Kenyon International Call Centre (KICC) Manager

Working Hours: No fixed hours apply to this role. Core availability is expected Monday to Friday during business hours across relevant time zones, but you will be required to work whatever hours the role demands which may include evenings, weekends, on-call coverage, and response to operational activations. Your remuneration reflects this. You are expected to manage your time autonomously, consistent with the seniority of the position and the Company's obligations to its clients.

Work Pattern: Hybrid — Bracknell office / remote; presence at supplier site as required.

Travel Requirements: Regular travel to the supplier site; potential international deployment during activations.

On-Call / Shift Work: Participation in the operations on-call rota; 24/7 availability for activation as KICC Director.

Special Conditions: DBS check and security vetting required; exposure to distressing material — psychological support provided. The right to work in Jersey is required if applying from there.

Purpose of the Role: The Call Centre Manager owns Kenyon’s emergency international call centre (KICC) and media call centre (MCC) capability end-to-end: the governance, quality assurance and supplier management of the contracted call centre service in the readiness state, and direction of the Kenyon International Call Centre (KICC) as KICC Director during live activations. The role exists to guarantee that when a major incident occurs, families and clients reach a service that answers quickly, speaks their language and captures every detail accurately and that Kenyon holds the evidence to assure and enforce that standard.

Kenyon’s International Call Centre assists companies and governments to manage the surge of telephone enquiries from concerned families and friends following an emergency. It is the focal point to generate the multiple subsequent interactions with family members as they seek information on their missing loved ones. The service is international and operates irrespective of the cause of the emergency or the scale of the consequences. Kenyon’s International Call Centre has over 600 trained personnel to work in four different functional areas. The Inbound Team of up to 100 agents receive the initial calls and start the process of determining who may have been involved in the emergency. The Notification Team is responsible for return contact with families to seek additional information. All the agents are supported by a Travel Team and a Data Management Team. The Call Centre is an essential part of any company’s Crisis Management architecture. The information gathered at this stage and the way in which families are treated will be crucial to the success of the overall response operations.

Scope agrees or rejects Post Activation Reports (the basis for supplier invoicing) after reconciliation. UK-based with global service scope — the call centre supports Kenyon activations and clients worldwide, across time zones. Work alongside the training team to ensure call centre training is developed and delivered to the call centre staff.

Key Relationships:

• Internal Operations Director — weekly reporting; monthly Call Centre Governance Review.
• Operations Team — tasking and calibration of test calls, QA sampling and evidence capture.
• Crisis Management Centre and Crisis Communications Lead — activation interfaces, data flows and escalation routes.
• External Call centre supplier account and operations management — monthly Supplier Performance Reviews, drill planning, training assurance.
• Client representatives during and after activations — service briefings, feedback capture and after-action reviews.
• Contingency partners (MOU call centres), interpreting and telephony providers — resilience and failover arrangements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and operate the Call Centre Governance Framework and SOP: KPI dashboard, Issue Log, evidence capture and monthly governance reporting, including risk register entries and mitigation plans.
• Manage supplier performance: run monthly Supplier Performance Reviews with evidence packs, track corrective actions, and prepare breach and penalty positions in line with contractual notice requirements.
• Run the KICC quality assurance programme: the annual drill calendar (six contractual drills), monthly test calls including foreign-language tests, call sampling and scoring, and training assurance — including Kenyon’s own six-monthly review of the recurrent training programme.
• Control the commercial interface: maintain the Contract Obligations Register, check all supplier charges against contracted rates and the change-control gateway, and reconcile Post Activation Reports before agreement.
• Own business continuity for the call centre capability: supplier BCP assurance, MOU contingency arrangements with client and partner call centres, and a tested failover and invocation checklist.
• On activation, deploy as KICC Director: execute the activation procedure, timestamp the contractual ramp-up evidence, direct daily monitoring and QA, manage the supplier operationally, capture client feedback, and lead the after-action review and any root cause analysis.
• Support the re-procurement workstream with the evidence base and lead operational transition to any new provider.
• Support the CMC (Crisis Management Centre) during activations not requiring KICC/MCC services.
• Support wider Operational Team projects and demands.
• Such other duties as may reasonably be required from time to time, commensurate with the level of the role.

Key Metrics for Success:

• 100% of contractual drills scheduled, executed and documented; monthly test call and QA sampling programme running to SOP within the first 90 days.
• 100% of service issues logged on the day of occurrence, with significant issues notified to the supplier in writing within two working days.
• 100% of Supplier Performance Reviews held with complete evidence packs; 100% of Post Activation Reports reconciled against Kenyon records before agreement.
• Call centre risk register entries current with mitigation plans in place; supplier BCP assessed and contingency MOU capability established within 12 months.

Judgement Under Pressure — Makes sound, documented decisions during activations affecting distressed families. Evidence Discipline — Records issues on the day they occur; builds cases that withstand contractual and audit scrutiny. Stakeholder Management — Holds suppliers to account while sustaining a workable partnership; communicates credibly with clients and executives. Compassion and Professionalism — Never loses sight of the bereaved and distressed callers the service exists for.

Required Qualifications: Additional languages (Spanish or Arabic particularly valued). Aviation, emergency services or humanitarian sector background; procurement or tender evaluation experience.