SECONDMENT OPPORTUNITY
Visitor Operations Manager
Fairburn Ings
Overview
Are you a strong leader with excellent people skills? Do you always drive to hit targets and have the
attention to detail to ensure excellence? Fairburn Ings is one of the fastest expanding and successful
visitor operations in the RSPB. This secondment opportunity would give someone the chance to lead a
fantastic team of staff and volunteers delivering our visitor experience, retail and schools on reserves
operations. Fairburn ings is a nature reserve that is popular with both wildlife and people and has a
strong family offer. This 7 month secondment will cover the busiest period of the reserve. Following 3
consecutive years of growth of visitor numbers we expect 2015 to be another busy year. This
secondment will be an excellent opportunity for someone to lead the team through that period and
show that they have the skills, drive and attitude to deliver the Saving Nature Strategy on the ground at
a beautiful nature reserve.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No. 207076 Scotland No.
SC037654
Purpose of Job
To lead the development, integration and delivery of all of the visitor facing
elements on a reserve with the aim of creating a stunning visitor
experience that maximises support for nature before, during and after the
visit.
The role holder will lead the visitor operations staff and volunteers to
ensure that visits to the reserve are high quality, achieve our brand goals
and result in increased support for the RSPB by delivering against all
visitor related KPIs.
Salary
£21,500 - £24,500 per annum
Primary Work Base
Fairburn Ings
Hours
37.5 hours per week
Line Manager
Senior Site Manager, Aire Valley Reserves
Basis
7 month secondment
Main Duties
Main Duties
 Working as part of the reserves management team, responsible for promoting and delivering
the highest standard of customer care and quality of service to visitors in accordance with
RSPB brand goals, best practice and key messages.
 To be responsible for the successful day-to-day commercial operation on site including
retail, catering, membership recruitment through effective management of the visitor
operations team
 To oversee the Visitor Experience team with the planning and delivery of events,
interpretation and promotion on site in order to maximise income generation and
engagement opportunities.
 Working closely with the Site Manager, set and achieve financial targets and visitor related
KPI’s to deliver against reserve goals.
 To ensure that all visitor related admin, security and health and safety on reserve adheres to
RSPB procedures
 To ensure that all staff and volunteers are recruited, trained and managed in accordance
with RSPB guidelines and policy that results efficient and motivated team working.
 To ensure the site is represented at and contributes to retail, catering, visitor experience,
and membership conferences and attend in person as required.
 To deal with any other external supplier as relevant to visitor operations.
 The role holder would be expected to lead by example, prioritising own workloads to spend
time engaging with visitors on busy days.
Other duties
 To attend regional and national events and meetings as required
 Deputise for the site manager
 Frequently works anti-social hours including many weekends and Bank Holidays.
 Acts as a keyholder for the site
 May be disturbed at home during anti-social hours.
Key Skills
Qualifications
 Educated to at least A level or equivalent
Experience
 Demonstrable experience in retail management, with recent experience of working ‘hands
on’ at the customer interface
 Experience of delivering a high standard of customer service in a visitor destination
 Proven hands on experience of successfully achieving financial targets.
 Experience of leading and managing a multi-disciplinary team
 Significant experience of budget management
 Experience of recruitment
Skills/Abilities
 Demonstrable high standards of customer care and the skill to lead others to do the same.
 An excellent leader who can motivate, inspire, enthuse and gain commitment from all
people at all levels.
 Proven ability to plan and prioritise workloads.
 Excellent numerical skills
 Excellent levels of verbal and written English
 Competent user of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and Outlook
 Able to demonstrate superb people skills, communicating in ways that are effective and
appropriate
 Problem-solving skills and ability to work on own initiative
 The ability to coach and develop others and manage performance
Knowledge
 Sound understanding of systems and procedures necessary to run a retail shop
 Working knowledge of Health & Safety requirements
 Working knowledge of promotion and marketing principles and tools for visitor destinations
 Knowledge of visitor quality assurance schemes
Personal Attributes
 A driven person, who will achieve targets
 A positive person who can lift a team
 Willing and able to be flexible about working hours
An enthusiasm for self-development
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a registered charity: England and Wales No. 207076 Scotland No.
SC037654
Name
Current Job Title
Contact Telephone No
Contact Email Address
Briefly tell us why your are interested
Briefly tell us how your experience meets the key skills
Ref No
A4560115