Operations Manager
Wen (Women's Environmental Network)
Salary: £37,637.15 per annum, pro rata (Grade 4)
Contract: 4 days (28 hours) per week, permanent. Possibility of the role to become full time - 5 days (35 hours) per week. Please note, you will be expected to work on Tuesday as it is a core working day for the
majority of Wen staff.
Location: Based at Wen’s Shoreditch office, with hybrid working available
Reporting to: Head of Organisational Development
Supervising: IT Co-ordinator, Operations Assistant and volunteers (up to 5 people).
ABOUT WEN
Wen is the Women’s Environmental Network. We are an environmental charity working on issues that connect women, health, equity and environmental justice. We take an intersectional feminist approach to tackling the climate and nature emergencies.
We support women and communities to take action, amplifying racialised and marginalised women’s voices, and advocate for change. We cultivate grassroots projects, connect women to nature, create blueprints for just food systems and put gender and intersectional equality at the heart of the green economy.
We were the first charity to connect gender, health, equity and environmental justice. Since our radical beginnings in 1988, Wen’s groundbreaking campaigns have tackled issues from air pollution and plastic packaging to toxic chemicals in menstrual products and cosmetics.
Our vision is a world where women, communities and the planet flourish because our society is equitable, collaborative and caring.
WORKING AT WEN
As an intersectional feminist charity, we live and breathe our values of care, equity and collaboration.
The Wen team is friendly, open and passionate about our cause and the communities we work in. Our office is based just off Brick Lane in Shoreditch and we also have another hub in Poplar, where we hold our monthly team meeting with a shared lunch. We also have a weekly online check in meeting every Tuesday morning.
As a feminist organisation we take a participatory approach to decision making. One way we do this is through our ‘feminist leadership model’ with a leadership circle made up of delegates from the team as well as senior management and the Director who holds overall responsibility for Wen, including managing organisational risks and delivering on our strategy. We have regular team meetings and check-ins to ensure communication across the organisation. There are always opportunities to get involved in Wen events, including our food growing projects which are always fun.
KEY BENEFITS
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, pro rata. Rising to 27 days after 5 years.
- Pension scheme, contributing 6% of salary.
- Employee Assistance Programme includes free counselling sessions that are also available to a spouse and dependents between 16-24.
- Access to training and development opportunities.
- Onboarding and skills support from a HR consultant/ mentor.
- Menstrual leave.
- Laptop and mobile phone for work.
- Time off in lieu for agreed overtime.
- Flexible and hybrid working available.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are looking for someone dynamic and progressive to manage operations (people, places and finance) for our growing organisation. Helping us to navigate an exciting new period in our development, your role will be to manage and shape the organisation’s operations and HR to ensure we have the right systems and processes in place to deliver our work effectively and in ways that are in line with our feminist, participatory and anti-oppression values.
Wen has gone through significant transformation over the past few years including the rapid growth of our team (now 24 members of staff) and an overhaul of all our internal systems to strengthen the organisation for our future work. This had included migrating our finance system to QuickBooks, implementing a new database, CiviCRM, revising our structure, and we are still developing new financial and HR policies and procedures. We also currently work across two sites and our hybrid team also work remotely.
We are keen to find someone interested in having a core role within an organisation, delivering a wide range of internal projects that support staff wellbeing, communications, anti-racism and culture, including exploring and implementing progressive and radical HR policies that help us to further embed a culture of care. You will work supportively and dynamically with our collaborative and friendly team. You will be supported by the Head of Organisational Development, who you will work with to develop new strategies and priority areas of work.
RESPONSIBILITIES
People (HR)
- Manage and maintain HR policies, procedures and practices including the employee handbook, ensuring they are up to date, recorded, filed and adhered to (i.e. personnel contracts, DBS, volunteers, holidays, sick leave)
- Develop and implement new systems, policies and processes that support anti-oppression, care and inclusion.
- Ensure that Wen is compliant, abiding by relevant legislation (including GDPR) and arrange training for staff as needed
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding, staff development and all other people processes
- Ensure appropriate support and supervision is in place for all staff, including overseeing training for all staff
- Promote improvements in internal communication, ensuring staff, volunteers and interns are informed of organisational developments and have opportunities to give feedback that will help shape our ways of working for the better.
- Oversee the co-ordination of all-staff events, meetings, socials and team building.
- Monitor and evaluate staff wellbeing, taking steps to address as needed
- Ensure appropriate and compliant documentation and record maintenance for all HR processes across the organisation including absence management
- Designated Safeguarding Lead for the organisation.
Places (Office management and IT)
- Ensure smooth running of Wen’s main office to ensure it provides a welcoming, efficient and safe space to work in, ensuring health and safety procedures are implemented and maintained with help from the Operations Assistant.
- Utilise the Core Operations budget with help from the Operations Assistant to ensure Wen is maintaining photocopier, stationary supplies, liaising with our landlord about rent, maintaining phones, health and safety, fire procedures, utilities, rates and insurance.
- Oversee the IT Coordinator to ensure licenses are up to date, IT issues are solved promptly and IT developments and changes across our two sites and hybrid team are tracked
Finance
- Work with Finance Manager and Head of Organisational Development to establish strong financial processes and policies and ensure staff are aware of the relevant ones
- Liaising with our Finance Manager on day-to-day accounting as and when necessary
- Managing the Core Operations budget including approval of expenditure (as a signatory) and cashflow preparation for the coming financial year
- Checking and collation of monthly payroll information
People Support
- Managing the Operations Assistant and IT Co-ordinator.
- Supporting volunteers as required and oversee managing our volunteer database.
- Supporting Wen team with HR and other Operations-related matters.
Along with any other reasonable tasks and duties deemed relevant to the role.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential Criteria
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Demonstrable experience of:
- Oversight and management of administrative systems
- Planning own work and supporting and line managing others
- Using initiative to analyse a range of available information from different sources to solve day-to-day problems as they arise
- Managing budgets effectively with sound financial management skills
- CIPD qualified, or equivalent expertise gained through experience of administering and maintaining HR policies, practices and records, e.g. contracts, holidays, other leave and absences
- Proven attention to detail, systematic and methodical approach
- Demonstrable commitment to the vision and values of Wen (equity, collaboration, care and intersectional eco-feminism)
- Ability to work outside of office hours occasionally to meet the demands of the role
Desirable:
- Experience of working in a charity or non-government organisation
- Understanding the dynamics of rapidly changing policy and funding environments
- Understanding of feminist leadership and participative workplaces
ABOUT THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
We particularly encourage applications from People of Colour/ People of the Global Majority, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, and those who identify as working-class/ from low-income backgrounds or who have done so in the past. This is because these groups are currently underrepresented in the environmental sector. Where two or more candidates are judged to be of equal merit, priority may be given to a candidate who belongs to a group less represented at Wen.
Wen is committed to anti-racism and inclusive intersectional feminism which acknowledges how race, class and sexuality intersect with gender in our day-to-day lives. Wen is open to all genders and is actively working towards being a trans-inclusive organisation.
About WEN (Women's Environmental Network)
Wen fights global problems around gender, health and our environment by taking action on issues
affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods. We work alongside communities supporting action
and get a real-world understanding of women’s lived experiences in the process. With this
knowledge, we create collaborative partnerships with organisations, academics and policy makers
to launch projects and campaigns that make a real difference and improve lives.
Wen fights global problems around gender, health and our environment by taking action on issues affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods. We work alongside communities supporting action and get a real-world understanding of women’s lived experiences in the process. With this knowledge, we create collaborative partnerships with organisations, academics and policy makers to launch projects and campaigns that make a real difference and improve lives.
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