowledge of the House and Garden so as to ensure all visitors receive appropriate welcome and are provided with accurate information.
- Fire Warden and First Aid duties (Training provided).
Administration
- Inputting personal data onto various CRM systems in line with GPDR.
- Inputting daily sales and visitor numbers data.
- Answering the telephone, transferring calls to the appropriate person in a professional and timely manner.
- Processing daily email enquiries for the property.
- Dealing with visitor queries and complaints and taking details to escalate where appropriate.
- You will be expected to treat everyone with dignity and respect, supporting equality and valuing diversity.
- Any other duties as may be reasonably required within the grade of role.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Experience in a busy face-to-face role, ideally in a visitor attraction or similar environment.
- Experience using an EPOS system/till/PDQs.
- Literacy and numeracy skills which may be evidenced by GCSE Maths and English D-G/1-3 or similar level 1 equivalent qualification. Where no equivalent qualification is held, relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role will normally be required.
- Proficient in Microsoft packages.
- Experience of dealing with and recording a variety of data, with accuracy and attention to detail.
- Excellent face-to-face communication and interpersonal skills, with an excellent command of spoken English.
- Experience in organising your own activities within a schedule.
- Comfortable working alone, unsupervised.
- Customer service training.
- Ability to learn and understand how diversity considerations affect own area (e.g. dietary requirements/dress code).
Dimensions
- The post has no direct line management responsibility for other staff.
- The post has no budgetary or financial responsibility.
Planning and organising
You will follow a schedule set by your supervisor but will be able to organise activities within the schedule.
Problem solving and decision making
Able to deal with customer queries and simple requests on day to day tasks without reference to others.
Internal and external relationships
Visitors, colleagues, students, potential suppliers.
We strongly encourage candidates to complete the application without the use of AI.
Informal enquiries to Tessa Lovell, email:
[email protected]View our staff values and behaviours here
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website . 
