Jobs

The Role:

The Operations Manager is a vital role in the delivery of the five star Visit Scotland experience for our visitors and can only be delivered by leading the team to achieve consistently high standards and encouraging a culture of continuous improvement. As this is a 7 day a week operation with many evening functions high standards will only be delivered through strong team working, an eye for detail and a tenacious approach to removing any barriers to achievement. The Castle is a key contributor to Atholl Estates and the Operations Manager needs to be sales focussed, delivering direct and secondary sales and working proactively with the marketing team to identify trends and new sales opportunities. The management of costs budgets, particularly salaries, is fundamental to the role and the correct balance needs to be achieved for an efficient operation.

Effective communication with castle colleagues in other areas such as maintenance, events, catering, retail, and gardens is essential, as is support of the team on the wider estate, particularly Caravan Park, Holiday Lodges, and the Ranger Service.

MAIN DUTIES:

Visitor Experience

– A highly visible, floor-based manager of the castle team, leading by example through daily walk rounds.
– Ensure that a friendly, welcoming, and personal approach is delivered by all members of the team.
– Deliver a consistent, high-quality experience for each visitor.
– Oversee the high standard of housekeeping and display across all internal and external castle areas.
– Monitor and respond to customer feedback data via email, face to face or Trip Advisor.
– The key point of contact for any visitor queries and problem resolution.
– With the Archivist, maintain the integrity, security and room presentation and conservation of the contents
– Improve the level of additional activities for castle visitors to encourage repeat visits.

Human Resources

– Recruitment, induction, and on-going coaching of seasonal teams.
– All team members are kept updated through daily updates and weekly itineraries.
– Control of flexible weekly rotas reflecting business need.
– Team development using an inclusive style with regular feedback and annual performance reviews.
– Manage and control holiday entitlement and sickness

Operations

– Take responsibility for the optimum use of our EPOS ticketing system including the maintenance and control of accurate data input.
– Liaise with the gardening team to ensure that there is a seamless continuity of standards across the exhibition and gardens.
– Line manage the castle maintenance team to deliver a planned schedule of works and have a speedy response to reactive works.
– Ensure that H&S controls are effective and recorded.
– Ensure that all fire procedures are followed and that regular drills are carried out.
– Operational point of contact for IT and telephone system issues.
– Ensure that all opening and closing procedures are followed for the castle and gardens.

Sales & Marketing

– Support the delivery of sales targets for tickets sales, guidebooks, and tours.
– Use weekly and monthly KPI’s to responded to under-performance and identify reasons for high
– Manage the high-volume coach trade bookings ensuring that we respond and adapt to their needs and monitor pre-booking levels.
– Identify areas for development to improve future product and service offer.
Liaise with marketing team to ensure that print and advertising meets business need.  

Finance

– Agree and deliver annual costs according to budgets, reporting on performance against budget and other non-financial measures
– Oversee payroll for seasonal staff to ensure timely and accurate and reliable information is provided to Finance. To include, contracts, starter and leaver forms, overtime and annual leave
– Full understanding of our EPOS ticketing system, being responsible for its maintenance, operation and accuracy of reporting
– Diligent use of the castle purchase order system to code spends against budget as necessary.
– Monitoring ticketing and till systems to ensure daily reconciliation procedures are followed

For full details, please view the job description below and apply to Karen with your CV and Covering Letter.

Application Deadline: Thursday 29/02/2024