Christmas Head Elf

**Purpose of the role**:
The Magic of Christmas at ZSL London Zoo offers a whole host of festive activities to give our visitors everything they need for a jam-packed fun family day out The event is made up of a Meet Santa experience, Arts & Craft/letter writing station and plenty of other activities to bring the festive cheer

**Purpose of the role**
As a Christmas Elf at ZSL London Zoo you must be able to put the magic and sparkle into The Magic of Christmas event. As an Elf, you will ensure that every visitor both big and small has a truly special experience. You will be given an Elf name and it is essential that you remain in character at all times and have the commitment to the story and narrative to ensure we keep the believability of the magic of Christmas.

As an Elf one of the main roles will be working in Santa’s Grotto delivering a paid for experience. Alongside this, you may also be located at our Main Entrance or around site giving all visitors a festive welcome.

As Head Elf, you will be accountable for overseeing a team of Christmas elves within the grotto, leading the team to delivery the highest standard of visitor experience to every guest. You will be the main point of contact for all grotto guest queries and troubleshoot these effectively and within a prompt timeframe. As Head Elf, you will manage the coordination of the Grotto’s schedule, making sure that it runs to time and without delays.

Whilst in character as an Elf, you will be responsible for constantly engaging with visitors, even when just walking across site. Therefore, it is expected that you would have outstanding communication, excellent customer service and engagement skills to ensure that all visitors have the best day out Of course, a love of Christmas and Santa is essential

Events at London Zoo provide ZSL with the best opportunity to engage with our audiences, both new and existing, members, fellows and donors. They are a fundamental part of communicating ZSL’s mission and in reaching commercial targets.

Hours per week range from 14-30

**Key responsibilities**
- Play a Christmas Elf at London Zoo. This would primary be located in our Santa’s Grotto but may be positioned around site at various other Christmas event locations. As an Elf, you will ensure that every visitor both big and small has a truly special experience.
- To assist children with the craft activity in the grotto, and to ensure each child gets their magical time with Santa.
- You will lead in the supervision of a team of Christmas elves, ensuring they all deliver a high-standard of customer service.
- You will take the lead in ensuring all guest queries within the grotto are troubleshooted effectively and managed within a prompt timeframe.
- Ensure the Grotto runs to time and on schedule.
- Assist with the delivery of an expanding programme of the Magic of Christmas event which reflect and support the objectives and long-term strategy of ZSL in building our relationships with all our supporters and to the wider public.
- To assist the Events team in the set-up, running and de-rig of the event on site
- To help manage visitors and assist with direction and participation in activities on event days.
- Be responsible for recording visitor data where required.
- To ensure the safety of our visitors and the event is kept to the highest standards always
- To ensure event materials are kept well stocked throughout event days.

The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and additional tasks may be assigned from time to time that are in line with the level of the role.

**About You**:

- Working with the public in a face-to-face setting.
- Experience in delivering excellent customer service is essential. Experience working with children or young people in a formal or informal environment is essential.
- Previous experience working as part of an event.
- Previous experience in problem-solving in a customer
- or visitor-facing role.
- Be confident in dealing with the general public
- Flexible to adapt to a constantly changing environment and know when to escalate a situation to higher management
- Ability to multi-task
- Be outgoing and create a positive and fun working environment
- This post will require extensive outside working with direct exposure to the weather and animals.
- This post is zoo based
- This post requires frequent work during weekends and occasional early mornings/evenings
- Strong commitment to creating a culture that lives ZSL values and commitment to safeguarding, equality and diversity (collaborative, inspiring, inclusive, innovative, impactful and ethical)
- To comply with and promote Health and Safety policies and procedures

**About Us**:
**About Us**:
We’re ZSL, an international conservation charity. Through our unrivalled animal experts in our two zoos (London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo), the work of our pioneering scientists, our dedicated conservationists, our purpose is to inspire, inform and