About the role
We are looking for an enthusiastic and versatile person to join the Cambridge City libraries team. Based at our flagship Central Library, you will also support our branches at Arbury Court, Barnwell Road, Cherry Hinton, Milton Road and Rock Road, as well as our partnership with the City Council at the Clay Farm Centre.
You will assist and deputise for the Area Library Managers in the day-to-day running of these libraries, as well as the management of staff and volunteers. You must be able to travel across Cambridge as the ability to work at any of the libraries in the district is essential. You will need to work flexibly, with a requirement for some lone, weekend and evening working.
You will have a flair for working with people and be able to create a friendly and welcoming environment for a diverse range of customers. In addition, you must be excellent at multi-tasking, resourceful and willing to lead a team.
Experience of working in a customer service environment is essential, but we welcome applications from all walks of life, who could bring new perspectives to this exciting opportunity. Experience of working in libraries would be desirable but not essential as full training will be given. Please note that library work is physically demanding; see the Job Hazards information for more details.
We want to recognise and celebrate the diversity of our local communities and be responsive to their needs. We also want to ensure that we are a fair and equitable employer, striving to achieve a diverse and culturally competent workforce. We therefore encourage applications from all areas of our community.
Interviews will be held on Friday 2nd August 2024 at Cambridge Central Library.
Applications must be made online via this system, CVs or other attachments are not accepted.
For more information or to chat about this opportunity please contact Christopher Waters, District Library Manager via e-mail christopher.waters@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or 07391730796.
What will you be doing?
This is primarily a customer facing role and you will work closely alongside our large team of Community Library Assistants to resolve enquiries, process stock and carry out routine administration tasks such as cash handling. You will be responsible for supervising the library space to ensure it is safe and welcoming and dealing with property issues.
The ability to communicate clearly and confidently and delegate effectively is essential as you will be responsible for leading and motivating the team. In addition, you will act as the first point of contact for colleagues reporting incidents or requesting support via our duty contact phone. As such, you must be calm under pressure and have the ability to be assertive and de-escalate conflict when needed.
Although there is plenty of routine work there are many opportunities to be creative. For example, you will work closely with our Library Development Officer to plan and deliver events and organise opportunities for outreach work with local community partners. The successful candidate will be passionate about what public libraries can offer and will be able to promote our services within the library and in wider the community.
Library experience is an advantage however we would love to hear from candidates which have demonstrated excellent customer service or team leadership skills in another context. Training will be given on specific library systems but an ability to work with IT is essential.
You will also be responsible for delivering our UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services biometrics verification service at Cambridge Central Library, for which training will be given.
About you
The supporting statement is the most important part of your application. This will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role. When completing the support statement for this position, please tell us how your skills, experience, capability and potential match each of the criteria in the person specification.
Please think carefully about the following criteria and provide practical examples of how and when you have used the particular knowledge, skill or experience:
-
Demonstrate your understanding of delivering a high quality customer service.
-
Flexibility and adaptability in all areas of work.
-
A strong team player, able to work with colleagues on projects and contribute to team goals.
-
Working under pressure and without supervision.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.
The following content displays a map of the job's location.
