Workplace Services Manager (North)

Role Purpose and Main Duties

Building usage varies considerably across the GPA customer portfolio due to the nature of their specific business operations and the ongoing transformation plans that are directing ways of working. This role will work closely with Business and Estates leads across the GPA customer group and GPA colleagues and the responsible senior officers for each building to consider how to improve and optimise the use of buildings and deliver a great place to work for our customers.

The Workplace Manager (WPM) is a pivotal position within the Workplace Service Delivery Team. Reporting to the Area Workplace Manager, the post holder will have responsibility for coordinating the delivery of high quality customer services for a cluster of sites within the Northern area with particular responsibility within a specialist site in the North West. Passionate about customer service excellence, the successful candidate needs to be able to coordinate business and accommodation support activities within their responsibility and liaise externally with the wider community. As we expand our Hub portfolio, we are seeking an adaptable and diverse team of Assistant Workplace Managers who the post holder may have responsibility for in the capacity of line management.

• Strong customer ethos with the ability to build communities, within our GPA managed portfolio supporting customer organisations, between our internal and external communities and their places, and between multiple delivery partner organisations (commercial and non-commercial), and
• Excellent change management to support senior leaders with the transformation of our workplace services
• Experience of workplace and facilities management, including health and safety would be advantageous, with the stakeholder engagement and skills to help customers get the best from their workplaces and the relationships between property, technology, people policies and organisational culture

Our estate is migrating towards smarter working environments with Hubs leading the way and the WPM will champion smarter working, offering guidance and advice to enable customers to get the best out of their spaces and services and maximise their use of available space, challenging ways of working and behaviours as appropriate and necessary.

Key responsibilities:

You will put customer service excellence at the heart of everything, and:

• Lead, organise and coordinate the delivery of workplace business and accommodation support services within the responsible location(s)
• Be responsible for creating and inspiring the customer community and support the delivery of a workplace that:
• Encourages relationships and connections amongst customers
• Is a vibrant, friendly and social culture
• Supports our customers health and mental well being
• Is an integral part of the local community
• Ensure the community experience is accessible to all and support a thriving digital community across our Hub portfolio
• Build strong stakeholder relationships with clients and suppliers, ensuring that continuous and effective engagement is in place
• Be responsible for managing a team of FTE’s either directly and via the supplier organisations, leading and inspiring team members to consistently deliver excellent customer service across our portfolio
• Undertake robust contract management to achieve quality service standards and value for money, exercising commercial terms to drive performance where needed
• Take initiative and ownership of business and accommodation issues and escalations, providing clear direction to WS delivery partners and your WS colleagues and stakeholders
• Work closely with other regional peers and Customer Experience team to drive consistency across teams, combine and share ideas for continuous improvement driving VFM and performance enhancements
• Support the Regions Workplace Service Managers and Area workplace Managers in leading the effective integration of new assets, services and teams as part of the ongoing GPA on boarding programme and the delivery of projects in the Hubs and Whitehall Campus programmes
• Support your Workplace Services colleagues in monitoring and assuring FM performance at your site. Ensuring that FM delivery standards remain high, owning any issues or escalations within the post holder’s responsibility to ensure they are dealt with effectively by the GPA Service Delivery partner(s)
• Maintaining a culture of responsiveness, responsibility, continuous improvement, mutual support and pride in where we work.
• Have strong organisational skills, a proven track record of managing diverse competing priorities/changing deadlines and are resilient when working in a changing and fast paced environment.
• Representing the Workplace Services team by attendance at business meetings as required.
• Responsible for the management, forecasting and reporting of the allocated budget
• Ensures adherence to the governance model, holds contractual meetings with suppliers in line with requirements and informs management of activities within their location(s)
• Utilise the data and information to make decisions and close collaboration with the data team to identify areas of improvement
• Drives GPA initiatives within their responsible operations
• Ensures alignment to GPA strategies
• Responds to client queries within the allocated SLA
• Supports the provision of information to enable responses to FOIs and PQs within the set timescales
• Responsible for incident management and reporting for sites within scope
• Identifying vacant and poorly used space.
• Advising GPA customers on the correct process to enable their full business requirements to be captured via the contract variation process, supporting them to develop robust requirements whilst also demand challenging where appropriate.
• Assist in planning and delivering contract variations that do not require any works or WSD colleague’s involvement such as minor moves and changes. Ensuring any move requests are demand challenged, are in keeping with the overall Hubs strategy and that all funding is in place before any move is affected.
• Improving efficiency of the location(s) through effective occupier behaviour by championing wider strategic initiatives, e.g. taking advantage of flexible working and smarter working.
• Continuous improvement planning, execution and sustainability
• Customer Information / Communication
• Any other reasonable and authorised request

This is an excellent time to join GPA, and play a crucial role in contributing to a priority agenda.

• Have the capability to be an excellent leader and manager, with experience of identifying and implementing improvements and promoting a culture of a high-performance customer service.
• Have the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels
• Creative, innovative and adaptable, and able to evolve as the Agency develops, supporting the Area Workplace Services Manager with any change that needs to be implemented
• Comfortable working in a fast paced environment, dealing with uncertainty and handling a range of challenges competently as they emerge
• Experience of leading and/or supporting workplace-related services (hard and soft FM, operational security, ICT services, hospitality, community engagement) ideally with strong commercial skills and competency having the ability to drive a number of stakeholders.

Experience & Technical Skills

Desirable criteria:

• A proven experienced property and/or workplace service management professional with knowledge of asset management, maintenance, customer service and supplier management.
• Analytical mind-set with the ability to assimilate a wide range of data sources to inform decision making.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentational and team working skills.
• Line management experience of managing a small team of employees in some cases remotely
• Persuasive influencer who is able to confidently and articulately make an argument in support of a position.
• Highly organised with demonstrable experience of driving change initiatives in complex matrix environments
• Must be willing and able to travel within the geography of the Region (and occasionally nationally) to deliver the duties and attend management meetings visiting sites not easily accessible by public transport

Qualifications & Accreditations

Essential Criteria:

• The post holder will be subject to DV clearance
• The post holder will be required to hold a UK Drivers Licence

Desirable criteria:

• Appropriate professional qualifications and memberships would be desirable, such as IWFM or equivalent and APM Registration or Chartership. but equally weighting will be given to applicants from other sectors with relevant transferable skills and experience such as hospitality or events management
• Commercial contract management Practitioner trained
• Qualified to Customer Service Expert level in Communications, as defined by the Institute of Customer Service and / or equivalent qualification.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Customer Perspective
• Commercial Acumen
• Property Market Knowledge
• Innovation