Operations Manager

As Operations Manager you will lead your area through people to drive an industry-leading craft product and customer experience that delivers brand loyalty and results. You will be a leader showing an uncompromising approach to delivering our purpose and values in your day to day, and strategic planning, prioritise for the longer term, to bring a vision to your area, whilst remaining connected to the bigger picture.

About GAIL's: We believe in making good bread. We may have grown but our philosophy has not changed: we make good food that people love, and create bakeries that people want to keep coming back to. We believe everyone deserves good baking. So, we are on a mission to make world-class, craft baking a part of every community. Craft is in everything we do. We work with the best people who make things in the best way. We shouldn’t rest until every community can choose craft. The ethos of a craft baker – to do everything to a high standard, pay attention to details, respect the ingredients and share widely – is an ethos we think is worth living by.

Key responsibilities:

• Leading with DRIVE you will: Set direction by building on previous successes, establishing the way forward, and setting impactful ways of working in your area.
• Motivate and engage your team and managers by communicating the shared vision and common goals, delving into a deeper understanding of how each role in the Bakery can impact results.
• Set your own objectives for the area, to drive LFL improvement, identifying opportunities for efficiency and productivity, whilst ensuring we remain true to our purpose, and our love for baking.
• Play a part in the bigger picture, by developing and executing brand-wide initiatives, and leading change by winning hearts and minds.

• Leading to DELIVER: Be an advocate for change, planning, prioritizing, and logically approaching business challenges, to inspire agility to the changing market.
• Have a finger on the pulse of the market and industry trends, taking a logical approach to reviewing the data and identifying opportunities to grow sales whilst adjusting your controls for the business needs.
• Plan collaboratively with your team breaking down larger business goals into deliverables by day/week/month/quarter, and year.
• Be a guardian of the GAIL’s brand, driving uncompromising compliance in standards, health and safety, and brand quality.

• Leading through PEOPLE: Be a Guru, having an exceptional way of connecting with your team, working to develop individuals to grow in capability and Rise with GAIL’s.
• See people as your craft, taking care of every individual, each step of the way through listening, seeking to understand the whole person, and connecting with their ambitions to motivate them to be the best and happiest they can be.
• Support, encourage and challenge people to improve performance through candid and regular feedback. Understanding the need for informal and formal processes, working closely with the people partners to ensure a fair and consistent approach to performance and capability management.
• Attract the best talent, through delivering an exceptional candidate experience in your area, showing care, and diligence to our recruitment and onboarding processes, and collaborating with your managers and the talent team to build our team of future leaders.

• Leading with VISION: Show a progressive and transformative leadership style, always reminding yourself of the core values of GAIL’s, and working to engage your team to the long-term plan.
• Remain open-minded to innovative ideas, collaborating cross-functionally, to deliver new initiatives into your bakeries, as seamlessly as possible, by communicating the why to your managers and team.
• Influence upwards, challenging when you feel something isn’t right, in an open, authentic, and courageous way.
• Be a facilitator to move decisions forward for the best of the business and its people.

And you the missing ingredient....

• Strong leadership skills, the ability to inspire and motivate a team, delegating and providing support.
• Able to demonstrate a track record of developing people with a people first approach.
• A relationship builder with a passion for people, able to engage in multiple projects and build relationships with various stakeholders across departments.
• Area management experience in food retail or hospitality.
• Experience of opening new sites or stores.
• The ability to understand the detail whilst also thinking strategically.
• A problem solver who is comfortable making decisions using their own initiative.
• Superb organisational skills and prioritization.
• Highly adaptable and responsive.