Welcome Host (Part time)

Church of England; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 21,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

Southwark Cathedral welcomes applications for a Welcome Host to deliver a warm, informative visitor experience in central London. You will provide information about the Cathedral, share its history, and guide guests to events, donations points and shop facilities.

You will engage with visitors and booked groups, support tours, and refer pastoral needs to the Day Chaplain. The role supports the Cathedral’s vision while ensuring safety and safeguarding policies are followed.

Qualifications

• Experience in heritage, public engagement or visitor attraction settings.
• Proactively engaging with visitors to encourage retention and satisfaction.
• Handling customer feedback or complaints effectively.

Responsibilities

• Provide a warm welcome to visitors and share information about the Cathedral, its history, events and donation points.
• Proactively engage with visitors and congregation to boost retention and satisfaction.
• Communicate with pre-booked and un-booked tour groups requiring access to the Cathedral.
• Refer visitors needing pastoral care to the Day Chaplain or clergy.
• Encourage donations and facilitate Gift Aid where eligible; promote information platforms.
• Direct visitors to the Cathedral Shop and Café to encourage secondary spend.
• Promote information products such as Visitor Maps and Guidebooks.
• Maintain the Welcome Desk and public areas with promotional materials.
• Record daily visitor numbers and attend internal meetings/trainings.
• Comply with Health, Safety, Security and Safeguarding policies.

Skills

Customer service

Communication

Visitor engagement

Team player

Job description

Part of a team of Welcome Hosts to providing a warm welcome and overall excellent visitor experience at Southwark Cathedral. Delivering a friendly and engaging visit and ensuring a high standard of customer service, you will be at the frontline of delivering the Cathedral’s Vision and growing visitor numbers, donations and engagement.

This is an exciting place to work, in the heart of London next to Borough Market. We’re a fun and friendly team, creating a space in the centre of London for worship, events, talks, film shoots and community life, like no other. No one day is the same, and with a supportive team around you, there is a packed agenda to help more people discover and engage with who we are and what we do at Southwark Cathedral.

If you have experience in:

• Working within a heritage, public engagement or visitor attraction setting
• Proactivevly engaging with visitors encouraging visitor retention and satisfaction
• Dealing with customer feedback or complaints

And are:

• Customer focused, passionate about excellent engagement and providing a warm welcome
• A skilled and engaging communicator
• Committed to continuous organisation improvement and the ability to act as an agent of change, with an understanding of and enthusiasm for the Cathedral’s overall vision and values, and sympathy with the Christian faith.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide a warm welcome to the Cathedral, taking an active role in providing visitors with information about the Cathedral and its history, upcoming events, donation points, services and more;
• Proactively engage with the visitors and congregation across the site, encouraging visitor retention and satisfaction;
• Communicate with pre-booked and un-booked tour groups requiring access to the Cathedral;
• Refer any visitor in need of pastoral care to the Day Chaplain or clergy;
• Encourage visitors to donate to the Cathedral and facilitate use of the various platforms available in the Cathedral and online. Encourage those making a donation to Gift Aid it should they be eligible to do so;
• Direct visitors to the Cathedral Shop and Café encouraging secondary spend;
• Promote the sale of information products such as the Visitor Map and Guidebook;
• Maintain the Welcome Desk and other public areas with supplies of Visitor Maps, Cathedral Guidebooks, What’s On leaflets and other promotional/informational materials
• Compile a record of visitor numbers by counting and recording daily totals
• Attend all-staff meetings, other internal meetings and complete trainings as required
• Comply with all Health, Safety, Security and Safeguarding policies and procedures, promoting a culture of safety and wellbeing.

Closing date: 11.59pm on Thursday, November 19th.

In person interviews are planned for Wednesday, December 2nd.

Introduction to the Cathedral

Southwark Cathedral has been a place of Christian worship for over 1400 years. Now it stands on the vibrant and exciting regenerated south bank of the Thames surrounded by cultural venues such as Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market, the offices of major companies as well as schools and diverse residential communities. It is an inclusive Christian community that offers a welcome to all.

The Cathedral’s mission, ministry and musical tradition are core to its life as a Cathedral and a parish church serving the community. It also relies on the valuable financial contribution made by its income generating activities such as its shop, café, conference rooms, corporate events and concerts. It is a very busy place, attracting 290,000 visitors a year to the Cathedral, its churchyard and medieval herb garden. The Cathedral relies on a small but dedicated team to be inclusive and welcoming to all.

Southwark Cathedral is committed to being an Equal Opportunities Employer. We believe in promoting and building a diverse and inclusive team, and workplace, culture and governance structures that are welcoming to and respectful of all. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified people whatever their ethnicity, background, age, disability, long term condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Southwark Cathedral is committed to a culture of safeguarding, especially for children, young people, and vulnerable adults. The Cathedral has adopted the Church of England policy statement ‘Promoting a Safer Church (2017)’; Safeguarding Learning and Development (2024) and the Safer Recruitment and People Management Guidance (2021). Every member of our team is recruited according to these policies and is required to complete safeguarding training.

Appointment to this role is subject to satisfactory references and the right to work in the UK.