Head of Operations - The Lexicon

Purpose of the Role

The Head of Operations is a senior, high profile role encompassing the full array of soft services, environmental, M&E services and facilities management.

The purpose of the role is to lead, support and encourage teams to drive operational improvement, delivering exceptional customer service to all of the Town centre’s visitors and tenants. You will also assist in implementing Savills Health and Safety platforms and ensuring legislation is adhered to across all areas of the centre.

You are responsible for a team of Soft Service Contracted managers across Security & Cleaning, as well as Centre based management working with the team to deliver results for soft and hard services.

You will be familiar with health and safety and fire legislative requirements in so far as they relate to the management of a shopping centre and how they relate to landlord tenant relationships. Ensuring compliance throughout the centre which you have responsibility by inspection, audit, training and maintenance records.

You will be a very effective people manager who achieves results through teamwork and strong relationships. You will be driven by an uncompromising eye for detail to achieve high class standards in front and back of house areas, and performance in each aspect of service.

Working closely with the Centre Director, you will deliver and develop services in line with the strategic operational objectives for the property.

You will identify and support the development of business opportunities.

You will be motivated to maximise cost efficiency, productivity and responsible for the delivery of the agreed annual operational service charge budget. You will need to achieve targets and produce accurate information, operating within Savills financial authority limits.

You will be an excellent communicator, a clear decision maker and adept in the development of ideas and opportunities.

You will have the ability to adapt to a fast-paced changing environment, and proactively champion brand initiatives.

You will also assist in the general management of the centre and act as duty manager when required.

Key Responsibilities

Behaviour and culture:

• You have a clear vision for the application of excellent customer Service in all endeavours and lead by example to ensure that the team are delivering the same standards of service. Customer Service not only relates to our customers, but to all stakeholders including retailers and colleagues.
• You take a leading role in promoting our operational focus on compliance, communication, consistency and collaboration.
• You support will support the centres ESG and corporate responsibility objectives including personal support to community projects and activities.
• A high energy individual capable of influencing at all levels, developing excellent relationships management skills with internal and external partners.
• Service delivery management:
• Delivery of operational services and agreed objectives on time, and aligned with the company objectives and requirements.
• Analyse and communicate performance against targets, including KPI status, service delivery and commercial performance.
• Manage the delivery of services to ensure all people (customers, retailers and staff) are safe and secure. Statutory compliance must be an absolute priority for you, with the operations team organised and focused to deliver 100% compliance.
• Risk management will be at the heart of your decisions and you will be operating in a high-pressure environment where delivering excellence is an expectation.
• Implementation and management of centre based continuous review processes; leading continuous improvement plans and projects to ensure the delivery of exceptional customer experience and brand consistency through best practice.

Financial & commercial performance:

• Management of service charge for all areas that fall under your remit. Setting of service charge budgets in conjunction with the centre Director and finance manager.
• To monitor income and expenditure against departmental budgets, to oversee Soft services managers, and to forecast and account for variances.
• Development of innovation and best practice standards across all operational aspects of service delivery.
• Lead on all tender requirements for the Centre/Operations as required.

Risk management:

• Manage and ensure statutory compliance with all aspects of health & safety, quality assurance, and environmental requirements across all departments.
• Work with the Centre Director to regularly review centre risks, manage and mitigate.
• Manage the operational functions of the centre to ensure business continuity, co-ordinating activities of departmental managers, ensuring that duty management cover is maintained at all times.
• Ensure effective duty management and business continuity by fully trained team members in line with the Town centre crisis management policy and the Town centre major incident management plan.
• Manage and develop the team to ensure excellence in operational delivery. Support Soft service managers in meeting their objectives to ensure the centre meets its business objectives and strategy.
• Lead regular operational meetings / team briefings with managers and staff to deliver clear understanding of business objectives and manage performance against targets. Ensure the effective cascade of information and an open door to feedback and ideas from the delivery teams.
• Effective development of the team, in particular managers, to ensure they are empowered at all levels to deliver the centre objectives. Effective use of personal development plans in the creation of a succession plan for the centre operations management team.
• Work with the soft services Team on recruitment of new staff and ensure that they demonstrate ABM/Savills values and qualities.

Leadership:

• Develop and maintain strong, close relationships with other operations managers and senior management teams across the region and portfolio to align delivery requirements / standards with Savills Properties expectations. Contribute to national level meetings with the senior operational team.
• Lead by example in the development of collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with key supply chain partners.
• Support the wider Savills stakeholders including Property, Asset Management, and Marketing. Understand their business requirements and work together to deliver centre benefit.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Candidates will be required to demonstrate the following: