Royal Mail Job Vacancies

The Royal Mail is an employer like no other. With employees covering every inch of the United Kingdom, delivering letters and parcels, the Royal Mail is always recruiting new people to work in a variety of roles in a variety of areas.

The Royal Mail carries out an important public service, and has a duty to deliver postal mail throughout the UK. To allow these items to travel quickly and accurately through the system from start to finish the Royal Mail depends on the hard work of its staff. The Royal Mail currently employs over 200,000 staff and has an annual turnover of around £8 billion.

If you are searching for a job vacancy with the Royal Mail it may be helpful to understand the benefits that come with working for this organisation. Firstly, if you are looking for shift work you should be aware that your hourly salary might be topped up by shift allowances. The paid holiday entitlement is four and a half weeks per year and this increases after 5 years continuous service. As the workforce is generally flexible, the Royal Mail allow staff to “purchase” up to 6 weeks extra holiday if required. All Royal Mail employees are entitled to join the pension scheme and have a choice of a final salary scheme or a retirement savings plan. There are other benefits that come with working for the Royal Mail, such as a discount vouchers for numerous retailers and events, a flexible working environment and free independent welfare advice.

There are a variety of job vacancies with the Royal Mail. Some of the most popular and frequently advertised are detailed below.

Royal Mail Operational Job Vacancies

Postman / Postwoman

Delivering a letter requires significant manpower, so you will not be surprised to learn that one of the most common job types with the Royal Mail is that of postman or postwoman. You need to be prepared to work outdoors in this role, and whatever the weather you are responsible for delivering mail to homes and businesses. Many of the positions will require the candidate to work solely on foot, but in some more rural areas or where the route is long you may be provided with a van.

Being a postman or postwoman is physically demanding, and the job is not suitable for everyone. In order to apply for this type of job vacancy you need to meet the following criteria:

• You should be able to carry up to 16KG mail pouches
• You should be able to carry 11KG mail bags
• You should be able to push trolleys up to 250KG

You are also likely to be working from early in the morning, so be prepared for early starts on a daily basis. As the postman or postwoman is the face of the Royal Mail it is necessary that you are smartly presented, with no facial tattoos or piercings.

The full salary awarded to postmen and postwomen is around £256 per week (higher for inner London). After 12 months continuous service this figure rises to around £311 per week.

Other Royal Mail Operational Jobs

In addition to postmen and women, Royal Mail employs a large number of employees in various other operational roles. The main roles are:

Postal Driver – transporting the post from collection point to sorting office to end recipient.

Indoor Sorter – sorters work as a large team, sorting mail both by hand and with the help of machinery. It is likely that there are vacancies for a variety of hours such as full time, part time and seasonal due to the 24 hour nature of this operation.

Data Entry Clerk – Letters that cannot be read by the machines need to be sorted by hand and the Data Entry Clerk is responsible for reading the address and inputting the data into the computer.

If you are interested in applying for any operational job with Royal Mail you should visit the Royal Mail website. They have a useful job search function that allows you to search for suitable job vacancies in your local area. You can search for a variety of positions based in and around your local area and Royal Mail will email you will updated vacancies.

You can be sure that if you work for Royal Mail you will receive comprehensive training and the chance to advance your career. Initially, staff are given a full day induction course, which provides them with information about the company and how Royal Mail operates with its partners Parcel Force and Royal Mail Group.

Staff are given regular appraisals a performance reviews and each will have a bespoke development plan. There are a number of courses open to Royal Mail employees such as IT, communication management and health and safety. Learning centres are also accessible for those employees looking to improve their maths and English skills.

To apply for a vacancy with Royal Mail Operations you do not need any specific qualifications (other than a driving licence if required). You just need to demonstrate that you are a motivated and physically fit person, with a friendly nature and a positive attitude.