Jobs

Job Title: Operations Manager – Blair Castle
Reporting to: Head of Tourism
Responsible for: The daily operation of Blair Castle, delivering a 5 star customer experience to both independent travellers and the coach trade. You will manage and deliver sales and costs budgets through key performance indicators. Motivation and direction of the reception, guides and housekeeping teams is fundamental.

Role Objective
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.
Effectively communicate 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, Historic Lodges, Trekking, Safaris, Tractor tours and Rangers.

Job description

Visitor Experience
A highly visible, floor based manager of the castle team, leading by example.
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 consistent with a 5 star accredited venue.
Maintain and improve the high standard of housekeeping and display across all internal and external castle areas.
Monitor and respond to customer feedback data.
The key point of contact for any visitor queries and problem resolution.
With the archivist, maintain the quality and security of room presentation.
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
Accept a leading role in the delivery, maintenance and operation of our EPOS ticketing system
Liaise with restaurant and shop to ensure that there is a seamless continuity of standards to the castle operation.
Work with 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
Agree and deliver annual budgets for tickets sales, guidebooks and tours.
Use weekly and monthly KPI’s to respond to under-performance and identify reasons for high performance.
Oversee high volume coach trade bookings ensuring that we respond and adapt to their needs.
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 budgets, specifically wages through clear weekly controls.
Tight management of cash controls, liaising with the office administrator to achieve accurate tills function.
Use the castle purchase order system to allocate spends against budget.

Please send your cv to kerryw@blair-castle.co.uk to apply

Application Deadline: Monday 20/02/2023