Operational Standards Manager
Job Purpose:
Operational Standars Manager
Remote - working from home with travel across our network and to Hubs required. Our current main Hubs: Leeds, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Newark, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Gloucester, London.
Full time, permanent role.
Salary: £53,000 - £55,000 + car cash allowance & benefits
Can you help us set and meet the standards and guidance for our operations and maintenance work to ensure we deliver a great service to our customers and provide excellent stewardship of our historic canal network?
We are the UK's largest waterways charity, looking after 2,000 miles of your canals and rivers across England and Wales. Together, let’s make sure they continue to be here for tomorrow and beyond. Our plans are to deliver a substantial increase in expenditure on our waterway network to improve its resilience through the growing impact of climate change.
The Operational Standards Manager is a key role within our Operations Performance team; whose purpose is to provide support to our regional and national frontline teams delivering our day-to-day operations and maintenance. It is our job to ensure our regions are successful in delivering their operations and maintenance works in a dynamic and sometimes challenging environment.Our ideal candidate will know operations inside out; you will be a collaborator, with an eye for detail who demands high performance and compliance. You will already be an established senior operations leader or ready to take that next step and you will have an enquiring mind with a desire to find new and better ways to work.
This role leads on setting and maintaining the standards and guidance for the Trust’s operations, maintenance and customer service activities to ensure our infrastructure is resilient and safe; and our navigations and towpaths are open and alive with people using them regularly, enjoying their time by or on the water.
This is a key leadership role providing operations oversight and support to the Operations Performance Director and Regional Directors to drive consistency of operational performance across the 6 regions and MEICA operations and maintenance teams to ultimately deliver improved customer and boater satisfaction.You will be the line manager of a small team of specialists responsible for the definition and collation of our operational performance measures and metrics using data capture, analysis and reporting of outcomes to drive action and improvements in operations and maintenance performance.
Your enquiring mind will help to create a learning environment of continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of our operations and maintenance activities, developing a programme of continuous improvement and operations change projects across a range of activities for the team to deliver.
This is a customer facing role requiring regular liaison with our different customer groups, external stakeholders, regulators and others.
Location & Coverage
Our Operational Standards Manager role will be offered on a remote working basis, with a requirement to attend our main hub spaces as and when required for team working and collaborative meetings. Regular travel to our regional waterway network to enable site visits, meet colleagues, contractors and volunteers, and liaise with your team members will be essential and will help your onboarding and understanding of the Trust.We know uncertainty around travel (such as what do we mean by regular?), can sometimes be a barrier to applying for a job, particularly for working parents. Please do not let travel be a barrier to you applying for this role, speak to us at interview or prior to application about what a typical week, month or year may look like and we will be able to clarify our expectations.
Our current main Hubs: Leeds, Ellesmere Port, Burnley, Newark, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Gloucester, London.
See our canal network here: (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network)
Knowledge, Skills/Qualifications & Experience :
You will be accountable for leading a critical component within our Operations Performance team to ensure the standards and guidance are in place to support the successful delivery of all our operations and maintenance programmes. You will be helping us develop our maturity in setting our operations and maintenance standards and ensuring we meet them, whilst introducing a continuous improvement culture and toolkit.You do not need to know anything about canals, rivers, reservoirs or docks, except that they are great places to visit to relax and will make you feel happier and healthier. You may currently be working in logistics, retail, construction, consultancy, facilities, charity or transport and our recent hiring experience shows there are many transferable skills from these and numerous other sectors.
Key Accountabilities:
- Accountable for the standards and guidance for the Trust’s operations, maintenance and customer service activities, ensuring standards and guidance are created, reviewed on time, updated to reflect user feedback and are visible and accessible using our SharePoint system.
- Operations Manual development linking the standards to programmes and KPI’s/metrics; ensuring training & skills plans are developed with OD team support, standard operating procedures are in place, new equipment or technology is tested and works; all to ensure those delivering on site are supported and have the right skills, equipment and knowledge to be successful.
- Apply a continuous improvement approach to everything we do, ensuring all our standards incorporate user feedback that is actively sought and listened to and acted upon to improve the standards and guidance provided.
- Support to the 6 regional and MEICA operations and maintenance management teams by reviewing and analysing operational performance data and KPI’s, leading on workforce management practices and innovation, as well as programme level performance oversight to support the provision of operational management information and reports to the Operations Performance Director and Regional Directors.
- Lead on the compilation of the operations and maintenance element of the Operations Directorate 3-year business plan aligned to our 10-year strategy, including financial analysis, presentations and documenting the plan.
- Undertake research across other operations sectors and identify areas for improvement focus through capture and analysis of key performance data. Establishing improvement targets, undertaking feasibility testing and preparing business cases to recommend change and implement a pipeline of continuous improvement and operations change projects to maximise the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of activities across the 6 regions and MEICA operations and maintenance teams.
- Prioritise and integrate health safety and wellbeing improvements and compliance across all standards and work areas.
- External customer facing role and key contact with our volunteer Navigation Advisory Group and other key stakeholders (eg AINA) in assisting the Trust in reviewing and developing our standards and guidance for operations and maintenance.
- Educated to degree level or equivalent with significant post qualification experience in a customer focused operations environment.
- Demonstrable experience in operational management with experience of developing standards or guidance, optimising resources and delivering efficiency through cultural and practical change.
- Thorough understanding of continuous improvement, effective and efficient delivery processes, cost control, performance measures and adapting to change.
- Knowledge of operational legislation and standards and how to link the standard all the way to delivery on the ground via programmes, KPI’s. skills and learning programmes, new technology etc…
- Proven ability to be able to influence and collaborate with other departments/stakeholders.
- Experience of budget planning, management and control.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to communicate appropriately at all levels of the Trust to executive.
- An ability to build robust external relationships with customers, regulators and other key stakeholders to protect, maintain, and continually improve levels of service.
- As a leader you will always display our leadership behaviours, inspiring and motivating your own team of colleagues and volunteers as well as others.
- Always display the Trust values and behaviours, including thinking and acting like a charity.
- Ensuring that diversity and inclusion are integrated into all aspects of Trust life and promoting inclusion by challenging behaviour, practices, actions, or decisions that are counter to the Trust’s values.
As with any job, you may not have everything on the list above and we will be able to support your development into this role with training and support from experienced colleagues.
To apply: click on the "Apply for this job" button and follow the process - complete the application form, upload current CV and supporting statement.
If you have any questions about the role, please contact CRT.recruitment@canalrivertrust.org.uk
Closes: 7 October 2024 at 09:00am
Interviews: w/c 21 October 2024
What We Offer:
In addition to your annual salary of £53,000 - £55,000, we also offer a Car Cash Allowance (£450 per month) a competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, and numerous other employee benefits, including several salary sacrifice benefits, all of which can be found here (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/work-for-us/our-benefits). £60,605 inclusive of allowances.
Other benefits include:
- Competitive contributory DC Pension scheme arrangement, where we will double your contribution to a maximum of 10%.
- 25 days paid holiday (plus paid Bank Holidays), increasing to 27 days after 3 years, and 30 days after 5 years.
- Home working status with ‘hub’ facilities available should you need the flexibility to work outside of home.
- A variety of personal learning & growth opportunities
- Free access to specialist counselling on a range of issues, e.g. health, financial, well-being and domestic matters.
- Access to a range of employee benefits including store discounts, boating holiday discounts and holiday purchase scheme.
- 2 days paid volunteering leave per annum, allowing you to volunteer for a local community project etc.
- Free fishing facilities across our canal network.
We are striving to represent the diverse communities that we are a part of and welcome applicants from across all sectors of the community.
All candidates will be treated on the basis of their merits, skills and abilities and solely by being assessed against the requirements for the job.
When you join the Canal & River Trust you become a member of an engaged team working to preserve our heritage for future generations. Come and share your passion and knowledge with a team that makes a difference to millions of people every day.
Find out more about us on our website: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us