Operations Manager - Cleaning

Mitie Cleaning & Hygiene Services; Northampton; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 40,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car

Laptop

Job summary

Mitie Cleaning & Hygiene Services in the Midlands is seeking an experienced Operations Manager to lead cleaning and soft services across key retail contracts, ensuring service excellence and strong client relationships.

You will manage a multi-site team, drive performance to SLA/KPI targets, and develop plans to improve profitability while maintaining health and safety standards. The role requires regional travel, 40 hours per week, and a Monday–Friday pattern with 9:00–17:00 hours.

Qualifications

• Experience leading cleaning/soft services operations.
• Strong customer service and client management skills.
• Proven ability to drive service excellence and operational improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multi-site cleaning/soft services team across Midlands.
• Ensure SLA/KPI delivery and effective client engagement.
• Manage budgeting, billing requests and P&L to meet targets.

Skills

Leadership

Customer service

Operational excellence

Team management

Billing

Client relationships

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Better places, thriving communities.

Better places, thriving communities.

Location: Midlands (regional travel required)

Hours: 40 hours per week

Working Pattern: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm (flexibility required to meet business needs)

Benefits: Salary of £36K to £40K (depending on experience), Company Vehicle provided (business and personal use) & laptop.

At Mitie, our people are our greatest strength, and our promise is to create a place to work where you can thrive and be your best every day. We're looking for a OperationsManager to support our retail contracts across Boots, Decathlon, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Reed and Superdrug, ensuring exceptional service delivery across the Midlands region.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced cleaning or soft services manager who is passionate about leadership, customer service and operational excellence. You'll play a key role in ensuring service standards are consistently achieved while building strong client relationships and driving continuous improvement.

Role Responsibilities

• Building Effective Teams: Being the Front-line Management's key point of contact and ensuring the cleaning operations team strives for and exceeds expectations on service excellence through first class management, leadership, customer focus and measured feedback, training and development

Drive for Results

• To ensure that Mitie reacts efficiently and effectively in line with SLA and KPI's

Leadership Behaviours

• To line manage an operational team including 8 x Service Support Managers and subcontractors in delivery of the above
• To drive a culture of high-quality customer excellence including:
• Leading by example
• Smart and professional in appearance and manner
• Client focused – seeking to resolve client problems through Mitie solutions
• Thinking tactically and strategically about customer service delivery, not solely task focused
• Driving a 'fix it first time' culture
• Embrace new systems and processes introduced by Mitie, acting as an ambassador to your team for these

Influencing and building effective relationships

• Foster and develop effective relationships with clients, local stakeholders, employees and other Mitie colleagues
• Co-ordinate direct and sub-contract labour for optimum performance and to meet contractual requirements and obligations, with optimum cost to serve

Decision Making

• To ensure the Company Health & Safety policy is adhered to in line with the H&S Policy and requirements of the management system, including monitoring and review
• To successfully deliver and profitably manage additional and existing planned and reactive work streams. With accountability for ensuring that billing requests are submitted in a timely manner
• To assist with the development of the Mitie- client offering

Main Duties

• Leading a team of High Street SSM's & manage own business portfolio
• Develop annual account plans to reduce overspends and maximise profitability on fixed price contracts
• Carry out finance mid month reviews with finance BP to understand and track any actions based on YTD performance
• Attend regular meetings with clients as required including escalated issues from SSM
• Provide weekly updates on audits and missed cleans to key high street FM's and RFM's
• Report on Weekly missed clean stats to show improvements and challenges
• Build relationships with key account leads for NBS, LBG and Superdrug
• Track completion and compliance on any PPM works
• Review pay vs hours and travel time compliance to ensure optimum efficiency
• Solve operational problems through identifying route cause and putting in place permanent solutions

What We're Looking For

What's in it for you?

• Work with team to manage mobile resource in line with specific national account targets
• Ensure compliance to visits and audits for team, calling on resource as appropriate to cover any absence
• Promotion of all Mitie service lines to deliver sustainable excellence and maximum efficiency
• Deliver P&L according to targets set annually in conjunction with ROM
• Ensure payroll is correct and processed in a timely manner and in line with site budgets
• Operate within material and where appropriate consumable budgets for contract portfolio
• Hold regular meetings as required to engage, motivate and manage your team, developing and communicating the strategy, ensuring it is aligned with the wider cleaning business strategy
• Review mobile timesheets to ensure travel spend is recorded and paid accurately
• Manage mobile annual leave to maintain adequate cover
• Assist with weekly presentations of KPI stats including missed clean, rectification plans & regional updates
• Ensure that escalated customer complaints have appropriate plans in place & are closed down
• Deal with escalated HR issues for SSM's and support and guide through HR activity
• Ensure all team members go through the Mitie Induction
• In conjunction with HR ensure employee issues are dealt with according to company policy
• To ensure Cleaning is provided to standards required by contract
• Accountable for performance of team and to drive once off revenue generation
• Ensure the full employee lifecycle of recruitment, induction, appraisal, development, succession planning is carried out regularly and in accordance with Mitie policies and procedures
• Create a professional working culture between employees, contractors and clients, sharing best practice
• Coach and develop your team in all aspects of their role
• Be an advocate of new systems, processes and ways of working embracing them and ensuring your team embrace them too
• Comply with all Mitie policies and procedures
• Comply with all Mitie Health and Safety policies and procedures ensuring work is carried out in a safe manner
• To undertake additional duties in line with capabilities as required
• Support the business as required by the ROM & RD
• Any other reasonable management request
• Previous management experience within soft services, cleaning or facilities management environments.
• Proven ability to lead, motivate and develop operational teams across multiple locations.
• Excellent customer service, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong organisational and time management abilities, with the ability to manage competing priorities.
• Good IT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel extensively across the Midlands region.
• IOSH Health & Safety qualification is desirable.
• Successful candidates must be able to pass mandatory vetting, including criminal record and financial background checks.
• Company car provided for business & personal travel across the Midlands region.
• A varied and autonomous role with the opportunity to influence service delivery across a portfolio of high-profile retail clients.
• Ongoing training, career development and progression opportunities within one of the UK's leading facilities management organisations.

Additional Benefits

• Access to a virtual GP for you and your household.
• Financial wellbeing support through Salary Finance, including early pay access and competitive loans.
• Flexible lifestyle benefits through our Choices platform, including additional annual leave, insurance products, dental care and technology purchases.

There's a place for you at Mitie, join us today!

Our market-leading offering provides you with benefits that suit your lifestyle.

We have a virtual GP on hand for you and members of your household. So you can get expert advice by video or phone without having to leave your home. We offer financial wellbeing assistance through our Salary Finance scheme. For example, you could access 50% of your earned pay before payday for a small fee. Salary Finance also offers competitive loans.

When you join us, we'll give you a link to our flexible lifestyle benefits platform, Choices. You might choose to purchase up to five extra days’ holiday each year. You might buy critical illness insurance, seek dental treatment or buy technology products at an affordable cost. There are many choices!

We give you access to high street discounts from thousands of well-known retailers, gyms and more through our MiDeals platform. And we have a cycle-to-work scheme. Life cover of up to four times your salary is available. We also offer enhanced pension contributions, a save-as-you-earn scheme, and a Mitie Matching Share Plan (you could even be awarded free shares in Mitie).

We award our employees with Mitie Stars as recognition for their hard work. There are cash prizes up for grabs each month and at the end of the year there’s a chance to scoop a top prize of £10,000!

Our success is a direct result of the experience and quality of our people. Progressing your career is therefore a top priority for us. We offer a diverse variety of training and development avenues via a wide selection of learning resources to suit you.

Since 1987, Mitie's 84,000 employees have been maintaining companies globally. We are the UK's leading facilities management and professional services company, and our clients range from household names in banking, critical government sites as well as hospitals and schools.

Join our Mitie Team.

Together our diversity makes us stronger.

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