Employer Relationship Manager - Chester and Warrington

We are looking for a confident and personable Employer Relationship Manager – Chester & Warrington to join Barfection on an initial 6-month fixed-term contract, working full-time, 35 hours per week, with the potential to become permanent subject to the success and continuation of the project. This role will focus primarily on building strong relationships with hospitality employers across Chester and Warrington to secure high-quality work placements and positive employment outcomes for learners, while also identifying wider commercial and permanent recruitment opportunities for Barfection. We are looking for someone with a strong understanding of the front-of-house hospitality industry, excellent people and organisational skills, and ideally some previous B2B sales experience. The salary is £24,000 per year plus commission for meeting agreed targets, making this a strong opportunity for someone who enjoys building relationships, creating opportunities and making a tangible impact on both learners and local hospitality employers.

MAIN PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE JOB

• Build and manage high-quality employer relationships across Chester and Warrington to support work placements, learner progression and positive employment outcomes.
• Source, support and document safe, sustainable work placements for learners, providing additional support where required.
• Support learners into positive destinations and employment following programme completion.
• Develop a strong local employer network that supports Barfection's education delivery and creates longer-term commercial relationships.
• Identify permanent recruitment opportunities with hospitality employers in the Chester and Warrington area, qualify the requirement and make a clear internal handover to the permanent recruitment team.
• Support the recruitment of learners and contribute to wider employer-engagement activity for current and future programmes.
• Maintain delivery, safeguarding, quality and funding-body standards in accordance with Barfection procedures and the Education Inspection Framework (EIF).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

LEARNER PLACEMENTS, PROGRESS AND OUTCOMES - PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY

• Source suitable and sustainable work placements with ethical employers across Chester, Warrington and surrounding areas.
• Manage and develop existing placement-host relationships and ensure employers receive appropriate support.
• Ensure the learner remains at the centre of placement decisions and that placements are safe, welcoming and relevant to programme goals.
• Complete all placement documentation required by Barfection operating procedures, funding requirements and Health & Safety standards.
• Identify learner support needs, including Functional Skills, employability and soft-skills needs where relevant.
• Agree learner starting points and set meaningful, motivating targets for development and progression.
• Review learner progress in line with contractual requirements and Barfection systems, involving workplace supervisors or mentors where appropriate.
• Maintain detailed progress records, action plans and evidence of continuous development.
• Monitor attendance, retention and achievement and escalate concerns promptly.
• Proactively support learners into positive destinations, including employment, further training or other agreed outcomes.
• Work with employers to identify suitable vacancies for learners completing Barfection programmes and support learners through the transition into employment.

EMPLOYER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Act as a key Barfection contact for education and placement employers across the Chester and Warrington area.
• Build trusted, long-term employer relationships rather than transactional placement arrangements.
• Understand employer workforce needs, recruitment pressures and future hiring plans through regular relationship management.
• Maintain accurate employer, contact, placement and opportunity information in Barfection Employer OS / Barfection Connect.
• Identify opportunities for employers to support learner recruitment, placements, outcomes and future funded programmes.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure employer intelligence is shared and acted upon rather than held in individual inboxes or notes.
• Represent Barfection professionally at employer meetings, local events, networking opportunities and partnership activity.

PERMANENT RECRUITMENT OPPORTUNITY DEVELOPMENT - SECONDARY RESPONSIBILITY

• Identify permanent recruitment opportunities with new and existing hospitality employers across Chester and Warrington.
• Use employer conversations to understand upcoming vacancies, management recruitment needs and wider hiring challenges.
• Where appropriate, introduce Barfection's permanent recruitment service and explain the agreed recruitment proposition and commercial terms.
• Qualify opportunities sufficiently to establish the employer, vacancy, likely salary, urgency, decision-maker, expected timescale and agreed next step.
• Record qualified permanent recruitment opportunities accurately in Employer OS and make a clear, timely handover to the colleague responsible for permanent recruitment fulfilment.
• Support warm introductions and maintain the employer relationship during the handover where useful.
• Follow up with the employer after introduction to ensure the opportunity is progressing and the relationship remains strong.
• Contribute to agreed Chester and Warrington permanent recruitment business-development targets and opportunity-generation measures.
• The post holder is not expected to source, screen, shortlist or manage candidates for commercial permanent recruitment vacancies, nor to manage offers or replacement guarantees, unless specifically agreed as a temporary exception.
• This boundary does not apply to learner outcomes: supporting Barfection learners into employment remains a core responsibility of the role.

LEARNER RECRUITMENT AND LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

• Set up new employer and community opportunities that support learner recruitment into Barfection programmes.
• Liaise with referral partners and third-party organisations to generate appropriate programme referrals.
• Contact potential leads and local partners as required.
• Support local mobilisation activity, employer engagement and awareness-building for the Chester and Warrington provision.

QUALITY, SAFEGUARDING AND COMPLIANCE

• Maintain standards in line with the Education Inspection Framework and requirements set by relevant funding bodies.
• Ensure Barfection safeguarding policies and procedures are implemented and adhered to.
• Promote safe working practices and a strong culture of learner welfare and safety.
• Maintain accurate, timely records and meet agreed reporting and information deadlines.
• Comply with data protection, confidentiality and organisational policies when handling learner, employer and recruitment information.

STANDARD MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE

• Performance measures will prioritise learner and education outcomes. Commercial opportunity-generation measures are secondary and should not detract from placement quality or learner support.
• Sufficient suitable placement capacity to meet programme requirements.
• Learner placement, retention, progression and positive destination / employment outcomes against agreed targets.
• Quality and timeliness of learner reviews, placement documentation and employer records.
• Employer satisfaction, relationship quality and repeat engagement.
• Growth and maintenance of an active Chester and Warrington employer network.
• Number and quality of qualified permanent recruitment opportunities generated and successfully handed over.
• Contribution to learner recruitment and referral activity where required.
• Accurate use of Employer OS / Barfection Connect and timely completion of actions and reporting.
• High levels of teamwork, professionalism and cooperation across departments.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

• Manage workload proactively and balance learner, employer and business-development priorities effectively.
• Act as a role model for Barfection's values and ensure learners feel valued, safe and supported.
• Represent Barfection with integrity and professionalism with learners, employers, candidates, partners and colleagues.
• Engage positively with feedback, performance reviews and development opportunities.
• Produce management updates and reports as required.
• Follow Barfection systems, procedures and agreed ways of working.

SHARED TERM RESPONSIBILITY

• Departmental planning.
• Agree key measures of performance for individual learners.
• Improvement projects within team.
• Maintain a positive teaching and learning environment.
• Hit company recruitment targets.

Management reserves the right to make changes to the above job description with any other duties which can be reasonably expected of this role.