Category: General News

Thank you to those of you who contributed to, worked or attended Myths and Superstitions, the October half term programme.

We really value your feedback so please take a few minutes to complete a survey with your responses to the theme and the programme.

Below are the headline responses from visitors.

What went well?

• 96% Excellent & Good Overall Ratings
• Gideon Gladwell character was very popular, as were others described as being “in role” or “in character”
• Visual storytelling was successful – the funeral procession with the Undertaker and horses
• 94% of visitors said they learned something new about the Black Country
• 85% of visitors said they felt their visit represented their Black Country Heritage
• 66% of visitors said they felt that they learned about migration to the Black Country
• 91 % of visitors said they learned something new about the 1950s/60s

Where can we improve?

• Signage – several comments regarding not knowing where they were whilst using the map
• Trail – 13% usage, with a rating  of 89% of good/excellent
• Programme – 48% of visitors said they were aware of the programme and some commented that they felt the programme wasn’t visible.

Thank you to those of you who worked or came along to our Halloween Nights! We couldn’t have done it without you.

We had some of the highest visitor numbers ever for an evening event and still a 17% uplift in visitor satisfaction from last year!

Over half the people who came did so because they wanted a unique night out with family and/or friends.

80% of visitors bought food or drink and 67% rated it good or excellent. So thanks to all involved.

Here’s  a sample of what visitors said:

• Loved that the kids could trick or treat, the band were amazing and it was a brill atmosphere
• We loved the coal mine tour, we last went in 2019 and we liked how it is now a tour instead of people jumping out on us, it felt safer and the children enjoyed it more.
• The different characters making the event exciting as well as the options for food and drink.
• The gentleman who gave the ghost story in the mine was the best part
• Was a brilliant night with lots to do. The kids had an absolutely brilliant time! The only thing I would say is that the workers costumes weren’t as good as previous years… they need to be more scary and some of them were clumped together in groups chatting… but other than that it was a great night.
• Not enough activities for adults and too many long queues.
• There were very few actors walking around in Halloween costume throughout the museum, previous years there have been actors in fantastic costumes
• It was overly crowded… Even though event was till 10, mines closed at 9:15

As always, we value your feedback – whether you worked on or attended the event – please let us know your thoughts so we can feed it back into discussions about next year’s Halloween events.

Halloween Nights Survey

Please note that the December 2023 pay date will be on Friday 22 December 2023 for all staff. For hourly paid staff, this will include the four weeks ending Sunday 17 December 2023.

January 2024 pay will be paid on Friday 26 January 2024. For hourly paid staff, this will include the five weeks ending Sunday 21 January 2024

It is important to note that there will five weeks between the December and January pay dates.

A reminder that the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) scheme, which provides advice and tools on a number of matters including tools to manage finances, is available to all colleagues. You can access the EAP service by calling 0800 756 0861 and quoting “Perkbox” and “Black Country Living Museum”. Alternatively you can access the EAP portal via the Perkbox app/webpage. Through Perkbox, you can also access a wide range of discounts on the items you already buy, helping you to make your money go further.

If you would like any further information on Perkbox please contact [email protected]

The Museum will close 25-26 December for the Christmas holidays, but we will be back between Wednesday 27 December – Sunday 7 January before closing for our winter maintenance.

To check our 2024 opening times, please visit our website.

The 2024 Pay Schedule is now available to view.

Thank you.

There are a couple of vacancies on the Staff Consultative Forum, in addition to a number of elected Staff Consultative Forum representatives whose term is coming to an end in December. We would therefore like to invite nominations for the following constituent posts:

• Administrative, Specialist & Managerial x 1
• Enterprise (including F&D, Retail & Admissions) x 2
• Historic Characters x 2

The Forum plays a key communication and discussion role in many significant matters affecting all colleagues across the Museum.

If you would like to be considered as a Staff Consultative Forum Representative, you will need a colleague from the same constituency as you to propose your nomination and the name of another colleague, again within the same constituency, who seconds the nomination.

The closing date for nominations is this Sunday, 3 December 2023. Elections will be held following this date if we have multiple candidates for a single role.

To put yourself forward, please complete and return a nomination form to the People & Culture team (based at Canalside) either by hand, by depositing in the black post box outside of the People & Culture office, or via email to [email protected].

All employees are eligible to apply, with the exception of the Leadership Team. Casual Workers may only apply to represent, propose or second a nomination for the Casual Worker constituency.

As a reminder, the current Staff Consultative Form Representatives are:

Under the terms of the Staff Consultative Forum Constitution, representatives can stand for two terms. Current representatives who are reaching the end of their first term and would like to stand for another term will be required to complete the usual nomination process and will be subject to election if necessary.

(Pictured is Lisa Bate, Engineering Coordinator)

The Midland Metro Alliance will fully close Birmingham New Road on both sides of Hanson’s bridge from Friday 1 – Monday 4 December, to remove the existing bridge deck. This will divert vehicles and pedestrians. Please be aware of the closure and posted detour (photo attached below) if you travel this area regularly – it may add time to your commute.

Please note, more closures are expected next year to install the new bridge. Our dedicated Stakeholder Liaison Manager, Tom Bissell, can be contacted at [email protected], should you have any questions about the work or require further information about the project.

Thanks,[embeddoc url=”http://intranet.bclm.com/wp-content/uploads/Birmingham-New-Road-NoW-Dec23-1.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]

On Tuesday 19 December, Audiences & Communications will be hosting a photography morning across various locations on site. A professional photographer will be on-site taking staged photos of ‘visitors’ exploring the building and interacting with our historic characters.

We are looking for a small group of volunteers (colleagues, as well as friends, family and young children) to act as visitors in the photos.

This would involve attending the Museum on Tuesday 19 December from around 10am-1pm and appearing in staged photos.

In order to accurately reflect the Museum’s audience, we are keen to ensure a variety of different people are represented in the photos. We would like to include people of all ages and ethnicities, as well as people from the LGBTQ+ community.

If you or anyone you know (family members, friends and young children are more than welcome) would like to take part, please register your interest by emailing [email protected] by Friday 15 December at 4pm.

Our festive favourites are back!

25% discount in the gift shop, valid for staff and volunteers from Friday 24^th Nov – 24^th December.

Excluding canal art, Christmas hampers, gift membership, postage, charity items, alcohol and car park tokens.

Happy shopping!