Front of House Manager

IMPORTANT: Must be 18+, must be available to work weekends and evenings, including 31st December.

Established in 1994, our award-winning venues have been hosting events for over 30 years, including comedy, music, drag, podcasts, talks/Q&As & spoken word. Described by The Guardian as "enormously well-regarded", we pride ourselves on a commitment to excellence & innovation in live events.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion, and are keen to attract people of different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We particularly encourage applications from historically underrepresented communities for all roles. Just like our venues are designed for everyone, so is our workplace, and we work hard to create an inclusive culture for everyone.

Hours: This is a brand new venue. We expect to be open 2 days a week for the first 6 months, moving towards 3-4 days week after that. Seasonal hours. In the winter months there are more hours, in the summer there are less. You must be available to work weekends, including throughout December, and New Year's Eve.

Pay: £13.70ph + tips and a bonus scheme, paid 4 weekly.

What we are looking for: We are looking for someone confident and hardworking that can capably manage a team of up to 10 floor staff (5 per shift) in a busy live events venue serving food & drink. You must be good at working under pressure, capable and confident dealing with any issues that occur and make quick, reasonable decisions to solve potential problems. You will be the first point of contact for customer issues so strong communication skills are essential. This job is also quite physically demanding, with a lot of time spent on your feet, so you must be fit and capable of moving tables and chairs around each shift.

Job Roles and Responsibilities

• Overseeing the daily operations of the floor department, including managing a team of up to 10 staff, and ensuring excellent customer service & quality of products
• Liaising with both the kitchen and the bar to ensure the timely service of food and drink to up to 400 customers during short service windows
• Train and develop floor staff, providing guidance on service standards, policies, and procedures, and monitoring progress. Retrain returning seasonal staff on any new processes.
• Maintaining a clean and organised front of house area, including the auditorium, kitchen service area and customer toilets.

• Implementing changes where necessary to increase sales or operations, ie. cleaning rotas, training sessions, etc.

• Monitor wage spend and ensure you are appropriately staffed, and plan staff breaks to maximise efficiency

• Suggest ideas for increasing sales, profit and staff development
• Lead by example and pitch in with the staff to ensure tasks are completed
• Greeting customers, and handling customer enquiries, complaints, and special requests in a professional, friendly and timely manner
• Setting out chairs & tables according to a plan and checking it is correct before opening, and everything is clean and labelled correctly
• Monitor inventory levels of supplies and equipment, and assistant the Venue Manager to place orders as needed
• Assisting the venue manager

Typical floor shift:

The venue is open every Friday, Saturday and sometimes during the week tour shows. You will be expected to work most of the shows. A typical shift will begin at 5pm and end around 10:30pm / 11pm. When you arrive you will help and direct the floor staff to set up the room according to the floor plan, ensure the service side of the kitchen is ready, correctly place any pre-ordered drinks on the tables and get the room ready for opening.

During the first hour you will be greeting customers, helping them to find their seats, serving food and drinks and dealing with any issues customers may have. During the interval plates and glasses must be collected so they can be washed during the show. Once the show is over the tables must be cleared and wiped down and the furniture packed away.

As the Floor Manager it is your responsibility to delegate jobs to the floor staff and ensure everything is set up correctly. You will also be the first point of call for the customers if they have any problems so you must be able to deal with them appropriately. This could be anything from customers not receiving their food to customers being sat in the wrong seats.

Productivity Bonus Scheme

We operate a discretionary productivity bonus, where if the shift hits a certain productivity score by being staffed efficiently, hourly staff working that night can get up to an extra £1.50 per hour in their pay.

Qualifications

Candidates must have had a background in hospitality and had previous supervisory experience in this sector, references will be required from previous employers.

Things To Know:

• Shifts start between 5pm - 6.00pm and generally finish between 10.30pm and 11.30pm.
• We don't provide transport home but we are happy to allow you to leave at a reasonable time to get public transport if you let us know in advance.
• Due to the nature of our service model the first hour of service can be quite intense so an ability to work well under pressure is a must. We aim to serve all of our customers (up to 400 people) before the show starts. We then have intervals where service picks up again.

Perks:

• Free tickets to shows you're not working * (if they are our shows)

• Shifts finish early enough to still go out afterwards.

• Productivity scheme which could mean an extra £1.50 per hour, on that shift, if targets are hit.
• Friendly, inclusive and interesting place to work.
• Short, evening shifts, perfect for anyone studying or someone looking for a part time job.

INDFOH