Divisional Operations Director

Lead Excellence as a Divisional Operations Director: Transforming Student Living Across a Vast Landscape!

Ready to make a lasting impact on student living experiences across a large geographical area? Homes for Students is seeking an ambitious Divisional Operations Director to lead a team of Operations Managers, ensuring operational excellence, client satisfaction, and outstanding customer experiences. This pivotal role offers the opportunity to drive innovation, set new standards, and shape the future of student living. 

Your role is to ensure all KPIs are met, and set the tone of outstanding customer experience, customer satisfaction, and exceptional health and safety.  You will create and ensure accountability throughout the team, and have responsibility for, and ownership of, all KPIs, processes, and aspects of property, client, and customer management.

Your working hours will be Monday to Friday, from 9.00am to 5.30pm. This role is Field based.

Major Duties:

• Lead, manage, and motivate your team of Operations Managers.
• Manage the KPI performance of your team of Operations Managers with strong, supportive, and inspiring leadership.
• Devise, implement, and utilise processes to drive positive behaviours and outcomes.
• Hold the team to account, breeding a culture of accountability and ownership throughout your team.
• Hold regular 1-1s with your team to set stretching, but realistic SMART goals and objectives and continually review progress, and breed accountability.
• In line with the business plan, drive operational performance through planning and execution, and by establishing and communicating clear goals and priorities, developing, and coaching a high performing team, and ensuring accountabilities are clearly assigned.
• Set and manage standards with planned, constructive meetings, visits, audits of properties and property standards, audits of processes, robust but supportive coaching, constructive use of PVR, and ensuring that safe working practices and high standards are always in place.
• Ensure a culture of continuous improvement is paramount, with coaching, training, and development of your team, and ensuring this approach flows throughout their teams and the properties.
• Ensure comprehensive cascade of your approach and ideals to ensure the themes, direction, and tone of excellence are felt throughout all team members, and that all residents receive an outstanding experience and service. 
• Influence sales performance throughout your team and wider team, the properties, including outstanding rebooking, as well as ensuring a positive environment that encourages positive sales, rebooking and high levels of satisfaction.
• Drive operational excellence in all aspects, including customer satisfaction and resident experience, ensuring maintenance and improvement in Net Promoter Scores and other satisfaction metrics.
• Support the Operations Managers and wider property teams with customer satisfaction issues, and act as the senior escalation point for complaints and customer-related issues.
• Manage the client relationships in a proactive manner, based on the requirements of the business and the client, ensuring appropriate regular meetings, calls, feedback, and communication protocols are in place through your team of Operations Managers, and ensuring reporting is provided on time.
• Lead on, and manage, Health & Safety Audit and Fire Risk Assessment processes, as well as manage and monitor day to day health and safety and statutory compliance processes through your teams.
• Ensure 100% adherence throughout your team with use of company software systems, including Link, KLIQ, Navision, Kinetic, Lavanda and other systems that may be in use.
• Lead the creation of ‘ground-up’ annual budget processes with your team of Operations Managers to ensure robust performance and areas to improve year on year.
• Ensure lifecycle plans are created, implemented, and managed in line with client expectations, budgets, ESG criteria, and investment approach.
• Proactively suggest enhancements to the asset, and feed into asset management plans and delivery with the client team.

In order for Homes for Students to work effectively, you may be required to assist with other areas of work and therefore, you should be prepared to undertake other duties appropriate to the post, as delegated by your line manager.  

Experience (essential):

• Extensive experience of multi-site management, and team management
• Experience of management within PBSA, BTR/PRS/Residential, Co-Living, Facilities, Hotels, Hospitality
• Experience of client management and client liaison at a senior level.
• Strong understanding of facilities management.
• Strong experience in customer service and its principles.
• Strong, demonstrable background and good understanding of health & safety and fire safety.
• Experience of recruitment of senior managers.
• Demonstrable experience of team performance management and development of high-performing teams

Experience (desirable)

• Understanding and experience of Asset Management beneficial.
• Understanding and experience of principles of Real Estate investment beneficial.
• Background in financial services beneficial.

​What We Offer:

• Generous holiday package: 25 days, plus bank holidays, for work-life balance (pro-rata for our part time colleagues)
• Enhanced family leave packages for the important things in life.
• Exclusive retail discounts to make your money go further.
• Celebrate your birthday with a well-deserved day off.
• Car leasing scheme for a comfortable commute.
• Cycle-to-work scheme to stay active and eco-friendly.
• 2 charity days per year to make a difference in the community.
• Life insurance for peace of mind. 

If you're ready to lead excellence, shape the future of student living, and exceed goals and expectations, apply now and be a key player in transforming the student experience!