In response to Warwick Business School’s continued growth and recent expansion of its operations in the London market, the School is now looking for an Operations Manager to join the leadership team in overseeing the running of its prestigious London base.
Located at a state-of-the-art facility in one of the city’s most iconic buildings, The Shard, the role will have operational responsibilities in relation to facilities management, financial considerations, IT provision as well as exceptional service delivery to a wide variety of stakeholders.
This new senior post is an exciting opportunity for an experienced professional manager within a service orientated sector where exceptional customer relationship management, high quality service delivery, and forward thinking is central to success. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of managing customer-focused teams, ideally in an environment of extended operating hours, as well as experience of managing budgets and IT service provision. The successful individual will be quality and service-focused and able to make a positive impact in developing a proactive, flexible and customer-driven team.
WBS London focuses on executive-level education including delivery of multiple variants of the School’s Executive MBA, ranked in the Top 20 in the world by the Financial Times. The base also provides bespoke courses for key corporate clients, a Doctorate in Business Administration, and hosts a large number of events with corporate partners, often attracting high profile speakers and guests. The successful candidate will become a key member of the Shard team, reporting in to the Operations Director (London), and will play a key part in furthering the strategic ambitions of WBS through delivering the highest quality educational experiences.
Interview Date: TBC
Location: Warwick Business School – London Base, The Shard
Job Description
JOB PURPOSE
The post-holder will be responsible for designing, developing and delivering service provision to support the delivery of high quality educational programmes, as well as being responsible for the development of the underpinning physical facilities, including IT and AV provision, in line with the School’s vision, mission and values. To lead the operations team based in the School’s London base in the Shard, including day-to-day responsibility for ensuring a high level of service delivery commensurate with a top ranking, internationally recognised business school.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Stakeholder Management
· To design, develop and implement a customer service model for the WBS London base that meets the expectations of a demanding mix of student, internal and external stakeholders. To ensure that the team remains highly motivated and performing to the highest standards.
· To lead and manage a professional, courteous, effective and efficient front-of-house service for the School’s London base, ensuring a consistent quality of premium service commensurate with expectations in an iconic building such as The Shard, and to propose recommendations for improvement opportunities.
· To head up the liaison and relationship management with external event partners, including strategically important corporate or government partners, before, during and after events ensuring that expectations are met and the reputations of the School and the University are enhanced. Visitors will often be high profile, including cabinet ministers, senior business leaders etc
· To be responsible for internal communications in the London base, ensuring that a shift-based team are kept fully informed of internal and external developments that affect them and the services they provide.
· To efficiently and sensitively ensure that the staffing model is managed so as to ensure appropriately high levels of service throughout extended opening hours, ensuring that unsociable hours are spread fairly across the team.
· Responsible for all elements of line management of front-of-house staff employed at the London base, taking on responsibility for recruitment, induction, training, PDRs and performance management ensuring a motivated, skilled and customer focused team.
· To deputise for the Operations Director (London) in their absence. To undertake Projects on behalf of the Operations Director.
Facilities Management
· Responsibility for operational oversight of aspects related to the health, safety, well-being and accessibility of buildings users, keeping abreast of regulation changes, enforcing compliance with Health & Safety standards, making recommendations for improvements in collaboration with University colleagues where appropriate.
· Sole responsibility for ensuring that the physical environment of the WBS London base is developed and maintained to an appropriately high standard, including identifying enhancements
· To project manage internal works and development schemes, supervising and scheduling works to ensure completion to a high quality, on time and on budget, so as not to impede the School’s operations.
· To be the School and University’s main liaison point with stakeholders in The Shard building management teams, ensuring that the School is closely aligned with relevant Shard policies and processes, and that the relationships are maintained.
· To develop full, documented and aligned operational policies for the facility and to ensure that building/ facilities-related communications between colleagues at the London base and at WBS on campus are efficiently managed and coordinated.
· To have managerial oversight of non-academic usage of The Shard, to ensure that the non-core use by WBS and the broader University is aligned with strategic and operational priorities.
Financial Management
· Supporting the Operations Director (London), to develop, implement and manage a 5 year business plan for The Shard to meet its objectives, maintain and improve effectiveness.
· To be responsible for managing the facilities-related budgets for the London base, reporting on spend in a timely fashion to the WBS Finance Office.
IT Service Provision
· To lead the IT / AV support team in The Shard, responsible for ensuring that first line technical support to staff, students and external stakeholders is of a quality befitting the location and student / delegate profile.
· To be responsible for ensuring that any IT or AV-related issues are managed and resolved in a timely and efficient manner at all times, in the context of the facility operating outside of the range of usual support functions.
· To ensure that the technical specification of the teaching rooms is managed in accordance with WBS ambitions and to accommodate needs of stakeholders, providing a testing ground for bespoke and cutting edge IT / AV solutions.
Further Particulars
For further information about the University of Warwick, please read our University Further Particulars.
Warwick Business School (WBS) is a world-class business school at the heart of a world-class University. We are recognised for our academic excellence, our determination to challenge assumptions, and our connectivity to the broader university. We offer a broad range of undergraduate, graduate and executive courses. We recruit the brightest students, offer exceptional learning experiences, have a positive impact on society, produce impactful research that is published in premier journals, and employ outstanding faculty who are global experts in their fields. We are a global school with a cosmopolitan outlook. We believe in the power of an entrepreneurial mind-set to change the world for the better, and that business schools should have a significant role in fuelling that change. So we welcome the problem solvers, value creators and change makers who share our intellectual curiosity. As one of Europe’s leading global business schools we set out to lead the debate through our transformative research, and to develop inquisitive minds that will make a positive impact in an ever-changing world.
Our vision is: to be Europe’s leading University-based Business School, developing transformational ideas and people that shape how we do business. Our vision is supported by our three-fold mission:
• To develop cutting-edge research that leads debate and deepens our understanding of the practice of business and management.
• To provide a transformational learning experience, enabling our stakeholders to realise their full potential.
• To work in partnership with policy and practice, both in terms of our research and teaching activities, to catalyse the impact of our work.
Our reputation is based on our world-class staff, both academic and administrative, and world-class facilities. In addition, we have a very talented and diverse student body, with students from around 120 countries across our undergraduate, masters, MBA, PhD and DBA programmes.
Accreditation and rankings
WBS is proud to be part of an elite group of global business schools who have been accredited by all three premier international management education bodies:
• European Foundation for Management Development’s quality inspectorate, EQUIS
• The Association of MBAs, based in the UK
• AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, based in the USA. WBS was the first UK institution to attain this accreditation
Current details of our placing in the various media-based rankings can be found here.
The Financial Times
• Ranks our Full-time MBA in the global top 45 and 5th in the UK
• Ranks our Distance learning MBA 1st in the world
• Ranks our Executive MBA in the world’s top 25 and 4th in the UK for stand-alone Executive MBAs
• Ranks our MSc in Finance 13th in the world and 3rd in the UK.
• Ranks our MSc in Management 21st in the world and 3rd in the UK.
The Economist
• Ranks our Full-time MBA 18th in the world and 1st in the UK
• Ranks our Executive MBA 10th in the world and 2nd in the UK.
WBS London, The Shard
In 2015, WBS opened its downtown campus at London’s iconic building, The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union, offering the following part-time courses:
• DBA – Doctor of Business Administration
• Executive MBA
• Tailored Executive Education courses for companies and individuals
• Postgraduate qualifications in Central Banking and Financial Regulation, delivered exclusively for, and in partnership with, the Bank of England.
Why WBS?
Our academics produce world-leading research in all fields of management, which is why we attract the very best PhD candidates. 100% of full-time faculty who both teach and research at WBS have PhDs and our doctoral community is thriving.
We offer a range of executive education programmes including diplomas, short courses, and customised programmes for corporate clients and individuals, and consult with industry to keep our programmes fresh, relevant, and accessible. The fact that many graduates return for further study with us later in their careers demonstrates our effective blend of academic research with the practicalities of the workplace.
Warwick Business School is one of just two business schools in the UK to be recognised for advancing gender equality. In 2018 the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) awarded Warwick Business School a silver Athena SWAN award for its progress in gender equality. Warwick Business School is the first business school to receive a silver award.
Recruitment of Ex-Offenders Policy
As an organisation using the (DBS) Disclosure and Barring Service to assess applicants’ suitability for positions of trust, the University of Warwick complies with the DBS Code of Practice and undertakes not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure on the basis of a conviction or other information revealed. More information is available on the University’s Vacancy pages and applicants may request a copy of the DBS Code of Practice.
Other Information
The University of Warwick provides an inclusive working and learning environment, recognising and respecting every individual’s differences. We welcome applications from individuals who identify with any of the protected characteristics defined by the Equality Act 2010.
Right to work in the UK
If you do not yet have the right to work in the UK and/ or are seeking sponsorship under Tier 2 of the UK points-based immigration system
please click on this link which contains further information about obtaining right to work in the UK and details about eligibility for sponsorship under Tier 2.
WBS has engaged the services of SearchHigher to manage this recruitment. If you wish to apply for this role, please submit a CV and covering letter directly by email to Paula Spain, Search Higher, Recruitment Executive (p.keville@searchhigher.com) or for an informal conversation and full job description please call on 02476 575129.