Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to improve quality of life, by bringing people together to get the most out of life.

SWR is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier.  FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.

About the job

We are looking for an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual to join our Customer Experience Training team as part of the leadership team at South Western Railway.

The successful candidate will be someone who genuinely wants to make a positive difference every day in everything they do whilst inspiring others to do the same. They will be adaptable, able to work to tight deadlines and have the ability to communicate with colleagues throughout the business in a professional, polite and respectful manner at all times.

The Customer Experience Training Team aims to support the business to build and maintain a team of people who create great customer experiences by putting their customers at the heart of everything they do.  Your role in achieving this will be focused around training design and delivery of programmes of learning. You will need to engage with stakeholders from many departments across the business, adapt to changing business needs and be flexible in meeting the needs of our internal customers.

A Trainers role is more than just delivering training: it is about the positive influence you have on our people throughout the business. You'll have the ability to support learners; encouraging and guiding them to be in the best place possible to transfer their new knowledge and skills into confidently delivering in their role in the workplace.

The successful candidates will be introducing new colleagues to SWR's standards and professional conduct expectations. It is therefore essential that you have a positive attitude to the role, to new business initiatives, to challenging situations and are able to maintain professionalism at all times in this influential role.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Deliver a wide variety of training events built around the Customer Experience.
• Inspire colleagues through your effective communication skills and positive attitude: acting as a role model at all times.
• Deliver to the company standards, vision and values: demonstrating professionalism through your behaviours both with task and people.
• Explore opportunities to evolve the training delivered to our frontline customer experience teams and share best practise: both face to face and virtual training.
• Be proactive, organised and efficient with office based tasks and be confident and competent with Microsoft Office Applications.
• Be proactive in your approach to building working relationships within the training team and other departments, working closely with local Managers to identify training needs, develop effective solutions and evaluate these.
• Deliver the Welcome to SWR programme to all new colleagues.
• Carry out training activities across the full range of the training cycle including TNA, Design, Delivery and evaluation.
• Demonstrate a flexible and adaptable attitude in order to deliver to required timescales.
• Demonstrate the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the Learner and make the whole experience interesting and fun.
• Take responsibility of your own ongoing development: seeking support, guidance and training or coaching to assist with improving your competence and confidence.
• Support the Customer Experience Training Manager
• Develop the knowledge and skills to act as Deputy Training Manager as required.

In return we will work with you to develop your skills as both a Trainer and Manager by providing training, coaching and support in a variety of learning opportunities.

You'll need:

• We are looking for someone who has proven previous experience in the design and delivery of Customer Experience training.
• Must have experience of managing or supervising people with their development and the tasks involved within a customer service focused team.
• You must be proven as an organised, self-motivated, team player who is energetic and enthusiastic about our customers experiences.
• You will have a passion for delivering customer service excellence and leading people development.
• It will be beneficial if you have practical experience with using Railway Ticket Issuing systems & Information Systems in your previous or current role.
• Qualifications in Learning and Development will be a bonus though not essential. 

About the location

Basingstoke Train Station is an essential hub in the South Western Railway network. It offers a convenient link between the Southwestern counties of Bournemouth, Portsmouth & Southampton to London, Reading and Birmingham. It is a busy station with 5 platforms and is the home of Inspiration Junction, out Customer Experience training centre. It is also a short walk to Basingstoke Campus, a state-of-the-art training facility and office space shared with Network Rail.

Working pattern

Generally office hours Monday to Friday although at times you may be required to work shifts or weekends to deliver to the business needs.

Normal working hours Monday - Friday, 0830 - 1630

 Additional Information

Applicants who require a visa must have at least 6 months remaining at the time of appointment. 

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Large range of exclusive retail offers
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below.  We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/