Estates General Manager

Our client, a leading university, are looking to recruit for an Estates General Manager to act as a focal point for liaison with other professional services team.

Key Responsibilities:

Directorate Management:

• Support the Director in the planning, oversight and implementation of all Directorate-wide systems and processes to support the achievement of E&CO Directorate’s aims and objectives, including:
• convening formal monthly and quarterly reviews of the Directorate’s annual Work Plan and Progress Reviews for any change and development initiatives;
• maintaining an overview of all E&CO systems and workflows, contributing to the critical challenge of these to generate business solutions and improve performance;
• leading new service improvement initiatives, and supporting E&CO senior managers in the development of new and revised service offers;
• coordinating workflows between the Campus Operations and Capital Works teams;
• disseminating information effectively across the Directorate;
• ensuring that all documents and information disseminated outward from E&CO is managed in accordance with appropriate prior review and approval processes;
• representing the Directorate and deputising for the Director at relevant College or external meetings.

Meeting Management:

• Act as Secretary to the E&CO Service Leadership Team (SLT), Campus Operations Management Meeting (COMM) and other relevant Directorate-run meetings, including:
• scheduling all regular meetings, maintaining flow of business and keeping E&CO’s meetings in line with wider College-level business and academic cycles;
• agreeing forward agendas for meetings in consultation with the Chair;
• preparing and issuing agendas, action logs, minutes and papers;
• ensuring the accuracy of meeting minutes and action logs;
• following up to ensure that action is taken in respect of decisions made;
• serving as Chair of SLT and COMM in the absence of the Director.

Quality Assurance:

• Drive the continuous improvement in E&CO’s administrative systems and procedures by:
• managing the processes pertaining to the Directorate’s quality assurance and service improvement responsibilities;
• coordinating inputs to any internal audits relevant to E&CO activities and operations, and acting as a point of contact for the College’s Internal Auditors;
• maintaining the Directorate’s local Risk Register and ensuring that it is periodically reviewed at SLT before escalation to the College’s Senior Management Team (SMT);
• compiling, evaluating and submitting the Directorate’s annual Performance Review, and leading the data validation of the annual State of the Estate report;
• overseeing the validation processes for quality standards and frameworks (e.g. ISO 14001 (environmental management), ISO 41001 (facility management) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) relevant to the Directorate’s service provision, including the submission of evidence and addressing non-conformances arising from revalidation inspections and audits.

Directorate Communications:

• Head up E&CO’s communications with the wider College community and ensure the visibility of the Directorate’s professional services offer, by:
• producing regular E&CO service updates and briefings for School Leadership Teams;
• maintaining E&CO’s intranet pages and content, ensuring that information is clear relevant and up to date;
• acting as editor of E&CO’s termly newsletters to RCA staff and students;
• working closely with Communications & Marketing team to ensure that E&CO’s published materials are produced to RCA house style guidelines;
• ensuring that E&CO College-wide, All Staff and All Student communications are issued via appropriate Internal Communications approval processes.

Staff Management:

• Support the Director in ensuring that E&CO complies with all relevant HR policies, practice and guidance in its management of staff by:
• managing staff recruitment, contract management and any changes to job roles and responsibilities as delegated by the Director, E&CO and in consultation with the relevant HR Business Partner;
• leading on the onboarding of any new staff joining the Directorate, and managing equivalent processes for leavers;
• maintaining up-to-date records of all job role profiles and organisational charts;
• ensuring that annual leave and sickness absence records are reported promptly to HR and recorded in relevant central systems;
• overseeing the deployment of the Directorate’s local training and development budget, maintaining records of staff training and CPD;
• ensuring that all line managers within the Directorate carry out regular performance management reviews and annual appraisals in line with College deadlines.

Person Specification:

 Essential:

• An Honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant business-related subject
• Experience working at a relevant level in an administrative/business management capacity, and of supporting a senior team of technical subject matter experts
• Evidence of strong intellectual, analytical and organisational skills, and familiarity with agile working practices
• Proven line and performance management experience with the ability to define roles and responsibilities, conduct regular 1:1s with the team and carry out appraisals and performance reviews
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively at all levels within the College, both verbally and in writing, and with a high degree of tact and diplomacy
• High level of digital literacy and IT skills including productivity suites (Microsoft Office, Google for Work), project management/collaboration (Basecamp, Smartsheets), Web/Internet page production (Wagtail) and financial management systems (Unit4 ERP), and use of presentation and graphics software (Visio, Adobe, Tableau)
• Proven ability to produce documents, reports and presentations rapidly and to a high editorial standard utilising house style guides and standard templates
• Experience of contributing to the setting and management of operational budgets and financial planning, including forecasting and planning resource allocation and optimisation
• Detailed understanding of standards around managing, protecting and re-using data and information, including information security best practice and data protection principles
• Experience of working in a fast-paced, customer-facing and service delivery role in a busy environment, working across multiple sites
• Ability to manage and prioritise own workload whilst retaining excellent customer service, courtesy and professional standards at all times
• Demonstrable commitment to diversity and equality of opportunity with experience of working in a diverse, multicultural environment and the ability to interact positively with customers and students from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures

 Desirable:

• A professional qualification in project management (e.g. Prince2, APM)
• Experience of working in a Higher Education Institution (HEI) or similar
• Experience of working directly with academics and students in an educational environment, such as in a college or university
• Experience of working in a busy multidisciplinary estates or facilities management team, delivering a range of different services
• An interest and enthusiasm for contemporary art, design and culture