Soft Skills Training Specialist (Customer Care)

About Us:

The FT has an uncompromising mission: delivering independent, quality information, news and services to individuals and companies around the globe. It’s the cornerstone of our reputation and the heart of our ambitions for the future. But for our people, the FT offers so much more than what we do. FT people come from all kinds of backgrounds and work across a huge range of disciplines and locations, and find empowering, warm and welcoming culture that values curiosity and rewards smart, ambitious thinking. Those who are willing to unite around our mission and live our values will find plenty to challenge, inspire and interest them. Like the audiences we serve, no two FT people are the same; but together we help our audience be better informed and understand the world around them. It’s a job that’s never mattered more, and a career that can take you anywhere you want to go. 

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace:

At the FT, we give all employees a voice so that diverse perspectives are heard and valued. We believe that a supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves at work. We'll continue to remove barriers for all, and in particular, barriers facing employees from underrepresented groups. 

About the role:

At the Financial Times, Customer Care plays an important role in building trust, strengthening loyalty and supporting sustainable growth. The Soft Skills Training Specialist is responsible for building the skills, knowledge and behaviours of our frontline Customer Care teams to improve the quality and commercial impact of customer interactions.

The role will have a particular focus on the soft skills that enable colleagues to have more effective conversations with customers, supporting retention, acquisition, stronger customer engagement and, ultimately, our commercial impact. This includes helping colleagues recognise and make the most of appropriate opportunities to strengthen customer relationships and product engagement, while maintaining the customer focus and trust expected of the FT.

Working closely with operational leaders, the role will identify capability opportunities and use a range of approaches to build and embed skills. This could include training, coaching, practical resources, conversation practice, new technology or other approaches that improve colleague confidence and effectiveness.

The role will bring curiosity and new ideas to how we build capability, testing and developing approaches that have the greatest impact for our colleagues, customers and the business.

Frontline Capability

• Build the soft skills and behaviours that enable colleagues to deliver effective customer conversations and stronger customer outcomes.
• Design and deliver practical, engaging training and development interventions for frontline teams.
• Create opportunities for colleagues to practise and build confidence in customer conversations, including retention, acquisition and engagement opportunities.
• Use customer feedback, quality insight, management observations, and performance data to identify capability opportunities and target interventions where they can have the greatest impact.

Team Leader Enablement

• Equip Team Leaders with practical tools, techniques and resources to reinforce and embed capability within their teams.
• Support Team Leaders to develop their confidence and effectiveness in coaching and developing their colleagues.
• Work alongside Team Leaders to identify where capability, rather than process or operational factors, is the underlying issue and determine the most appropriate response.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Explore new and creative ways to build and embed capability, including digital learning, AI and other technology-enabled approaches.
• Develop practical resources and tools that make it easier for colleagues and Team Leaders to learn, practise and apply new skills.
• Test, learn and adapt approaches based on their effectiveness and the needs of the business.

Partnership

• Work closely with Contact Centre leadership, Team Leaders, Quality, Performance & Insights and other stakeholders to understand priorities and deliver relevant capability interventions.
• Share insight and emerging themes to help shape Customer Care priorities and future capability development.
• Where appropriate, provide flexible training delivery support across wider Customer Care learning initiatives, including onboarding, systems, tools and process-related training, to support team capacity and business needs.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Proven experience designing and delivering training or capability interventions for soft skills.
• Experience in a training, coaching or performance management role within a Customer Care, Contact Centre, Customer Experience environment.
• Exceptionally strong facilitation, communication and relationship-building skills.
• Strong understanding of the skills and behaviours that create effective customer conversations.
• Experience supporting commercially focused conversations, such as retention, acquisition, objection handling or customer engagement.
• Experience using performance, quality or customer insight to identify development opportunities.
• A practical and creative approach to developing people and improving performance.

Desirable

• Experience working with Team Leaders or other frontline leaders to embed capability within teams.
• Experience using AI, digital learning or other technology to support learning and performance.
• Experience in a global or multi-site Customer Care or Contact Centre environment.

Customer Care Values 

• Customer-Centric: We put the customer at the heart of everything we do, going above and beyond to deliver the gold-standard service our customers expect and deserve.
• Collaborative: We believe in the power of individuals and teams working together across different roles and responsibilities in a respectful and open-minded way so that we can deliver the best customer outcomes.
• Accountable: We act with integrity, whilst taking responsibility for our performance and personal growth, to ensure that we give our best to both customers and colleagues.
• Resilient: We are adaptable, flexible and brave, maintaining a positive attitude during times of challenge and change, so that we can respond to the needs of our customers and the FT.
• Effective: We are creative and productive whilst remaining focused on our goals with a results-driven approach so that we deliver the right outcomes for our customers and for the FT.

What’s in it for you? Our Benefits:

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include: generous annual leave, flexible working (including working from home), health coverage (medical & dental), company match and enhanced family leave packages. Full details of our benefits can be found here.

Further Information:

The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, please contact a member of our HR team, who will be happy to help.