Families who’ve experienced a loss need someone they can rely on, who’ll be willing to go the extra mile to make a heart-breaking situation easier to bear.

They’ll need someone to carefully guide them during one of hardest moments of their lives.

This is where you can make a real difference.

Joining us as Funeral Advisor, you’ll take pride in the day-to-day running of our Funeral homes – supporting our families, ensuring high standards and building trusted relationships.

Being a co-operative member, you’ll be flexible, and cover other Funeral Homes (as required) for sickness and holidays, as well as arranging funerals at the clients’ premises (as required).

In this varied role, you’ll blend empathy, organisation and local connection. You’ll be assisting families with all aspects of the funeral arrangement process- making sure that they feel well supported and informed.

Some of your key responsibilities will include:

• Through developing your knowledge of all the services we offer (including our coffin range, our choice of masonry and floral tributes), together with actively listening about the person who has died and understanding the families’ wishes, you’ll be able to provide the choices that they need to personalise the funeral service
• Arrange Funerals- paying attention to detail and transparency of cost
• Communicate clearly and accurately the arrangements between both the family and Funeral Director
• Administration duties – handling complex information with accuracy, sensitivity and care
• Making sure that the Funeral Home is kept clean and tidy all times as well as ensuring the security of the premises (including opening and closing of funeral home i.e. alarms)
• Acting as a co-operative member, promoting Funeral Services within the local community
• Build good working relationships with hospitals, nursing homes, local clergy and doctors.
• Comply with all statutory and internal policies and procedures

Working in our funeral homes means that you’ll need to be comfortable with duties that require you to have close treatment of the person who’s died- making sure that all activities are carried out respectfully and with dignity

Duties will include daily care checks of the person who’s died, preparation for visiting rooms- in which the coffin lid will be removed and checks carried out to make sure that the person who has died is ready for visiting again.

Please note as of 1st December 2023, new joiners to our Funeral Business will be subject to a standard DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. All offers will be conditional on us receiving a satisfactory disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Due to nature of this role, you’ll need to bring a compassionate nature and be able to demonstrate active listening skills, enabling you to provide a high standard of support.

You’ll need a keen eye for detail as well as the ability to handle complex information with accuracy, sensitivity and care.

You’ll be comfortable in building good working relationships, both internally and externally.

A full UK Driving licence is essential, together with flexibility and a willingness to travel in the area when required.

You’ll need to bring strong communication, organisation and administrative skills. Prior experience in an administration role is desirable.

Everyone is welcome here. We’re happy to make reasonable adjustments so that all our candidates can show us how they’ll perform their role. There is a section in the application form where you can provide any additional information. Please use this section to include any reasonable adjustments you need, and we’ll do our best to support you through our recruitment process.

OurCoop is the UK’s largest independent co-operative Society, with more than one million Members and 13,000 colleagues operating in communities nationwide. It was formed by bringing together Central Co-op, The Midcounties Co-operative and Chelmsford Star Co-op to create a stronger, member-owned organisation rooted in shared co-operative values.

The Society trades nationally through its family of businesses while remaining deeply rooted in local communities. Its footprint spans Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Bedfordshire in the South and West; the Midlands including Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Northamptonshire; the North including Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire; and the East of England, including Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

OurCoop and its family of businesses are trading names of Central England Co-operative Limited.