Assistant Community Support Supervisor

Our Community Services team is a small, high performing team of four, the Senior Librarian: Community Libraries and Volunteering, two Assistant Community Services Supervisors and a Community Services Library Assistant, and is based at our Central Stocks Unit in Welwyn Garden City.

The team is responsible for directly supporting 13 Community Libraries, working closely with the volunteer led Community Library Committees, Community Library Volunteers, and library staff across Hertfordshire to ensure that residents receive an excellent service. The team also has responsibility for the strategy and processes that underpin all the other volunteer roles that support our wider volunteer offer in 30 staffed libraries.

Our customers are our community libraries, volunteers and residents.

The Assistant Community Services Supervisor role supports the Senior Librarian in ensuring the efficient running of day-to-day service delivery and supervising the Community Services Library Assistant. This may involve visiting community libraries, delivering volunteer training and making sure the stock in these libraries meet our Stock Policy.

You and your Assistant Community Services Supervisor colleague will be responsible for the supervision (including training, support, and guidance) of the Community Services Library Assistant.

You will be the point of contact for Community Library Volunteers and work with Community Library Committees when required.

With an eye for detail, you will carry out a range of tasks and liaise with colleagues in other teams, including the HCC Technology team, Senior Librarians/Service Development colleagues and staff in libraries, to meet volunteer queries and requests, escalating as necessary to the Senior Librarian: Community Libraries and Volunteering.

You will be responsible for ensuring that guidance and resources for volunteers are engaging and accessible, delivering in-person training when appropriate.

You will be involved with the annual stock edit of each of our community libraries and as such it will require you to have an awareness of manual handling practises with the ability to apply these in your work.

You will spend some of your time working remotely at the Central Stocks Unit or in community libraries across Hertfordshire, in order to collaborate and support your colleagues and volunteers.

The role will require travel between remote locations at short notice which are not typically accessible by public transport.

Essential:

• You will have proven communication and administrative skills and experience of providing excellent customer care.
• You will have the skills to manage competing deadlines and can prioritise your workload.
• You are a great proactive team member, with the ability to motivate staff and volunteers.
• You will be able to communicates with people at all levels effectively and able to vary communication style appropriate to different audiences
• You will be a confident user of IT, including Word and Excel and able to manage and maintain the volunteer online training platform.
• You will need access to transport allowing you to travel to community libraries across Hertfordshire as required
• You will demonstrate flexibility, enthusiasm and a willingness to undertake a variety of tasks

Desirable:

• You will have a knowledge of and experience of working within public libraries

This Assistant Community Supervisor role offers successful applicants the opportunity to get involved in a variety of tasks, working with library colleagues across the Service, at the team base at Central Stocks Unit and supporting volunteers in community libraries.

This role is hybrid based at Central Stocks Unit. Working times will be office hours Monday to Friday, though occasional working outside office hours may be required to support events or activities.

The Central Stocks Unit will be relocating to St Albans within the next 18 months. The post holder will play a key role in supporting the Community Services team to successfully relocate to the new working environment.

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Disability Confident
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.

Driving required
You’ll need to have the ability to travel around Hertfordshire, either using your own mode of transport to travel to other locations.

English Fluency
The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.