Operations Manager - Financial Services in Penrith

Welplan has been providing specialist employee benefits to the construction industry for over 60 years. Death, Sickness and Accident lump‑sum benefits are delivered to employers through six discretionary trust funds, for which Welplan acts as both corporate trustee and administrator. Welplan is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Building Engineering Services Association and specialises in benefits tailored to the construction sector.

In a growing employee benefits business, the Operations Manager plays a pivotal role in building a stable, scalable, and client‑centric operation. This is a highly hands‑on role with a strong emphasis on people management, problem resolution, and continuous process improvement.

You’ll lead a small but busy team to resolve complex operational issues, strengthen processes, and foster a culture where accuracy, accountability, and exceptional service are the norm. You will also play a key role in the implementation of a new system that will be used internally and externally by clients.

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing employees to split their time between working from home (2–3 days per week) and the office (2–3 days per week) once training is complete. This role requires office attendance on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, supporting a balance of flexibility and collaboration.

• People Leadership & Team Culture
  • Act as the senior escalation point for operational and service delivery issues, ensuring timely, calm, and effective resolution.
  • Conduct regular 1:1s and performance check‑ins, ensuring each team member has clear goals, development priorities, and support to succeed.
  • Manage team workload planning and resource allocation, ensuring balanced workloads, resilience, and effective prioritisation.
  • Recognise and reward strong performance, celebrating success and reinforcing positive behaviours.
  • Support employee wellbeing, spotting early signs of burnout or disengagement and taking appropriate action.
  • Lead root cause analysis for recurring problems and implement long term fixes rather than short term patches.
  • Work closely with insurers, brokers, and partners to resolve complex benefit related queries.
  • Improve communication loops so issues are spotted earlier and resolved faster.
• Process Improvement & Operational Maturity
  • Map, document, and refine core processes across benefits administration, onboarding, renewals, and customer support.
  • Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and error‑prone steps, and redesign workflows to improve accuracy and speed.
  • Introduce simple, scalable processes suitable for a small but growing business.
  • Implement quality checks, audit trails, and clear handoff points to reduce rework and client escalations.
  • Champion a continuous improvement mindset across the team.
• Service Delivery & Client Experience
  • Ensure clients receive a consistent, reliable, and friendly service across all benefit programmes.
  • Oversee onboarding of new clients, ensuring smooth transitions and clear communication.
  • Monitor service performance, SLAs, and client feedback to identify improvement opportunities.
  • Support client‑facing teams with operational insight and problem solving.
• Operational Oversight, Compliance & Risk Management
  • Ensure compliance with relevant regulations including Anti‑Money Laundering (AML) legislation.
  • Maintain accurate records, audit readiness, and strong data integrity.
  • Support operational planning for peak periods such as renewals and legislative changes.
  • Design and deliver a robust operational risk framework.
  • Provide regular reporting and insight to senior leadership.

• Skills, Knowledge & Experience
  • Essential
    • Strong people leadership experience, ideally in a small or growing business.
    • Proven ability to resolve complex operational issues and lead root-cause analysis.
    • Experience improving processes and building operational structure from the ground up.
    • Excellent communication skills and the ability to bring clarity to ambiguous situations.
  • Desirable
    • Hands‑on operational experience in employee benefits, insurance, pensions, or financial services.
    • Experience of system implementation project delivery.
    • Highly numerate with proven experience of data analysis.
• Personal Attributes
  • Calm, steady, and solutions focused — especially when issues arise.
  • A natural coach who enjoys developing people and building confidence.
  • Pragmatic and hands on, willing to roll up your sleeves when needed.
  • Detail orientated with a strong sense of ownership and follow through.
  • Passionate about improving processes and creating a better experience for clients and colleagues.
  • Comfortable leading teams through change and helping others adapt.
• Behaviours
  • Customer Empathy – We anticipate and address customer challenges to foster connection and meaningful experiences with them.
  • Accountability – We keep our word and deliver the results we promise, holding others to account to do the same. We actively manage potential consequences and take ownership to address them.
  • Continuous Improvement – We are deeply curious to understand how things work for our customers, industry and organisation. We challenge the status quo and look to enhance and evolve everything we do.
  • Agility – We respond and adapt swiftly to changing circumstances.
  • Commerciality – We make informed decisions that enable profitable and/or sustainable growth.
  • Care – We create an environment where people feel valued and heard, providing a sense of belonging.

All candidates must be able to demonstrate a pre‑existing right to work and travel within the UK. Documentary evidence will be required.

Closing Date: 17th May 2026

Don’t meet every single requirement? At BESA, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you’re enthusiastic about this role but your experience doesn’t match every requirement perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be exactly the candidate we’re looking for!

We encourage early applications, as we may close the vacancy once we receive a strong pool of candidates!