Head of Region (West of England) at FareShare South West

Reporting to: Head of Operations (HOO)

Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours

Salary: £27,000 - £30,000 (currently under review)

Terms: Permanent, 25 days Holiday exc. Bank Holidays, 5% pension contribution

Location: Substantial amount of time at central Bristol depot with visits to satellite depots and access to head office.

Responsible: Regional staff and volunteers, covering warehouse, membership, support and volunteer functions

Managing: Volunteer, Membership and Operations Team Leaders

About FareShare South West

At FareShare South West, we fight food poverty by tackling food waste. As part of the national FareShare network, we source quality surplus food – from food retailers, manufacturers and suppliers, and engage volunteers to redistribute to local charities and community groups that provide meals to vulnerable people (e.g. individuals who are homeless, unemployed, socially isolated, recovering from addictions).

Job Purpose

FareShare South West (registered charity 1125905) operates two regions across the South West. The Head of Region will provide the leadership and direction for the West of England region to meet ambitious strategic and operational performance targets. They will manage, co-ordinate and integrate all aspects of the region’s work, across multiple sites that in some cases may be operated by partner organisations. Key to the role will be working closely with the FareShare South West (FSSW) central team and FareShare UK (FSUK).

Key responsibilities

Strategic

• Work with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to develop, monitor and report on strategic Regional Plans to an agreed budget and ensure financial sustainability of the Region.
• Monitor and analyse progress against budget and strategic plans, identify and agree corrective actions, and report to Head of Operations (HOO), SLT and Trustees.
• Using key metrics and tools, manage the calibration of key inputs/activities across all functions, ensuring that there is an adequate supply of food, a viable workforce, and warehouse capacity to achieve food distribution volumes and membership development targets.
• Share best practice across all the charity’s regions, promoting innovative and effective ways of working.
• Identify when additional support or resources are required to implement agreed changes to plans and activity, which could include temporary/seasonal developments.
• Implement existing FareShare systems in line with charity wide policies and processes and contribute towards the development of new approaches.
• Manage key delivery partners, ensuring that agreed levels of service are delivered and that partners are working to FareShare standards and plans.

Food & Operations

• Overall management and leadership of the region to maintain operational performance and standards, ensure that Community Food Members (CFM) needs are met, and food volumes achieved.
• Compliance and asset management - working with the FSSW Head of Compliance and Operations Manager, ensure that all depots/vans/equipment are compliant, and operations meet all H&S regulations.
• Working with the wider West of England and FareShare South West teams, ensure that the Regions’ levels of food supply (FSUK and local) are maintained in line with the strategic plan, and that any substantive changes (increase or decrease) are agreed with the HOO and FSUK
• Ensure that the region has sufficient capacity to receive, store, process, and record food supplies.

Workforce Development

• Monitor the local management of the FSSW volunteer programme, including rolling out policies, processes, and tools (with support from FSSW and FSUK).
• Ensure that all volunteers and placements are appropriately supervised by local staff/teams and effective support is in place for all volunteers including those with specific support needs.
• Monitor/analyse the volunteer workforce and ensure that effective recruitment and retention activity is carried out by the Volunteer Recruitment Manager to align with operational capacity and future growth.
• Support development of the Diversity and Employability Programme at a regional level.

Membership Development

• Oversee the compliant recruitment, on-boarding, and retention of Community Food Members (CFMs) in line with agreed regional plans and targets.
• Develop systems and processes to improve CFM recruitment and retention.
• Manage key accounts and relationships.
• Work with the finance team to ensure all back-office administrative invoicing processes are completed for charity members including first invoices, renewing memberships, and late payment/debt recoveries.
• Work with the HOO and Head of Development ensure that:

a) Growth targets for the region are met (food volumes/CFMs), and key inputs and resources secured (warehouse/logistics capacity, workforce, food, budget).

b) Agreed programme development and delivery achieved (activity, outcomes, and timings).

• Work with the Communications Team and Head of Development as appropriate.

Person Specification

Experience

• Experience of leading multi-dimensional projects from operational and strategic perspectives.
• Experience in financial management, including control over income and expenditure and performance measures.
• Experience of working with volunteers who may feel vulnerable or need support.
• Experience of developing long term partnerships with external stakeholders to achieve strategic goals.
• Experience of management within a customer focused environment
• Experience of management in an environment where Health and Safety is key for all staff, volunteers, and visitors.
• Experience of warehouse operations.
• Experience of building and managing teams

Skills, knowledge and abilities

• Leadership skills, including the ability to motivate and develop people to deliver high levels of performance.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to engage and report at all levels.
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to make effective decisions on the spot.
• Delivering customer service, the ability to deliver excellence through a competitive service offer to all stakeholders.
• IT literacy, managing information in different formats.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to create good work partnerships with multiple stakeholders both internally and externally.
• Ability to work systematically to agreed guidelines in the absence of close supervision.
• Ability to recognise and address high priorities and when necessary, link these elements to overall strategy.
• Full clean UK driving licence and own (or access to) vehicle.

Competencies and behaviours

• Strong sense of responsibility for the charity’s mission and values as well as the people who work for the charity, and our supporters.
• Ability to work autonomously, as well as part of a team.
• Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
• Ability to plan and prioritise, develop and implement clear plans with defined outcomes and resource management.
• Ability to communicate with impact across all media to establish commitment to organisational goals.
• Ability to act quickly, decisively and positively to manage change.
• Capacity to collaborate and manage a variety of partners/stakeholders.
• Ability to remain positive at times of stress or tension, within an environment of competing priorities/demands.

Please send your CV and covering letter to: Simon Jarvis (recruitment@faresharesouthwest.org.uk) by midday, 8th Jan 2023.