Permanent, Part Time - 22.2 hours per week (0.6 FTE)
A fantastic opportunity has arisen to join Bristol City Council's Plant Nursery team as our Hospitality Team Leader.
Based at Blaise Plant Nursery, you will lead the day-to-day operation of our café and hospitality offer, helping to create a welcoming destination for customers visiting the nursery. This is a hands-on leadership role, combining operational management, customer service, team supervision and commercial awareness.
Working closely with the Retail Nursery Manager, you will play a key role in maintaining high standards, developing the café offer and supporting the continued growth of this important commercial service within Bristol Parks and Green Spaces. The role provides an exciting opportunity to shape and develop a growing hospitality business in one of Bristol's most unique visitor destinations.
What you'll be doing
- Leading the day-to-day operation of Blaise Plant Nursery café, ensuring a safe, efficient and welcoming environment for visitors.
- Supervising, supporting and motivating a small team of café staff, including planning rotas, allocating work and providing day-to-day guidance.
- Delivering excellent customer service and maintaining high standards of food, drink, presentation and cleanliness.
- Monitoring stock levels, ordering supplies and helping to manage costs, pricing and promotions.
- Supporting the development of the café offer, including seasonal products, menu changes and new ideas to improve the customer experience.
- Working closely with suppliers, colleagues and stakeholders to support the continued growth of the Plant Nursery business.
- Supporting events, promotional activities and visitor engagement initiatives that attract customers and generate income.
- Maintaining operational records, including rotas, stock information, sales data and performance reporting.
- Identifying opportunities to improve service standards, increase customer satisfaction and support commercial performance.
What do I need to have?
- Experience of supervising or leading staff in a café, hospitality, catering or customer-facing retail environment.
- Experience of day-to-day hospitality operations, including customer service, stock control, cash handling and maintaining service standards.
- A qualification in catering, hospitality or retail management, or equivalent relevant experience.
- A current food hygiene qualification and a good understanding of food safety, health and safety and COSHH requirements.
- Organised, proactive and confident in leading a small team and responding to changing operational priorities.
- Warm, approachable and committed to delivering a great visitor experience.
- Experience supporting menu development, promotions, pricing or service improvements.
- Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office applications.
- Comfortable working flexible hours, including weekends and bank holidays when required.
Key responsibilities
- Lead the day-to-day café operation while maintaining high standards of customer service and compliance.
- Ensure compliance with food safety, health and safety, licensing, cash handling and site security requirements.
- Manage rotas, training, performance support and staff development.
- Monitor stock, ordering, wastage, pricing and promotional activity to support effective cost control and income generation.
- Contribute to the development of the food and drink offer and wider visitor experience.
- Support the delivery of events, promotions and customer engagement activities.
- Maintain accurate records relating to sales, stock, staffing and operational performance.
- Use customer and sales feedback to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.
Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification for further details on the role and the eligibility criteria for application. If you have the knowledge and experience to undertake this role and the vision and ambition of the plant nursery, we look forward to hearing from you.
Why Bristol City Council?
At Bristol City Council, we go that extra mile for our people; we offer a work environment which is fast moving and supportive, giving you the chance to use your skills and develop new ones within a high-profile organisation. For the majority of our roles hybrid working arrangements are available, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice - mixing both home and office working.
Join us and you’ll receive an excellent rewards package including flexible working and flexitime, membership of the Local Government Pension scheme, and a generous annual leave allowance. In addition, you’ll be working in a supportive environment where you’ll have the chance to make Bristol a better place and contribute to its future.
How do I apply?
If you share our values and are ready to be part of our exciting journey please select the apply button below.
To be shortlisted for interview you’ll need to demonstrate how you meet each of the essential criteria in the Person Specification within the Further Information section of your application. On occasion we will receive high numbers of applications, we may then shortlist against the desirable criteria along with the essential criteria, so if you can, please demonstrate how you meet this in your application.
We're a Disability Confident employer which means we value recruiting and retaining disabled people. Any job applicants who consider themselves to be disabled and meet the essential criteria in the Person Specification are guaranteed an interview. We'll make reasonable adjustments throughout the interview process and provide continued workplace support throughout your career.
For further information, please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification or alternatively, please contact Beth Anderson, Plant Nursery Retail Manager, on [email protected]
At Bristol City Council, we value having a workforce as diverse as the city we serve. We therefore welcome, develop and promote people from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applications from young people, Black and racially minoritised, Disabled, LGBTQ+, and female candidates who are currently under-represented within this Service of Bristol City Council. Appointments will be made on merit.
The personal information section (including your name) you’ll complete as part of the application form will not be visible to hiring managers, but is used confidentially to make sure that everyone is treated fairly.
