Assistant Shop Manager

About Us:

Concern Worldwide is a non-governmental, international humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries. Our mission is to transform the lives of people living in extreme poverty. We work with 25 million people each year, in some of the hardest to reach and most fragile places. Places prone to conflict, natural disasters, climate change and extreme hunger. When an emergency strikes, we are among the first on the ground. We use our voice to bring the stories of extreme poverty to world leaders.

About the role:

To support the Shop Manager with all aspects of managing the shop, including recruiting and leading the volunteer team in order to maximise the income generated for Concern's work.

You will be instrumental in making sure the shop is at the hub of the local community, ensuring a steady flow of donations for the boutique and acting as the face of Concern Worldwide and raising public awareness of our campaigns. You will have strong brand awareness be up to date with fashion labels, trends. You will deliver excellent visual merchandising standards that maximise sales, inspire customers, and showcase donations effectively. You will lead by example and be confident working within a fast-paced retail environment. You will contribute towards the success of the shop by:

• Ensuring a high standard of customer service
• Achieving targets to maximise income
• Maintaining a high standard of visual merchandising
• Supporting the store manager to actively recruit volunteers
• Working with the manager to generate stock
• Achieving expectations within campaign activities

KEY DUTIES:

Income and Profit

• Support the Shop Manager with all aspects of shop operations in order to achieve and exceed shop income targets and all retail KPI's
• Foster a creative and entrepreneurial environment to maximise income in new and innovative ways
• Ensuring the Boutique sustains a steady stream of quality donations to support this new, elevated shop proposition in our business portfolio
• Motivate the volunteer team in maintaining links with the local community and generating additional income

Stock & Shop Floor Management

• Set exceptionally high standards of shop cleanliness, display and visual merchandising, including shop windows, while ensuring shop volunteer team take on similar tasks
• Establish and maintain efficient and commercially successful stock processing systems, including; pricing, quality standards, stock density and stock flow to the shop floor
• Plan and implement on-going and seasonal stock donation appeals to ensure high levels of good quality stock at all times

Volunteer Supervision

1. Assist the Shop Manager to actively recruit a strong volunteer team
2. Maintaining the shop rota in the managers absence, communicating all changes as necessary
3. Provide ongoing training and support for the shop volunteers
4. Support the shop team in providing an excellent customer and donor experience
5. Ensure volunteers promote seasonal/topical retail initiatives and Concern UK appeals and campaigns

Health and Safety, Compliance and Reporting

• Assist the Shop Manager in ensuring volunteers are fully trained in all shop related policies and procedures and that relevant training records are kept up to date
• Provide a safe and healthy working environment and report any H&S issues to the Shop Manager or Retail Development Manager
• Ensure compliance with all statutory requirements regarding donated stock

Working for Concern

• Play a key role in enabling the shop team to represent Concern and increase the knowledge of the local community about Concern's work
• Ensure the integration of the shop into the local community with the shop volunteers
• Support volunteer team when responding to all appeals and fundraising opportunities

This role requires you to take a hands-on approach to the running of the store and this includes the continuous manual handling of stock on a daily basis. This, in turn, requires a reasonable level of fitness to undertake all daily tasks

About you:

You will have strong organizational skills and be comfortable with all aspects of a shop to help maximize the income generated for Concern's work. You will be instrumental in making sure the shop is at the hub of the local community, recruiting, managing and motivating a team of volunteers. Excellent customer service is essential as is the sourcing and visual merchandising of stock. You will have an excellent work ethic and be confident working in a fast-paced environment.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Concern Worldwide encourages all qualified candidates, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and origin, disability, political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status to apply to become a part of the organisation. Concern is against all forms of discrimination and unequal power relations, and is committed to promoting equality.

Concern Charity Retail in Northern Ireland:

There are currently eight Concern shops in Northern Ireland. Two of these are bookshops, one in Derry and the second in Holywood Co. Down. One is our newest retail format, our Concern Boutique on the Lisburn Road with an elevated customer experience and product offering. The remaining five are standard charity shops, situated in Ballycastle, Newcastle, Ormeau Road, Andersonstown and the Antrim Road in Belfast.

CONDITIONS OF APPOINTMENT

It is the nature of this post that weekend working (Saturday) and occasional additional seasonal hours are part of the normal working week. Working hours will also involve some evening work to meet the needs of the post. Due to the nature of this role, flexibility is required.

Appointment will be subject to a six-month probationary period

Salary: £23,107 - £25,674 full time (pro rata based on 28 hours - £18,485.6 - £20,539.2 per annum).

This is a 12 months fixed term contract, part time post (28 hours per week). Flexibility to increase working hours is required in the absence of the Shop Manager. The normal full-time working week is 35 hours.

Deadline: 1st October 2025.

The successful post holder will be required to complete a Basic AccessNI check and sign a criminal records self-declaration form.

Having a criminal record will not necessarily debar you from working with Concern Worldwide (NI). This will depend on the nature of the position, together with the circumstances and background of your offences.

The Secure Handling Use Storage and Retention of Disclosure Information

Policy on the Recruitment of Ex-offenders for Responsible Bodies - candidates based in Northern Ireland jurisdiction only

Details of our benefits can be found on our website: