Hospitality and Catering

JOB PURPOSE
To maximise our visitors’ enjoyment of National Trust for Scotland managed sites by maintaining excellent standards of service, optimising opportunities to generate income and ensuring that the site and its assets are safe and secure.
Specifically, to ensure the smooth and safe operations in the Food & Beverage activities at Brodick Castle, Gardens and Country Park, making the property the best possible place to visit and work.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
To always provide a consistently high standard of visitor care.
Ensuring the site is ready to open, welcoming visitors to the site and processing their admission or catering purchase in a friendly, efficient and knowledgeable manner.

 Welcome visitors with special needs / impairments and providing a high level of service in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act.
 Welcome International visitors and aiding with specific needs.
 Welcome groups in an efficient and warm manner.
 Answering visitors’ queries about the site, facilities, and the local area.
 Providing information about the site, its history, contents, offers, and merchandise.
 Promoting the National Trust for Scotland brand to include our Membership scheme, events, upselling other properties and any promotional campaigns.
 Being proactive in the selling of Membership and Gift Aid.
 To support the operational needs of the business with occasional cross department working such as guiding and retail.

Always maintain excellent standards of site and personal presentation.
 Wearing the correct uniform, name badges, or PPE as required.
 Upkeeping a clean and safe working environment for staff and visitors.
 Reporting all issues of damage, wear and tears, promptly to your Line Manager.

Food & Beverage Duties
 To ensure good housekeeping of kitchens, serveries and back of house areas.
 To ensure that merchandising is in accordance with NTS policy.
 To assist in achieving catering targets and KPI’s.
 To actively upsell products and services to facilitate the visitor’s enjoyment.
 To actively encourage visitor feedback using the Trust survey cards.
 To feedback visitor comments to line managers to develop and improve offer, service, operations.
 To work flexibly across departments and sites as needed, for instance in retail or guiding.
 Systems of recording are all up to date: including All-In-One records, allergens, COSSH, cleaning records, stock take and wastage.

Health and Safety
 To ensure the site meets with Health and Safety legislation in liaison with your department manager.
 To ensure that visitors vacate the site at the close of business and that the site is secured at the end of day.
 To use personal protection equipment as provided and directed by your line manager.
 To maintain a safe working environment for colleagues.
 Assist as a fire marshal for the safety of all staff and visitors.

JOB PURPOSE

This is a fantastic opportunity to work as part of our leadership team at the world famous Inverewe Garden, which attracts tens of thousands of people from across the globe every year.

The Visitor Services Supervisor at a Trust property plays a pivotal role ensuring that the management objectives are achieved through excellent customer service and with delegated responsibility for Food and Beveridge (F&B) duty management is very often the face of the Trust to visitors. As such directly influences public perceptions of the Trust and is significant to developing and maintaining the property’s reputation

As the F&B Visitor Services Supervisor, you will be responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the operations at our popular 190-seater Osgood’s Café, and smaller Bothy outlet in the Garden itself. This will involve working an 8-hour shift between the hours of 8.30a.m, and 5.30p.m. You will work with the Visitor Services Manager to deliver our quality standards and performance targets, ensuring we offer customers a fantastic Food & Beverage experience. Occasionally the role may be required to help cover Food and Beveridge at our close by site Corrieshalloch Gorge. Work transport provided.
You will be an enthusiastic team player who can supervise, coach and motivate your team. You will also be part of a broader duty management team responsible for promoting good communication across the site and a joined-up visitor services provision.
As a charity, every penny we raise goes back into the National Trust for Scotland’s conservation work, caring for this special place. You will lead by example and work with the Visitor Services Manager to create an enticing F&B menu, to recommend and upsell our range, and to promote complementary income streams like retail, membership and donations. You’ll help answer visitors’ questions about things to do here and share your enthusiasm for Inverewe, the work we do and what their money is funding.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Catering operation
• Support the VSM to develop our menu ensuring our cafes’ offering is appealing, profitable and sustainable.
• Lead with preparation, cooking, training and presentation of a high-quality food and drink offer.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety, food hygiene, food allergen, licensing and environmental health standards, completing all related record-keeping.
• Accountable for cost-effective stock management, ordering, storage and wastage control.
Visitor experience
• Offer excellent customer service and ensure all members of the F&B team do the same.
• Support property-wide targets for completion of visitor surveys to understand more about our visitors.
• Act as one of our duty manager team, responsible for ensuring a safe and smooth visitor operation, opening/closing the café, addressing issues and emergency procedure and providing relief cover, as required.
People management
• Supervise the activities of a team of seasonal Visitor Service Assistants (VSAs), achieving excellent staff performance and motivation through effective induction, training, task-setting and coaching on front and back-of-house routines.
• Prepare weekly catering rotas to meet business needs.
• Work closely with specialist advisory colleagues, i.e. our Trust-wide Catering Development team.

Finance Management
• Share responsibility for achieving an F&B budget of around £350,000 a year.
• Monitor commercial performance and adjust activities to capitalise on sales opportunities and run a cost-effective catering operation.
• Supervise daily café till operations and perform end-of-day income reconciliation as a duty manager.
• Assist the F&B Manager with menu costing and stock-taking.

JOB PURPOSE

To assist in the maintenance of Inverewe Garden as an internationally recognised garden of outstanding horticultural importance, contributing to its conservation and development, and to its enjoyment by visitors and supporters in particular working in the Walled Garden under the supervision of the Walled Gardener. The prestigious historic Walled Garden, created in the 1860s by Osgood Mackenzie and, since the Trust took over in 1952, presented as a ‘model’ of ‘kitchen garden’ design, display and cultivation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Assisting the Walled Gardener with general horticultural duties to the required standards expected by the Trust and for the maximum safety of, and enjoyment by, visitors. Activities may include:

a. Undertaking practical maintenance of the garden (e.g., managing shrubs and herbaceous borders)
b. Grass-cutting, strimming, hedge-cutting and raking/collection.
c. Cutting of lawn edges
d. Hand-weeding of beds and borders
e. Fruit and vegetable production, watering and feeding vegetable beds and harvesting produce.
f. Planting out (under direction of the Walled Gardener)
g. Application of mulches and compost

2. Assisting with general property maintenance duties and for the maximum safety of, and enjoyment by, visitors. Activities may include:

a. Refuse disposal.
b. Raking gravel paths

3. Assisting as required with the general enjoyment of the gardens and estate by:

a. Responding to general visitor enquiries
b. Assisting at events held within the garden or on the estate.

4. Assisting with interpretation activities such as answering basic horticultural enquiries from visitors and providing clear and accurate plant labeling.

5. Working with the full-time staff to foster positive relationships with local communities, visitors and promoting the work of the Trust, and actively seeking opportunities to increase Trust membership.

6. Working with volunteers to ensure they deliver required outputs at the appropriate standard and gain benefits from their volunteering.

7. Ensuring compliance with the Trust’s health, safety and environment policies and procedures to ensure the safety of staff, volunteers and visitors. This includes recognition of the Trust’s environmental policy with respect to sustainable gardening policies.

8. Undertaking such other reasonable duties as may from time to time be required to ensure the smooth running of the property as required by the Head Gardener.

This role does not require you to undertake a criminal record.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE

Qualifications
 No formal educational qualifications required – but previous gardening or grounds-keeping experience is highly desirable.
 Driving License, valid for driving within the UK

Experience

Essential
 Should be experienced with a wide range of hand tools and basic machinery / equipment (e.g., lawn mowers, strimmer) or willing to be trained.
 Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, confident in interacting and dealing with a wide range of people, and able to represent the Trust.
 Capable of working effectively within a team environment, but equally able to work unsupervised.
 Good organisational and time management skills – including the ability to prioritise work where necessary.
 Must have a genuine understanding of, and belief in, the work of the National Trust for Scotland
 Solid interest in gardening with at least basic gardening skills and enthusiasm and practical experience.
 Strong attention to detail
 Sound practical knowledge of Health and Safety processes and procedures and the ability to work effectively within these processes.
Desirable
 A genuine love for gardening and garden maintenance is highly desirable.
 Experience of working in a garden open to the public
 Competent IT skills sufficient for use of the internet and for completing intranet training modules.
 First Aid qualification

JOB PURPOSE

As a member of our Visitor Services team, your job is to give visitors from across the globe a warm welcome to Pitmedden Garden and help generate the income that enables us to care for Pitmedden Garden and other National Trust for Scotland properties.

Visiting our tearoom is an essential part of the visitor experience and the role of the Visitor Service Assistant – Food & Beverage is to make it a positive and memorable part of a visitor’s day with us.

You will help us maximise sales through excellent customer service and product knowledge, taking pride in store presentation and effective behind-the-scenes processes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
• To always provide a consistently high standard of visitor care when:
• Welcoming all visitors to the site and processing their catering purchase in a friendly, efficient and knowledgeable manner; supporting visitors with special needs / impairments and providing an elevated level of service in accordance with the Equality Act.
• Answering visitors’ queries about the catering offer, deals, seating, and ingredients.
• Checking on how visitors are enjoying their experience of catering at Pitmedden Garden and enquiring whether all their needs are met.
• Consistently presenting high quality plating of food.
• Promoting the National Trust for Scotland and the benefits of membership of it.
• To always maintain excellent standards of site and personal presentation
• The general ongoing operational cleaning of all areas as necessary
• Wearing correct uniform, name badges, or PPE as required.
• Cash handling and point of sale.

SCOPE OF JOB

Customer Service
• Regular interaction with members of the public of all ages and abilities.

Teamwork
• Regular interaction with employee and volunteer colleagues to share daily tasks and support a smooth visitor operation

Sales, stock and financial processes
• Help achieve sales targets and membership recruitment targets
• Operate tills and share end-of-day cash reconciliation duties, as appointed by the Duty Manager.

Tools/equipment and cleaning chemicals
• Occasional user of cleaning chemicals.
• Expected to become familiar with and comply with the property’s Health and Safety policies or ‘ Safe Systems of Work’

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE

Essential:
• Ability to work within a team or independently, with minimal supervision, to a high and safe standard.
• Ability to be flexible and adapt working patterns and tasks to meet day-to-day variations in property needs.
• Ability to adjust pace to match customer flow without compromising quality of service.
• Excellent front of house persona – warm, welcoming, patient and understanding.
• Excellent selling skills.
• Ability to do basic cooking.
• Genuine belief in the value of good customer service.
• Ability to be proactive and to take the initiative.

Desirable:
• Access to own transport
• Basic Food Hygiene Qualification
• Demonstrable experience in sales with experience of EPOS systems and cash handling/reconciliation.

The current duties of this job do not require a criminal records (Disclosure Scotland) check to be conducted.