Senior Building Facilities Operative

Salary: £23,700 with progression to £25,138 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 23 April 2024

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.

What’s in it for you? Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Newcastle is an inclusive global University community where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

Newcastle University is committed to being a fully inclusive Global University which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices. 

Estates & Facilities are a very large multidisciplinary team that look after the development, maintenance, safety and security of over 150 buildings across various sites including a wide variety of world class teaching and research facilities, a range of diverse accommodation for over 3500 students across three student villages as well as caring for our beautifully landscaped grounds.  We are also the team at the University responsible for catered halls, great food and drink, conferences and events.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Building Facilities Operatives to supervise staff in the team who provide portering services to the University Main Campus, Medical Buildings and the extended campus sites.

You will be responsible for planning and leading the day to day activities of a team of staff across the campus to specific service level standards in order to deliver a high quality, efficient and effective service.

As the post helps manage transportation within Building Facilities a current, clean UK driving license is required.

You must be customer focussed with good interpersonal skills, have experience of supervising a team of operational staff and have good numeracy and literacy skills.

We are keen to hear from people who are educated to NVQ Level 2/3 or willing to work towards it, and have a commitment to continuing personal development

If this is you, we are really interested in hearing from you.  Please call Jeanette Trewick, our Building Facilities Manager, on 0191 2085479 for more information.

To apply, please upload your most up to date CV to our application portal and complete the mandatory fields in the application form.  For support in any aspect of the application process please contact recruitment@ncl.ac.uk 

The role

The day to day operational supervision of a team of Building Facilities Operatives (including Cleaning and Portering staff) across campus and to ensure that Building Facilities operations are carried out to specified Service Level Standards in conjunction with all stakeholders.

Key Accountabilities

• To plan and direct the routine activities of a team of Building Facilities Operatives (including portering and cleaning staff) across the campus, to ensure Building Facilities operations are completed to specified standards, maximising the use of Human and Physical resources

• Ensure appropriate and adequate resources are available to complete operations to the required standard. This will include managing local stocks of resources, raising orders for supplies and resources with supervisors

• Plan, organise and carry out routine tasks and to liaise with School, Faculty or Service staff who request additional services. Also to prepare and distribute resources in accordance with manufacturers recommendations and to ensure safety in use

• When required, perform operational duties in a specific area to ensure standards are achieved and maintained with respect to Health and Safety, hygiene etc

• Liaise with customers with respect to operations and, in the event of complaint, take remedial action

• Report defects and potential hazardous situations to immediate supervisor to effect action for rectification

• Ensure all new staff, within the team, receive the relevant training to enable them to perform their work to the required standards – completing the induction checklist following Building Facilities procedures

• Monitor staff dispositions and, when required, undertake preliminary counselling and report any recurrent problems to supervisors

• Carry out routine team briefings to ensure all staff receive timely and appropriate information regarding University and section activities and developments

• Undertake timely performance and development review (PDR) as directed by the Supervisor to maintain and improve individual and team performance

• To assist supervisors in the selection and recruitment of staff to maintain appropriate operational levels. Participating in the interview process and completing relevant documentation

• Contribute to the maintenance of the security of premises, observing local security procedures and reporting faults/incidents to immediate supervisor

• Ensure safe working practices by observing and complying with Building Facilities and Faculty/School Health and Safety procedures. This includes carrying out and participating in Risk Assessment, COSHH Assessment etc

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Basic IT skills
• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• Experience of working in a Customer Focused environment
• Experience of supervising and organising a team of operational staff
• Work flexibly and able to adapt, especially to change
• Able to work under pressure
• Physically able to carry out the role
• Able to work contracted hours flexibly

Desirable

• Experience of working in the Higher Education/Further Education sector
• Experience of cleaning operations

Attributes and Behaviour

• Inspiring Others (Communication) – Communicate effectively at all levels within the organisation, use face to face communication where appropriate and hold the attention of others using various communication techniques
• Taking Responsibility (Delivering Service) – Works continually to deliver quality expectations to staff, students and visitors, constantly strives to improve service delivery
• Finding Solutions – Works with team and customers to seek solutions to facilitate service goals
• Working Together (Team Working) – Works collaboratively with others to form relationships within own team and across the organisation
• Looking to the future (Embracing Change) – Understands that the service will constantly evolve and embraces change to facilitate service improvement, actively participate in the change process to allow the service to evolve.

Qualifications

• Literacy and numeracy skills
• NVQ 2/3 Management (or working towards)
• Commitment to continuing personal development
• Willing to Continue Professional Development and undertake any training deemed necessary for the job role

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience of using facilities resources
• Knowledge and experience of working in a service industry
• Health and Safety certificate
• Training qualification
• Driving licence

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26889