Regional Services Manager

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Job description

Who are we?
Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km's of pipes, to keep taps flowing and toilets flushing. We are an essential service and have operated throughout the Covid19 pandemic.

At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open.

What you will be doing

We are looking for FOUR Regional Services Managers (RSM) to look after North London,South London, Thames Valley East and Thames Valley West region. As a Regional Service Manager, you will be accountable for the end-to-end performance of primarily Thames Water Planning teams and some third-party teams within the region. As part of the transition to direct management of 'fit-fit' activity including Repair & Maintenance (R&M), Customer Side Leakage (CSL), New Connections and some complex works the RSM will set the strategy to deliver all critical business outcomes within the newly formed team. This will include the target operating model and processes that support the delivery of work via third-party teams within the region.

A key purpose the Regional Services Manager role is to establish, maintain and nurture relationships between office, field and key external stakeholders. The role will foster cohesion across multiple stakeholders to ensure that teams work together to achieve required outcomes in key business objectives and ODI's such as CMEX, leakage, supply interruptions and DMEX via delivery of their regional 'orderbook'.

The Regional Services Manager will conduct direct line management of up to 6 teams with a team base of circa 60 FTE within the region. These roles conduct planning, scheduling, street works and reinstatement activities for Thames Water Technician and R&M and CSL. At a later stage, the Regional Services Manager will also manage teams who conduct office-based planning for Developer Services work types and some more complex delivery activity in the infrastructure improvement workstreams - balancing multiple demands will be a critical capability in this space. In managing these teams, the Regional Services Manager will be accountable for creation of an effective work schedule, balancing the demands of multiple stakeholders and business drivers, for up to 300 Field resources within the region across 3-5 areas.

As well as defining the planning strategies to meet the short-term demand forecast, the role will also provide strategic input to the longer-term demand forecasting and capacity planning processes, using operational learnings to influence upstream decision making to best meet business objectives.

Daily duties will include:

• Accountable for planning quality and optimal performance of Thames Water and third-party resources across work types in your region including Thames Water Technician, Repair & Maintenance, Customer Side Leakage, Developer Services New Connections and specialist activities such as fire brigade work, non-excavation activity and plumbing
• Accountable for driving excellent performance in planning, scheduling, permit writing, street works and reinstatement within your region to maximise Field's ability to complete Technician and Fix/Fit work mitigating business exposure to street works prosecutions, fine and avoidable charges
• Accountable for maximising the utilisation of up to 300 field resources (Thames Water and third party) in your region through creation and delivery of an effective work schedule in line with agreed priorities, SLA's and Field capacity. Accountable for backlog reduction, optimal cycle times and workstack health within your region
• Define and evolve a regional delivery strategy bespoke to the technical demands, customer demographic and other environmental factors (supply & demand, leakage) to generate local ownership and improved outcomes within direct budget and indirect budget
• Accountable for determining the required resource movements in your region (9 days and 9hrs out) with supporting rationale to proactively meet the short-term demand forecast and effectively manage work backlog. Recommending changes or improvements to field capacity availability and skills and influencing agreement and delivery of these recommendations
• Accountable for ensuring scheduling teams conduct proactive jeopardy management of daily schedules with effective use of available skilled field resources. Building in processes and decision making that balance service with cost to the business (e.g. avoidable street works costs)
• Drive excellent performance in customer experience through proactive journey management, delivering to tight Service Level Agreements and communication
• Keep customer needs central to all operational decision making. Designing and bringing to life customer journey management through standard, emotive and proactive journeys supported by robust processes ultimately driving down customer complaints
• Responsible for ensuring all activities within scope of the RSM have detailed low-level processes mapped and available for all team members to reference at a given time
• Build and invest in strong working relationships with external stakeholders such as Local Authorities, Highway Authorities, Environment Agencies and regulatory bodies such as MOSL and CCW
• Foster a culture of CI within the region and champion this to help deliver initiatives that improve business and customer outcomes
• Conduct collaborative working with Field Area Managers and Heads of Region to establish and maintain relationships between office and field underpinned by clear processes and goals
• Drive shared high operational performance in your region, holding each other to account on decision rights and behaviours
• Bring to life agreed decision rights between desk and field. 'Desk set the plan in line with agreed priorities and outcomes, field provide sufficiently available and skilled resources and ensure the safe delivery of to a high-quality standard'. Build confidence within the team to secure trust between desk and field
• Work closely with reinstatement suppliers to ensure a smooth transfer of work from fix/fit to reinstatement with minimal customer disruption and full compliance with street works permitting conditions
• Provide input into upstream demand forecasting and capacity planning process, specifically the assumption set that inputs into 9 month and 9 weeks capacity plans, and operational learnings to continually improve the planning strategy and accuracy
• Work closely with the Operational Contact Centre to identify opportunities for upstream customer experience improvement and to mitigate unnecessary cost 'managing failure'
• Inspire, develop and lead managers and team members to an excellent high standard of performance in line with business objectives focusing heavily, in the first instance, on the integration of newly insourced team members with the existing TW team
• Ingrain a culture of inclusion, diversity and positive challenge within the team and wider areas of influence
• Sponsor, engage and drive the successful introduction of new works management system and lead whole team through the change positively and collaboratively
• Continually monitor and identify financial efficiency opportunities by analysing performance and processes and driving these through to completion and realisation
• Direct budgetary responsibilities up to £5m and indirect budgetary influence up to £10m for your region

We're looking for you to:

• Have A minimum of 2 years' experience in Wastewater/Water industry required
• Have A minimum of 3 years' experience effectively leading Team Managers and others
• Have Comprehensive technical understanding of the operational business. Knowledge of repair and maintenance techniques and methods, customer side leakage, hydraulics, leakage demand and management and how these interact on a daily basis
• Have Excellent stakeholder management with ability to liaise at multiple levels and influence others beyond your span of control
• Have An adaptive style that is sensitive to individual communication preferences and approaches to delivery
• Have Excellent knowledge and understanding of business procedures and processes with understanding of how to implement these
• Have Experience in successfully managing and mentoring others
• Have Excellent communication and presentation skills adapted to the hybrid TW operating environment
• Have Critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a high-pressured environment with a relentless focus on delivery, team-work and collaboration. Ability to manage multiple tasks and demands simultaneously to meet targets and to delegate appropriately towards a collective goal or outcome
• Have Experience in managing contractor relationships in a matrix environment (some direct labour and some third party suppliers) understanding commercial drivers and employee value propositions to get the best outcomes for our customers
• Have Commercial acumen and experience with budget management
• Have Strong understanding of work management processes and systems and ideally experience in introducing and embedding new technology
• Have Experience in influencing senior stakeholders towards a collective approach and solution with examples of measurable outcomes

What's in it for you?
Our competitive salary and package include a competitive bonus, car allowance, private healthcare, an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday..... click apply for full job details