Head of Consultancy

Head of Consultancy

William Martin

Location: Home-based with travel to meet with colleagues and clients (including regular meetings in Bromsgrove, Cambridgeshire and London). 60% of the role may involve travel.

Salary: £50,000 to £60,000 per annum

Job Type: Full time

About Us

William Martin, part of the wider Marlowe SRC division, are at the forefront of revolutionising health and safety compliance solutions. With a mission to foster compliance, resilience, and success, we take pride in being the go-to partner for businesses navigating the complexities of regulatory landscapes.

Our dedicated team of professionals merges deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge tools, ensuring that our clients receive tailored support to meet and exceed compliance standards.

Join us in crafting a future where compliance is more than just a necessity; it's the bedrock of sustainable and flourishing businesses. William Martin Compliance is not just your safety partner but also your pathway to success.

About the role

You will manage divisional teams of health and safety, fire safety, water safety and asbestos consultants. The principal purpose is to be responsible for the delivery of divisional consultancy services to clients with the support of the Team Managers, Technical Leads and in consultation with the Client Management team. You will be responsible for overseeing all consultancy service deliverables; measuring and managing performance; and ensuring consultancy services are delivered in compliance with legislation and to the satisfaction of all our clients.

You will possess relevant technical knowledge and experience to a high level and will be responsible for ensuring the work undertaken by the consultant teams is technically accurate and delivered to our clients in accordance with agreed service level agreements. Furthermore, all consultant teams’ activities will be delivered in accordance with company key performance indicators and specifically, ensuring consultant utilisation targets are met and exceeded whenever possible.

You will be required to demonstrate the highest level of customer service with a commercially driven attitude which will involve working closely with the Managing Director, Business Operations Director, Client Management Director, Head of Business Development, Software Product Director and with our Finance Team.

The Head of Consultancy will be at the forefront of delivering our high quality services to clients and as such, excellent communication skills and a ‘can-do’ attitude will be key.  Mental agility, resilience and a pro-active approach to problem solving will be essential, as well as planning ahead to foresee potential issues and taking personal responsibility for completing tasks, projects and assignments.

Key Duties:

Team Management

• Ensure and oversee the effective management of consultant teams via the appointed Team Managers to ensure team objectives are being met.
• Provide leadership, direction, guidance and motivation to all employees.
• Manage the performance of direct reports (Team Managers), and also their professional development through periodic appraisals. 
• Arrange biennial Consultant CPD meetings (north and south).
• Liaise with suppliers completing work on our behalf (tracking their SLAs and escalating any concerns where appropriate).

Operational SLAs & KPIs

• Direct the activities of the consultant teams with a focus on bottom line profitability.
• Monitoring performance progress through out each month, to ensure the company achieves its objectives as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible.
• Be proactive and use initiative to develop / enhance service delivery approaches through the identification of improving work efficiencies, for example, Report Writing platform enhancements.
• Implement and track quality objectives / KPIs and summarise key business matrices in the monthly DLT Executive Summary Report.
• Work with the Team Managers to produce monthly / annual performance reports with reference to Power Bi reporting, and developing reporting tools to monitor the ongoing performance of the consulting teams.
• Communicate company reports and achievements to the Managing Director on a monthly basis.
• Contribute to the preparation of the annual budget and monitor its implementation, to ensure targets are met, that revenue flows are maximised and that fixed costs are minimised.
• Support the Business Operations Director to ensure all scheduling SLAs are being met.
• Implement the policies of the company and making sure they are adhered to consistently.

Quality Assurance

• Support the Quality, Accreditations and SHE Manager in maintaining the divisional third-party accreditations.
• Work with the Quality, Accreditations and SHE Manager to monitor compliments and complaints to define patterns and work to lessen any recurring issues.
• Oversee the QA process in terms of ensuring quality reports are produced in accordance with SLAs, Client Protocols, WM standards, as well as legislative requirements and industry standards. This will be achieved by directly managing the Document Production team and the QA team.
• Ensure feedback to Consultants is constructive, balanced and appropriate.
• Assist the Quality, Accreditations and SHE Manager where required to develop WM internal safety systems and processes.

Recruitment

• Ensure suitable numbers of employed and associate consultants are maintained through overseeing a proactive recruitment process in consultation with our People team and which minimises the use of recruitment agencies.
• Ensure a robust interview process is in place (three stage) to identify and appoint the best talent.

Clients

• Offer exemplary customer service, including maintaining customer relationships and taking care of any customer concerns or complaints quickly and professionally.
• Attend client / internal meetings / briefings as appropriate.  Produce and communicate agendas and minutes if required.
• Oversee the issuing of guidance via client protocols on common issues, new legislation / guidance and client requirements.
• Coordinate the technical responses to enquiries and meetings around this, any enforcement action, updates to template reports, document types etc and discussion with clients ahead of such changes.
• Update client specific training materials, as required, to reflect changes in legislation, changes to client policies and procedures etc.
• Oversee and support as necessary with the mobilisation of new client contracts.
• Keep the Managing Director fully briefed of client specific developments / issues which may arise.
• Represent the company in negotiations with clients, suppliers and other key contacts to secure the most effective contract terms.

Technical

• Display extensive working knowledge of industry standards and practices, including service specifications and company services offered.
• Develop working knowledge of industry regulations, restrictions, and laws, ensuring divisional consultancy teams adhere to all relevant legislation and guidance.
• Be fully acquainted with the functionality of Meridian health and safety management system, report writer / production software and the client specific modifications to these systems.
• Periodically undertake consultancy services directly (as required).

What you will need

Essential

• Honest, authentic, trustworthy and able to work with integrity.  
• Discipline-specific academic qualification and professional membership with active involvement in continuing professional development,
• A minimum of 5 years’ experience in providing consultancy services directly.
• Held a previous senior management position (one which involves delivering a service(s) using multi-disciplinary consulting teams).
• Excellent IT skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint plus the ability to work with numerous ancillary management platforms).
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Willingness to travel (Likely to be 60%+).
• Ability to work on own initiative and pro-active approach to problem solving.
• Comprehensive industry knowledge.
• Strong customer-facing skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication abilities.
• Self-motivated.
• Resilient in challenging situations.

Desired

• Knowledge of property management/facilities management sectors.
• Experience of delivering multiple service disciplines.
• Business / finance qualifications / training / experience.

Why join us?

People are at the heart of everything we do. By putting people first, we invest more in developing them alongside creating career growth opportunities and advancement across the division. It is our priority to ensure our employees feel valued and inspired and we commit to supporting you every step of the way.

Our clients expect the best from us, and we expect the same from our colleagues. This is why we offer a wide range of fantastic benefits to support you in both your personal and professional life.

Benefits:

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Contributory pension scheme
• Voluntary private medical
• Simply health care plan
• Gym and retail discounts
• Cycle to work scheme
• Quarterly charity days
• Religious holiday swap
• Employee assistance programme
• Life learning – online learning materials
• Support with professional membership costs

INDHS