Customer Service Assistant-Reception

Department Name: Southern Region Managed Stations
        
 
        
About Network Rail
        

🌟 Join Our Team at Network Rail! 🌟

Are you ready to make a difference in people's lives? At Network Rail, we connect passengers and freight customers, ensuring safe and efficient transportation across the country. We're an organisation where people truly matter, and when you join us, you matter to us and millions of others. Click here to watch our inspiring video to learn more about us!

We're dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that reflects the passengers we serve. To achieve this, we're committed to becoming an open, diverse, and inclusive workplace, leveraging the skills and expertise of our talented workforce. Together, we strive to create a safe and accessible railway for everyone. Discover more about the importance of Diversity and Inclusion at Network Rail by clicking here.

Investing in our people is key to enhancing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of our railway system. If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact, then this opportunity is for you! 

About our people and the recruitment process - We're an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don't always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we'll do our best to help and invest in your career with us, whilst you have a healthy work life balance. 

We're also a Disability Confident Leader employer and we'll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities access, apply and interview for roles.

        
        
Brief Description
       

You make all the difference...

In the Southern region we manage some of the busiest stations in the country - London Bridge, Waterloo, Victoria, Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Clapham Junction and Guildford, which combined see up to 350 million passenger journeys per year.

They are vital to millions of people each year and as a Customer Service Assistant you will play a key part in keeping our station services running smoothly and safely. Every day is varied, and it’s your ability to handle different situations that will help you shine.

As we continue on our journey of inclusivity, the Southern Region stations are very excited to launch a trial of job shares in the CSA role. This will allow part-time working which has not been done before in this rostered environment. This opportunity will be offered at specific stations and can be discussed at the assessment centre, please apply if this is something that interests you and let us know should you progress to the next stage!

Whilst we have opportunities at all the Stations listed, we will make offers dependent on business needs. 

        
        
About the role (External)
       

Your operational and people skills matter.

You’ll help keep our passengers and station services moving. As a Customer Service assistant, you’ll enjoy variety and lots of activity in your role - this really is a job where no two days are the same.

Our passengers and station users matter, and you’ll be out there to provide a safe, secure and positive station experience.  Most days you’ll be covering significant distances across the station as you conduct security searches, monitor the station concourse, and help passengers during their station experience. You will spend most of the working day on your feet being highly visible to the customer. It’s your training and attention to safety and security that help keep our station users safe every day.

You’re able to build a good rapport with others, and your communications skills make all the difference with station users, retail staff and your station colleagues. And you’ll always be thinking of a great customer experience as you provide help across the station.

This role also involves shift working (days, nights, and weekends) and to you’ll be willing and able to work on a shift basis which means that you may be asked to cover a variety of shifts 365 days per year.

Your skills matter

You don’t need any rail experience, but you do need to show that you have transferable skills in the following areas:

• People focus - you’ll enjoy working in a role that requires you to deliver excellent customer experiences. You genuinely care about our customers and pride yourself on being able to build rapport with everyone, including our passengers and colleagues.
• Safety and security – our safety vision is everyone home safe every day, and you’ll be able to demonstrate vigilance and safe behaviours. You’ll also have a good eye for detail, looking for anything that doesn’t look quite right.  You’ll also need to be able to follow instructions, adhere to rules and ensure that others do the same.
• Communication – every day you’ll be helping passengers and working closely with colleagues, you’ll need to be able to communicate clearly (both written and verbal), warmly and concisely in English.
• Acting as one team – station operations depend on a high level of team working where you support each other to keep the station operating smoothly and safely. You’ll need to be someone that others can depend on - you are responsible and play your part.  
• Staying calm under pressure – At times, you will be faced with stressful situations and you need to be someone who stays calm under pressure, even when faced with an angry passenger, or emergencies such as station evacuations.  
• Confident decision making – your decisions affect our passengers and other station users.  You’ll be able to show that you can make independent and informed decisions under pressure.
• Willingness and capacity to learn – there’s so much to learn and you’ll work with many people, processes and equipment every day. You’ll be keen and able to keep learning every aspect of the role.

This role involves days, nights and weekend working and the job is crucial for the safe running of the railway and it’s passengers. 

Whilst a rostered working environment may look like a challenge to working parents, we have many amongst our Southern Stations team who find this to be of benefit, due to the structure and commitment of a planned weekly roster they can plan childcare effectively!

It’s also important for our candidates to be aware that whilst we do have high expectations of our Customer Service assistants with regards to the safety of our station and the passengers, we equip you to be as safe as you can possibly be in every possible scenario.

        
        
How to Apply (External)
       

Everyone matters is our diversity strategy. By 2024 we will be an even more open, diverse and inclusive organisation that is better at reflecting the communities that we serve. By putting our passengers first, our strategy will help us to provide a more accessible and more inclusive experience for you.

Safe behaviour is a requirement of working for Network Rail.  Applicants should be able to demonstrate their awareness of our safety vision.

Salary and benefits:

•     Salary £24,440
•     A London weighting of £3,270 pro-rata
•     Pro-rata annual leave entitlement
•     My benefits – our discounted online shopping site
•     A range of discounted offers including, childcare vouchers, healthcare offers – cycle to work, healthcare club discounted membership and other benefits
•     Subsidies of up to 75% on rail and underground season tickets
•     75% discounted leisure travel
•     A choice of contributory pension schemes
•     2 weeks paid reserve leave for our Armed Forces community

    We're dedicated to creating an inclusive environment and we welcome applications from everyone!

    Network Rail is a Disability Confident Leader and we’ll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities access, apply and interview for roles. 

    Vacancy closing date: 13th February  2023.. Late applications will not be accepted.

    As part of the application for this opportunity, you will be asked a few situational judgement questions to determine your suitability for the role. If you answer those correctly, you will be sent an email with a link to complete two further tests online, this will be sent on the 14th February 2024 The tests are really useful in understanding whether a Customer Service Assistant role at Network Rail is the right career for you.

    All prospective candidates be required to undergo and pass a drugs and alcohol test.  Your application will be rescinded if you record a positive test. All positive drugs and alcohol test results for prospective candidates will be securely held on Sentinel database and a 5 year suspension from applying for a safety critical role, a role which requires PTS certification or a Key Safety role on Network Rail Managed Infrastructure will be enforced.