JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION: Lifeguard

HOURLY RATE: from £12.30 per hour

Safety at Love Open Water venues is our top priority.

Our lifeguards are essential to this safety. We are looking for responsible, vigilant, confident team members to join our fantastic open water swimming venues.

Working at our venues will involve you helping to create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all our swimmers. Although the main purpose of the role is to closely supervise swimming activities and promote safe swimming, we are also looking for people who will interact with swimmers in a positive, friendly way. Each of our open water swimming venues has its own unique community and you will be an integral part of this at your venue.

You may be positioned shoreside or be providing water safety from a kayak, paddle or rescue board. You will share your own assessment of risk with the venue or duty manager before each session, as well as regularly communicate on swimmer numbers in the water, as part of our collaborative approach to swimmer safety.

We expect our Lifeguards to actively practice PRR (Promotion, Recognition and Rescue) with a particular focus on Promotion of safe swimming and Recognition of swimmers who may need additional support and information to reduce the risk of Rescue.

By assisting the venue or duty manager in the preparation, running and shut down of sessions, you will gain additional knowledge in open water swimming and the site itself that you will be encouraged to share with our swimmers, building the relationship between staff and customers.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Supervising swimming activities and ensuring safety procedures, guidelines and policies are followed
• Identifying potential risks which may impact swimmer, staff and visitor safety
• Administering first aid in the event of injury, rescuing swimmers in distress, administering CPR and/or artificial respiration, if necessary
• Preparing and checking equipment
• Communicating with other team members on shift
• Assisting in setup/shut down of venue
• Customer care and education
• Safety systems knowledge and operation
• Venue and water cleaning and maintenance
• Logging hours/ honest timekeeping

KEY ROLE REQUIREMENTS:

Our lifeguards must hold a minimum of NPLQ, OWL or NVBLQ.

All candidates must be competent swimmers, able to complete an unassisted 400m swim in open water.

Willingness to undertake ongoing (monthly) CPD training

Lifeguards working over winter will be expected to be dressed/ equipped ready for rescue (wetsuit if required) and will be asked to enter the water frequently as part of acclimatisation training.

Watercraft (kayak, paddle or rescue board) proficiency desirable but not essential (training will be provided)

RYA2 desirable but not essential

KEY PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• A passion for swimming, customer service and peoples’ safety
• Good physical fitness with the strength to help people from the water
• Confident and assertive with good communication skills
• The ability to be flexible and adapt to change
• Ability to work under pressure and remain calm in stressful situations and dynamically access the environment in the event of an emergency

BENEFITS/PERKS:

• Flexible hours
• Paid leave
• Paid CPD training
• Heavily subsidized requalification (conditions apply)
• Swim at Love Open Water venues for free!

CAREER PROGRESSION:

We are keen to engage, train and promote internally.

All lifeguards will have the opportunity over time to upskill to OWL or become a Duty Manager.  We also offer opportunities to train as an open water coach.