Retail Catering Executive

Operations Directorate

Grade 8: - £42,149 - £50,296 per annum
Open-Ended/Permanent - Full Time
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
Closing Date: 20-Jun-2022, 6:59:00 AM

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.

The Department and Role Purpose:

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity within a great team and want to be part of providing a world class experience to a diverse student, staff and visiting community?

We’re looking for a motivated and creative Retail Catering Executive who has a passion for excellent customer service and can deliver results.

The Retail Catering Executive is a key management position and is responsible for the efficient and effective management of retail catering operations across a diverse range of cafes and restaurants on the University site.

The University is embarking on an ambitious programme of retail catering developments to support our growing student population, and the post holder has an exciting opportunity to shape future services.

The post holder will also ensure that good practice and continuous improvement are delivered to provide fresh and exciting catering services across the University, via a mixed model with services managed in-house, and others leased to local, small and medium enterprises.

The Retail Catering Executive forms part of the Senior Management Team, reporting to the Head of Operations within the Colleges Operations Directorate, which is an integral part of the Colleges and Student Experience Division.

The Colleges Operations Directorate plays an integral role in providing excellent services and facilities to support the personal development of students. The services provided by the Directorate include catering, housekeeping, reception, security and maintenance, as well as providing systems for the management of health and safety, and food safety.

With excellent communication, team management skills, and a passion for delivering excellence in food and beverage service, the post-holder will have extensive commercial experience, preferably within a branded high street chain and be able to demonstrate good business acumen with a proven track record in achieving targets, driving turnover and exceeding customer expectations.

Introduction

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a collegiate community of extraordinary people, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other. We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world.

We find it easy to be proud of the extraordinary people we have at Durham. We offer the inspiration, they achieve the outstanding. We invite you to join our fantastic team.

Durham University is committed to promoting equality and diversity

At Durham University, our aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and we believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work.  We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including people with disabilities, women and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

As a University we foster a collegiate community of extraordinary people aligned to the University’s values .  Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) are a key part of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do.  At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all of our colleagues are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.

Durham University’s Athena Swan institutional award recognises and celebrates good practice in recruiting and supporting the development of women. We have also signed up to the Race Equality Charter, a national framework for improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.

If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.

Core responsibilities:

• Provide expert professional subject and/or managerial and leadership expertise.
• Manage and develop service, infrastructure and people performance across one or more teams.
• Provide feedback on team and individual performance and identify development needs, conducting regular staff ADR and performance reviews.
• Recruit, induct, train and develop new team members.
• Help to shape the skills and expertise of future team members and design work structures to meet operational and strategic goals.
• Handle the vast majority of HR issues within a team, referring more complex HR issues to appropriate support services/senior management.
• Liaise and engage with key stakeholders (e.g. senior departmental staff and students) and internal and external contractors to influence opinion, delivery and reputation of services.
• Contribute to the scoping and resource planning across a range of activities at operational and possibly strategic level.
• Lead on the design, implementation and monitoring of policy and quality standards, procedures and systems to ensure effective working and continuous improvement.
• Promote and develop a deep understanding of organisational policy and external developments.
• Devolve responsibilities to team members to ensure continuity of service provision and encourage skills development.
• Ensure all activities, processes and transactions are accounted for accurately and promptly to meet regulatory and professional service and policy standards.
• Ensure all stakeholder-facing staff provide an accessible, friendly and professional service by shaping processes for inducting and developing staff.
• Implement processes to manage the integrity and security of all commercially and professionally sensitive and personal data.
• Lead internal business meetings, working groups and sub-committees at operational service level to influence governance, organisational policy and standards for the service.
• Responsible for allocating and monitoring financial budgets and resources.
• Analyse stakeholder feedback, implementing and reviewing service provision.

Role responsibilities:

• Develop external relations, identify and develop opportunities for communities of practice, employers, alumni and donors via extra-curricular activities and increased levels of participation.
• Build and sustain an influential network of contacts both internally and externally to influence and promote the Durham reputation.
• Manage specific quality and regulatory audit process stakeholder services over-arching systems and procedures.
• Contribute to the definition, development and implementation of service standards and service level agreements.
• Deliver a specialist service using creativity and innovation for communication and promotion purposes, to engage and influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide professional guidance and advice to service users with complaints and referrals.
• Represent the service and University at promotional events and contribute to the delivery of presentations which promote the Colleges and Student Experience Division.
• Deliver activities and participate with others to generate external income.
• Any other reasonable duties.

Specific role requirements:

The working week will be five days out of seven, primarily Monday to Friday, however will include occasional evening and weekends, during busy periods as business demands.

The post holder will be required to attend various functions such as graduation events to represent the Colleges and Student Experience Division and/or to provide appropriate support to retail catering staff.

Reward and Benefits

To support the delivery of the University's People Strategy to attract, retain and reward the very best, we offer a fantastic range of rewards and benefits  to our staff, including:

• 30 days annual leave, plus 4 customary days and 8 bank holidays (pro-rata for part time) and the option to purchase additional leave;
• Automatic enrolment into a pension scheme;
• Corporate and local discounts;
• Wellbeing resources and discounted health benefits;
• Health discounts on sports and activities at Maiden Castle Health and Activity Centre;
• Reward and Recognition Schemes;
• Personal and career development;
• And SO much more!

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Desirable Criteria

How to Apply

We prefer to receive applications online. Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/ , which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

What you are required to submit

Please ensure that you submit all documentation listed above or your application cannot proceed to the next stage.

Contact details

For further information please contact Paul Taylor ([email protected] ).

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.

DBS Requirement: Not Applicable.