Operations Manager
We are a leading country house wedding and events venue situated on the borders of North Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire. We run around 170 weddings and events a year and have 23 bedrooms and provide all food and drink to our clients.
We have a reputation for delivering top quality wedding and events with excellent customer service and are looking for an experienced Operations Manager to join our team and oversee the smooth running of our weddings and events. This is a senior management position and commands a high level of responsibility for overall service levels, financial reporting, staff recruitment, training and development. You will be working closely with the owners of the business, the head chef and his team, the wedding and events managers, housekeeping and the bar and events teams. This is very much an operations, rather than office based role, and will require you to be hands on, running event days and working alongside as well as managing your team. There will be some elements of office work too which will include such things as staff rotas, development training manuals and ordering for events and organising returns.
You must be happy to work evenings and weekends and always be prepared to go the extra mile for our customers. The majority of our events are large scale weddings and therefore experience within a similar role is essential. We also host private parties, large and small corporate events, supper clubs, restaurant days and afternoon teas. All these require different types of service and the operations manager must be confident in all of these areas.
Staff training and welfare is of paramount importance, the successful candidate will have the ability to bring the best out of staff, leading them in an encouraging and inspirational way. Some of the staff are young and it may be their first job, a kind and understanding approach is vital as it is important that we must have an enjoyable work culture and a happy, helpful and attentive team. This must be balanced with an expectation of very high standards and the very best customer service at all times.
Key responsibilities and duties
* Overall responsibility for the operation of each event
* Working closely with the kitchen staff/head chef to ensure wedding breakfasts, dinners, private events, supper clubs etc are delivered on time and to a high standard
* Ensure the smooth running of F&B service at all times and attending meetings with the event manager and client in the lead up to each event
* Creating rotas each week to ensure appropriate staffing levels for events, set up and breakdown and for breakfast on the morning following an event
* Controlling costs and meeting GP targets
* Overseeing cellar management, including stock ordering, deliveries, rotation and barrel preparation
* Create a welcoming, positive and friendly environment for clients and colleagues
* Ensure good communication between the wedding and event managers, the operations team and the kitchen. Ensuring safe working practices and compliance with Iscoyd Park hygiene, health and safety instructions and regulations
* Be willing to be part of the team and perform other duties if required. Be willing to get stuck into anything necessary to deliver a perfect event
* Recruiting and training waiting and bar staff, making sure they have had all the required training in both health and safety matters
* Creating and adhering to training programmes and incentives for staff working with individuals to bring them up to standard and maintaining a very high standard of service at all times
* Managing holiday requests for your team
* Responsible for event staff welfare, dealing with and solving smaller HR issues and bringing larger issues to the attention of the owners
* Working with the kitchen and events/wedding team to ensure that all specific items for a wedding are ordered in a timely way
* Responsible for making sure all storerooms are ordered, always tidy and reorganised between events
* Organising hired items needed for an event and arranging pick up immediately after it
* Acting as MC for couples, and announcing them into the room, the cutting of the cake and introducing the speeches
* Responding to the event managers to ensure their couple's wishes are met
* Creating records of tasting events
* Testing and maintaining Fire Alarm testing records
Key Skills and Requirements
* We are one of the countrys leading wedding and event venues and as such, have a very high standard of customer service
* You will need to have a genuine passion for hospitality with excellent communication skills both written and verbal, be highly organised, numerate, proactive and approachable
* You will be good at spotting the potential in staff and developing this
* You will need to work effectively under pressure and lead your team
* A particularly acute attention to detail is vital
* A willingness to prepare for and understand every event
* A great attention to detail and drive to make sure everything is prepared and looking its best
* Flexibility we are a small team and everyone in it must be prepared to go beyond their job remit from time to time to help other areas of the team that may need help
* A genuine interest in food, wine and all things hospitality
* An ability to motivate staff, get along with the team, have a great eye for detail, a passion and affinity for great customer service and strong common sense are more important than academic qualifications for this role
Experience/Knowledge
* Previous experience of effectively managing a varied type of events
* Sound knowledge of wines and some Sommelier experience would be an advantage
* Previous report and budgeting experience in a similar role would be useful
* Knowledge of special dietary requirements
* A natural charm and ability to hold a great repour with our clients
Skills/Abilities
* Strong F&B hospitality experience with an eye for detail
* Experienced in recruiting, training and managing a team
* Extremely well organised and hard working
* Computer literacy is essential we use Apple computers, so knowledge of that would be good
* Love and passion for local and sustainable lifestyles
* Ability to deal with sensitive information with discretion and to maintain confidentiality at all times
* Excellent team working skills with the ability to work collaboratively and co-operatively with colleagues
* Prepared to work evenings, weekends and shift patterns that the business requires
* Gregarious, diplomatic and the ability to work under pressure
* You will need to hold a driving licence and have your own car as public transport connections are almost non-existent
Salary, hours and other
This is a full-time roll (i.e 5 days a week) mostly from Wednesday to Sunday.
The number of hours vary between 40 and 50 a week as the business requires and this is what you will be contracted for.
A competitive salary.
You will be supplied with a company laptop and free parking.
At Iscoyd, we like to have a good time. Iscoyd is a fun place to work with a great team, we also have staff parties and trips.
Staff get a discount on Iscoyd events they may want to attend.
Company Pension Scheme.
AMRT1_UKCT