Cleaner- (Building Facilities Operative)

Salary: £24,320  per annum, pro rata

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 14 April 2025

The Role

What’s in it for you? Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Newcastle is an inclusive global University community where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

Newcastle University is committed to being a fully inclusive Global University which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices. 

Estates & Facilities are a very large multidisciplinary team that look after the development, maintenance, safety and security of over 150 buildings across various sites including a wide variety of world class teaching and research facilities, a range of diverse accommodation for over 3500 students across three student villages as well as caring for our beautifully landscaped grounds.  We are also the team at the University responsible for catered halls, great food and drink, conferences and events.

We are looking for candidates who can support us with a variety of cleaning duties, as well as supporting the porter team if required.  We are responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of a large number of buildings in our beautiful campus.  Our team of over 200 colleagues are responsible for periodic cleaning routines, particularly around frequently touched services as well as deeper cleaning routines. 

We are ideally looking for someone who has experience of working as part of a team in a customer focused environment.

We have hours available from 12.5 – 30hrs per week and really need our teams to have a flexible approach to working, working when required on a rota covering the hours of 7am to 11pm, all year round.

If this is you, we are really interested in hearing from you.  Please call Jeanette Trewick, our Building Facilities Manager, on 0191 2085479 for more information.

To apply, please upload your most up to date CV to our application portal and complete the mandatory fields in the application form.  

**Unfortunately, this role would not qualify for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker Visa route.

The role

Supporting the function of the Estates & Facilities office by providing a range of services to Academic, Administrative and Service departments as an individual or as part of a team, undertaking specified duties to service level standards and customer service standards.

Key Accountabilities

• Undertake general cleaning duties as required by the cleaning and portering Supervisors, including the use of floor maintenance equipment
• Portering duties will include removal of general and clinical waste and their correct disposal, distribution of deliveries throughout the facility, general removals, ensuring all stairways and fire corridors and exits are kept clear, removing the obstructions or reporting the problem to the appropriate personnel
• Contribute to the general security of the building, property and persons and reporting incidents and potential breaches of security
• Respond to emergency situations and taking appropriate action to minimise damage/distress. Where possible taking action to assist in rectifying the situation e.g. flooding, lift failure with occupants
• Ensure safe working practices by observing and complying with Estate & Facilities, and Faculty/School health and safety procedures
• Provide cover for colleagues when necessary as directed by the Team Leader/Supervisor

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of working in a customer focused environment
• Experience of working as part of a team
• Demonstratable experience of being able to plan and organise workloads
• Numerate and literate

Desirable

• Experience of working in an educational or large organisation
• Ability to use rotary floor cleaning equipment

Attributes and Behaviour

• Flexible approach to working
• Demonstrate good communication and interpersonal skills
• Willing to help others and share workloads
• Physically able to carry out the duties of the position – regular bending, lifting, moving around a large building or complex
• Willing to undertake work pattern as required by the Service including overtime
• Able to work unsocial hours

Qualifications

Desirable

• BICSc or COPC or similar cleaning qualification

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver  Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27981