DCA Supplier Manager - Debt Collection Agency

Who are we?

We're the UK's largest water provider, with over 15 million customers to serve every day. Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open. We make a difference daily to millions of customers by supplying 2.7 billion litres of water to around 10 million homes. Our main role is to ensure customers can turn on the tap and get world-class drinking water 24/7. We also safely transport and treat waste, returning it back to the environment.

About the role:

As the DCA (Debt Collection Agency) Supplier Manager you will be responsible for managing and optimising the performance and SLA's for all Debt Collection Agencies who currently work with Thames Water.

You will be responsible for the governance and oversight of each Debt Collection Agency (DCA), working within our governance & control framework and managing risk or areas of concern with our DCA suppliers. You will manage all projects and change management processes in relation to the DCAs to always ensure that Thames Water values and priorities are extended to our DCAs.

What you'll be doing:

• Lead regular business reviews with all Debt Collection Agencies (DCA) working Thames Water debt
• Monitor and analyse performance across all KPIs and communicate any changes in performance to relevant stakeholders
• Manage the supplier relationships to drive strong collection rates across all batches of work placed with DCAs
• Manage all audit requirements outlined in the governance & control framework, ensuring customer experience is positive while in the DCA part of the collections journey.
• Produce regular audit reports and performance results to Recoveries & Supplier Manager and Head of Collections.
• Support and manage DCAs with all DCA and Thames led projects that are agreed.
• Manage all change control processes in relation to the DCAs
• Understand and monitor all contractual requirements for each DCA
• Continually look at ways overall stock performance can be improved, putting forward thought-out initiatives to the Recoveries & Supplier Manager for consideration.
• Proactively lead the DCA support teams, motivating all team members and fostering a coaching culture on an ongoing basis.
• Line manage responsibilities, accountable for performance management, 121's and general people management requirements.
• Manage change effectively in the DCA team, ensuring new processes and procedures are successfully embedded.

What we're looking for:

• Proven track record of supplier management
• Good understanding of debt collection processes
• Proactive and considered impact analysis of MI reports
• Ability to identify and provide the most appropriate presentation methods to different roles and knowledge levels across the business.
• Knowledge of key performance drivers for effective performance management
• Ability to train and coach in a clear and professional manner ensuring directional clarity is achieved
• Versatile, with the ability to adapt quickly to the changing needs of a rapidly developing business.

Here's why you should join us!

We're proud of the positive ways of working we have adopted during the pandemic. We want to create a more flexible and dynamic environment so all our colleagues can thrive. For our office-based roles we are moving to a hybrid approach where we will provide options around working from our offices, our operational sites and home dependent on role/team/individual. This will be discussed during the assessment process.

Thames Water is a rewarding and diverse place to work. If you join us, you'll enjoy our flexible working arrangements and be supported with progression and development opportunities. We're proud to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Disability Confident Leader, Times Top 50 Employer for Women, Race at work charter signatory and Carer Confident great place to work. We also support local events and charities.

Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday per year, increasing with length of service, access to money-saving and benefits schemes and much more!

You can find our more in our working for us section of our website.