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:

To lead a team of station assistants to provide a safe environment whilst delivering excellent customer service at all times. To ensure that customers are extended a welcome to the station, are kept well informed and are assisted as necessary.  To ensure that all areas are kept clean and well presented.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Ensure your personal safety and that of others, including that of visitors and contractors at all times
• Comply with the Rules as defined in Network Rail Group Standard, South Western Railway Employee Handbook, other regulations and Instructions, Group Standards and Legislation, undertaking periodic re-examination of competency.
• Lead and direct staff in the provision of a safe, courteous, helpful service at all times.
• Lead and direct staff in the provision of a safe, clean and well-presented customer environment, ensuring that the tasks detailed in the cleaning schedules are maintained.
• Undertake emergency procedures and implement evacuation procedures when required.
• When the Duty Station Manager is not in attendance, maintain signing on/off records for staff under your control, ensuring that members of staff are fit, capable and presentable (including the wearing of name badges) for the duty they are working.
• Ensure that arrangements are made to cover short term and late notice absences and periods of sickness.
• Ensure the safe and punctual dispatch of trains and ensure that performance records are maintained. Identify and report to your Station Manager incidents of delays to services.
• Wear uniform (including name badge) and safety clothing as supplied, ensuring that your standard of appearance complies with the company standard and is high at all times.
• Maintain security of the station premises during your booked time of attendance.
• Have an understanding of ticket & restrictions relevant to your location and line of route.
• Ensure winter precautions are carried out as per local instructions.
• Additional tasks as specified by the local manager applicable to the role.

As a minimum, you will need to have:

• Able to travel to your location of work within 60 minutes, for all shift times.
• Good general education
• Strong customer focus
• Good interpersonal skills
• Team leadership ability
• Resilience 
• Supervisory experience is desirable
• Able to distinguish colours with normal colour vision

Applicants who require a visa must have 6 months remaining at the time of their appointment. Training is full time and you must be able to commit to this.

Working pattern:

Our customers need us all day, every day (except Christmas day) and as part of the stations team, you'll need to able to work shifts at all times of the day and on every day of the week.

On average you will work 37 hours per week over 5 days, including a mixture of early, late and weekend shifts.

Shifts vary in length with differing start and finish times but will be between the following hours:

05:30 - 23:00, Monday - Saturday 

07:00 - 22:00, Sunday

The Reward:

There may on occasions be the opportunity to work on rest days or to do overtime.  This may give the possibility of your overall pay being approximately £30,000 per annum plus regional allowance

As well as a competitive salary we offer a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employee
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependant)
• 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/