Location: Bluewater Job Purpose As a Service & People Manager, you will constantly strive to improve the customer journey through creating an engaged and motivated team who deliver exceptional customer service. Supporting the Store Leader to develop the team and maintain visual and operational standards, and in turn driving conversion, sales and KPIs. Key Accountabilities • Consistently deliver great service and role model this throughout the store team. • Create a diverse and inclusive environment where all your store team feel valued. • Create a wellbeing culture in store by being a direct line of communication for the store team. • Consistently delight customers through delivering the best customer journey across service, people, visual and operations • Support the development of the store team to deliver a high performing, motivated and engaged store team who feel valued and recognised for their contribution. • Empower the team within store to deliver for the customer by always putting customer experience at the centre of decision making. • Understanding of commercial tools and how to use to drive actions to support store performance. • Support the Store Leader to deliver on store KPIs, including sales, stockloss, payroll, conversion, voice of customer, RFID and people KPIs. • Support the management of store operations, including compliance with health & safety standards. • Drive the development of the store team to deliver a high performing, motivated and engaged store team who feel valued and recognised for their contribution. Key Responsibilities: 1. Customer Focus • Deliver the best customer journey in store, ensuring the customer is at the heart of everything the store does. • Lead by example and have a customer first approach in all aspects of the Service and People Manager role. • Actively focus your energy on driving conversion when leading your team on the salesfloor. • Plan and prioritise own workload to ensure the needs of the customer journey are always met. • Act on customer and team feedback and adjust approaches to ensure all customer needs are met. • Set the standard for what good service looks like always putting the customer before task. • Deliver customer focused training and encouraging a service culture in store. • Understand visual Basic Principles and product density guidelines supporting the customer journey. • Understand your customers’ needs and your store profile by utilising data and commercial tools. • Build a good network within your local area to understand your local customer and their needs. • Lead the way on the high street so River Island is the first store your customers would want to visit. 2. Leading the Team • Create a customer-focused culture within the store, where everyone understands the part they play in delivering for the customer and where people are motivated to do their best. • Motivate the store team by creating great reward and recognition moments. • Manage the store scheduling ensuring power hours are staffed correctly and key service areas are always deployed. • Support the store management teams to manage store team performance, using the People Managers guide to follow company processes and policies. • Be able to confidently conduct check ins with the team to understand what coaching needs are required. • Recruit the best team, spotting talent and ensuring a thorough induction is completed. • Complete thorough return to work interviews to manage absence. • Support the Store Leader to build talent within the store by having a succession plan in place to identify high and low performers and by providing targeted support and development opportunities. • Foster a culture of regular, open, two-way communication and feedback to drive performance, listening to and acting on feedback. • Actively manage performance issues and be confident in having difficult conversations to raise concerns. • Celebrate successes and key achievements within the store, recognising individuals who have contributed to that success. • Have an inclusive leadership style supporting self-care and diversity through you team. 3. Visual Excellence • Support the Commercial / Product Manager to maintain visual excellence within the store, ensuring visual execution is in line with the brand aspirations and guidelines. • Have a good understanding and knowledge of key fashion trends. • Understand what great visuals looks like and be able set the expectation for the store team. 4. Operational Excellence • Ensure the team lounge is set up to a high standard. • Ensure all team facilities are to a high standard and any maintenance issues logged. • Be able to manage the RFID process in store and ensure refill is conducted in line with the store grade’s frequency. • Support the operations team by demonstrating what great operational standards look like. • Ensure a safe and secure working environment is created for the store team and customers. • Support the Store Leader in ensuring all Retail Risk and H&S Training is completed and up to date. • Take accountability for compliance and controlling cash and stockloss through adhering to company processes. • Check all the team have all the correct information in their personnel file. • Support the Store Leader to ensure all hours worked are captured in line with the working time directive. • Ensure teams are set up on Teams, RIVA and LOTI and a training session how to use the platforms is in place. • Manage the store scheduling and holiday process ensuring a fair and productive approach. Key Behaviours / Competencies • Is a role model for the store team on customer service, visual execution, leading by example and always putting the customer first. • Can effectively forward plan, organise, solve problems highlighting any risk to the Store Leader. • Collaborates with Store Leader to coach and develop the store team. • Is confident to take on new challenges or difficult tasks when needed. • Effective in communication and can adapt style and content to suit the needs of others and the situation. • Listens to others’ views and perspectives and asks questions and summarises to confirm understanding. • Builds good networks within their store. • Can identify when support or additional resources are needed and act on this in a timely manner. • Actively seeks feedback and seizes opportunities to learn and develop. • Works well under pressure and is resilient when faced with setbacks or challenges