Warehouse Operative

Warehouse Operative

Birmingham B7 5QT

Salary: £22893 per annum

Location: Birmingham, B7 5QT

Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours per week

Benefits: 25 days holiday, pro-rata, 5.5% Employer Pension Contribution including Life Cover, Occupational Sick Pay Benefits & Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Paternity Leave and Pay, plus more

Reporting to: Warehouse Manager

FareShare Midlands is the region’s largest food redistribution charity. We take good-to-eat surplus food from the food industry and get it to our Members - frontline charities and community groups all over the Midlands. We turn an environmental problem into a social solution.

Last year we redistributed almost 5,794 tonnes of food from our warehouses in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham. It is sorted and stored by our dedicated teams of staff and volunteers, and then redistributed to around 800 Members including food pantries and cafes, homeless shelters and drop-in centres.

These local organisations turn the food into food parcels, affordable shopping and delicious meals for people of all ages. As well as food, our Members provide vital support to families and the elderly, many of whom are facing challenging circumstances and living in poverty.

Last year our food reached more than 83,000 vulnerable people every week, providing 13 million meals. At the same time, we are growing our Employability Programmes to help people gain work experience, skills and jobs.

The Role

To undertake all aspects of warehouse duties, ensuring effective, safe and efficient distribution of food each day. You will have responsibility for coordination of our food stock, from goods-in to picking, dispatch and stock rotation and will be expected to drive vans, and Fork Lift Trucks (training provided). Working closely with the wider team and volunteers, you will also support the monitoring and utilisation of warehouse space, stock, deliveries and collections to ensure food reaches its destination amongst our members safely, on time and in full.

Key duties and responsibilities:

1.   Operations

· Undertake all warehouse duties, ensuring effective, safe and efficient co-ordination and distribution and of food

· To work to performance indicators so that stock is accurate and delivery routes are efficient to allow the organisation to grow

· To ensure that all work areas – both inside and outside the warehouse - are clean, organised and safe to work in

· Follow all H&S and Food Safety standards set out in the FareShare policies and procedures to ensure the safety of all our colleagues & visitors, and the safe receipt of food by all our members.

· Undertake van/Fork Lift Truck driving duties to ensure effective, efficient timely and safe delivery & collection of food, in line with compliance standards

· Ensuring great customer service in delivery

· Loading and unloading, sorting for, and following deliveries, ensuring safe lifting, and carrying

· Keep vehicles refuelled, maintained, operational and clean and tidy, ready for the next delivery run

· Refer van “issues”, in a timely manner to Transport Department to ensure minimum disruption to service delivery

· Undertake all checks and procedures from pre-delivery to post-delivery

· Ensure lock up, parking and storage of vans and equipment following completion of deliveries

 2.   Volunteer Communication & Co-ordination

 · Work closely with the volunteer teams a diverse group ranging from regular and long-term, volunteers, placements (e.g. Job Centre) to business people having just a 1-day volunteering experience – to ensure that all shift duties are covered and teams work effectively

· Provide leadership and guidance to volunteers, ensuring they follow all policies and procedures, high standards of accuracy are maintained and their volunteer experience with FSM is a satisfying one.

· Work closely with the Warehouse Manager, Volunteer Manager & wider staff team with the recruitment, training and development of volunteers in the context of our commitment to Equal Opportunities

· Participate in end of day reviews and planning for the next day’s activities

· Maintain excellent relations and communications with volunteers, staff, food suppliers and charities, at all times

3.   Standards

 · Ensure compliance with relevant Health & Safety, Food Hygiene and other standards applicable to the building, vehicles, refrigeration equipment, our staff and volunteers. carrying out risk assessments as required

· Uphold and develop high quality customer care towards & communication with our Community Food Members (CFMs)

4.   Administration

· Ensure that food movements are accurately logged on the electronic stock management system

· Carry out depot administration, including running reports, correspondence with member groups, updating volunteer records

· Ensure that relevant administrative matters are dealt with in a timely way, for instance food safety traces & customer complaints.

 Person Specification - Skills, Qualities & Experience

Skills

·  Excellent, clear and proactive communication skills, both internal and with external stakeholders

· Team working skills, including both the ability to delegate and to develop people with a positive approach

· Good organisational skills including attention to detail, an ability to prioritise and meet deadlines working with own team

·  All round good health and ability to do physically demanding work at times

· A positive and creative attitude in support of our FareShare & partners values

· A motivation to collaborate with and develop others, with a demonstrable commitment to Equal Opportunities

· A flexible work approach, including a willingness to cover alternative shift rotas

Qualifications

· Up-to-date driving license

· IT literacy, in particular of using Microsoft applications (Outlook, Word

· Sound numeracy skills

· Qualifications in Food Hygiene, Health & Safety as it applies to food distribution (or if not it is essential that you have the commitment to training in these areas)

Desirable Experience

· Experience of working in a warehouse environment, preferably with food

· Experience of working with individuals who may feel vulnerable or need support

· No major endorsements on license such as DR, DG or IN. Successful candidates will have a full clean UK driving license (6 points or less will be considered)

· Previous multi-drop experience is preferred however not essential.

· The role requires manually loading stock into a van (up to 20/30kg) and unload each delivery

· A good geographical knowledge of the County and surrounding area would be helpful.

Values and behaviours 

· A commitment to Equal Opportunities

· An appreciation of FareShare Midlands’ mission and vision

· Flexibility of approach and ability to work in a team

· Proven ability to develop and maintain good working relations, with both internal and external audiences

· The roleholder will be required to work flexibly.

How to Apply:

If you would like to apply for this role, please create a supporting statement to demonstrate your suitability and to explain your interest in both the job and FareShare Midlands. Please send your supporting statement with a copy of your CV.

We continue to strive to ensure that the profile of our staff and volunteers reflects the diverse communities we serve across the Midlands. As such we encourage and welcome applications from all our communities. We particularly welcome applications from people from ethnically diverse backgrounds as they are currently under-represented within FareShare Midlands. 

We will be actively interviewing applicants as they apply.