Operations Manager (Customer Service)

House of Commons 

The House of Commons is a unique and exciting place to work right at the heart of the UK's thriving democratic system. 

Behind the scenes, the House of Commons Service is made up of more than 3,000 employees who support and facilitate the smooth day to day running of the House. They provide professional services to Members of Parliament, their staff, and the wider parliamentary community.

Staff Benefits 

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including: 

• 30 days’ annual leave (increasing to 35 days after first full leave year). 
• Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. 
• Access to training and development. 
• Flexible working. 
• Interest free season ticket loan and bicycle loan. 

Introduction 

The Participation team delivers visitor services, educational programmes, learning resources and UK-wide community outreach activities that promote Parliament’s role and engage the public with parliamentary business. Our well-established public engagement activities continue to expand, reaching over 1.5 million people every year; of these, about 500,000 are directly engaging in activities in Westminster and over 1 million in outreach and engagement activities across the UK. 

The Role 

This role is responsible for developing, leading, and managing the Visitor Experience operational team, within Participation.  You will be responsible for delivering the quality standards of Presentation, Welcome and Knowledge across all Visitor Experience activity in support of the work of our Members and the business of the House, and in keeping with the Palace of Westminster UNESCO World Heritage Site status.  

Some of the responsibilities for this role include:

• To take ownership of the Visitor Experience Standards, focusing on presentation, welcome and knowledge and provide inspirational leadership for the operational delivery team in line with our values.
• Actively investigate, identify, recommend, and implement ideas to improve and develop the visitor experience, ensuring visitor feedback is considered and acted upon where appropriate and embedding the 3 Ps (People, Place, Process) across the team to focus improvements.
• In collaboration with management colleagues, agree, monitor, and deliver stretching customer service KPIs.
• Facilitate a culture of excellence and continuous improvement by encouraging open two-way communication throughout the team, providing regular, timely updates on KPIs and customer feedback and ensuring that all team members can contribute ideas for improvement.
• Responsible for all people management functions, working with management colleagues to ensure that outstanding staff are recruited; training needs are identified and delivered; performance expectations are clearly communicated and managed, regular Coach and Focus meetings are carried out and absence is managed. 

Skills and Experience 

To be successful in this role you will demonstrate:

• Ability to demonstrate commitment to exceptional customer service, with a strong track record of delivering and evaluating a world class end-to end visitor journey, including a clear understanding of best practice in interpretation, presentation and welcome.

• Experience of motivating, inspiring and developing a large and diverse team of customer facing staff to deliver an outstanding visitor experience, collectively deliver against KPIs, offering clear, creative and strategic direction, while upholding principles of diversity and inclusion. 

• Excellent oral and written communication skills to ensure that key messages are understood, with the ability to quickly gain the confidence of different stakeholders, including Members and staff of both Houses and the public. The ability to exercise sound judgement on how content can best be presented to meet audience needs whilst ensuring standards of impartiality are upheld. 

Next Steps and Additional Information

• Application Form - If you would like to apply for this role, please submit an application providing evidence against criteria 1,2,3 & 5 in the Job Description.  

More information on the role and the full criteria can be found in the Job Description. 

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