Unite Students - Regional General Manager

Unite Students - Regional General Manager

Regional General Manager Candidate Information Pack

About US We are Unite Students. The leading provider of student accommodation in the UK.

30 years’ experience

Over 60 University partners

74,000 students each year

Not just a landlord

Having provided a home for students for almost 30 years, we know what students want and need. We also know that every student’s different. We’ve used this insight to create places to live where you can feel at home, no matter where you’ve come from or where you want to go. Places where you can make the leap to university and get the most out of your time there.

Home for Success

We know that university isn’t always plain sailing. But we also passionately believe that with the right support and surroundings, students can successfully navigate themselves through the lows as well as the highs of this exciting, sometimes challenging, time. We call this a 'Home for Success'.

The smart way to live with us Packed with features, the MyUnite app is a must-have for anyone living with Unite Students. From connecting to your flatmates to logging a maintenance request, the MyUnite app is the perfect companion to ensure you have a great stay with us.

Find out more

Our promises

Safe and secure

Getting you settled

There when you need us

Buildings, teams, rules. Everything we do is designed to protect you.

New place, new people, new start. We’ll help you settle in and feel at home.

Whatever you need, you’ve got our support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our Values

Our ambition is for our values to reflect the mindset, behaviours and attitudes we aspire to role model across the business.

CREATING ROOM FOR EVERYONE We strive to be welcoming and inclusive to all

KEEPING US SAFE Safety should be a part of everything we do

DOING WHAT’S RIGHT We should always be looking to do the right thing

RAISING THE BAR TOGETHER We should constantly strive to be better

How we operate

REGIONA

Cluster Responsibility

Student Experience Manager 0

V

V

Student Exp. Lead

Student Exp. Lead

St

St

Student Exp. Team Student Exp. Team

Property Responsibility

AL GENERAL MANAGER

V

General Manager

Facilities Manager

V

V

V

Housekeeping Team Lead

Facilities Team Lead

Night Manager

P

V

P

Night Team Lead 60% Productive

Facilities Team

Housekeeping Team

V

tudent Exp. Lead

tudent Exp. Team

The Role

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE The role of the Regional General Manager is to lead the team of General Managers and deliver the end to end operational, financial and commercial metrics for their cluster of properties. They are responsible for leveraging the suite of central initiatives and supplementing them with local strategies to meet and exceed these objectives. As the leader of the property clusters, supported by the regional management teams and central functions, the RGMs are ultimately responsible for their team’s engagement and performance, all aspects of safety and security, the cleanliness, condition and maintenance of the assets, sales and revenue performance, the wellbeing and experience of their students, profitability and capital planning, and project execution. The RGMs are also responsible for building key university partnerships, often leading the development of our single year nomination agreements as well as day to day working relationship. In addition to these key operational responsibilities, the RGMs are there to support the development of the wider national strategic agenda at Unite Students including but not limited to our Unite Way of Operations, short-stay revenue strategies, TAR etc. What you do ….. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES • Be the ultimate brand ambassador and always act with positive intent and professionalism. The Regional General Manager will be well networked and influential in their region and the PBSA community – attracting and recruiting the best talent in the industry to their management teams. • Responsible for setting stretched targets for the team that contribute to the attainment of their region overall group metrics for which they are fully accountable – Student NPS | Student Service Score | Problem Handling | HE Trust Score | Unite Quality and Safety Audits | Occupancy | Total Revenue | EBIT/NOI margin | Colleague Engagement. • Responsible for the development of the region’s commercial strategy; thorough understanding of the market, managing exceptional higher education partnerships with a view to greater influence and knowledge, clearly articulated segmentation and pricing strategies with all support requirements articulated, agreed and executed as planned, in partnership with central functions. • Responsible for the creation of regional sales and marketing plans aligned to the commercial strategy to maximise total operating revenue generation through targeted activity, planned and executed in partnership with central functions. • Accountable for summer sales generation with clear targeted plans, agreed with central functions and activated through to operational plans to deliver the expected customer experience profitability.

• Accountable for every property’s adherence to ‘Unite Ways of Operations’, Unite policies, procedures and specified and trained ways of working at all times, agreeing local exceptions and working with central functions to highlight and escalate requirements for change or improvement. • Responsible for the development of their regional operational plan, they will have a detailed overview of activities and ways of working, fully aligned to the ‘Unite ways of working’ across the entire business cycle. • The Regional General Manager must ‘sign off’ on all management recruitment and probation. They will be accountable for the performance of their full cluster management teams and will actively participate in performance management conversations and personal development plans and take full responsibility for the region’s equality, diversity and governance application. • Responsible for leading and coaching CARE (Connect, Act, Respect and Encourage) to our colleagues throughout the business in delivering a world class student experience to our residents and each other. • Accountable for ensuring all their properties are manned according to agreed principles and property needs, that the team members and management teams are trained to deliver expected outcomes and that they are able to respond accordingly in all likely scenarios. • Accountable to ensure the assets and all mechanical, electrical and plant equipment, including all fire, life and safety equipment are maintained and serviced in line with statutory compliance requirements or Unite policy as a minimum. • Accountable to ensure all required testing, monitoring, risk assessments and any other required tasks in order to maintain a safe and secure building and environment is done in line with Unite Students policy – and that any mitigation identified as needed is in place or all required actions are complete within the stated time period, in partnership with support functions.

• Accountable to maintain the properties clean and in good condition, they are responsible for the development of a five-year capital plan that is in situ and acted upon in line with agreed spend, they will work across the business to oversee the scope (fit for purpose), tender (best price and quality), sustainability (minimising environmental impact in line with our sustainability strategy), plan (minimise disruption to our students), oversee and sign off on operational completion. • Accountable for, and the lead for, managing any incidents from student welfare to security issues to H&S matters in their cluster of properties. • Responsible for understanding our sustainability strategy, why it matters to us and our stakeholders, and what opportunities the role presents to help achieve our sustainability targets, and for encouraging and empowering the team to play their part. • Responsible for working with our central support functions to champion and implement sustainability measures to improve environmental and social sustainability within their region, including measures to reduce energy and water consumption, carbon emissions, waste, and to improve recycling, and promote lasting responsible living and working habits among customers and colleagues. • Accountable for maintaining great relationships with higher education partners, that any requirements of our higher education partners nomination agreements are acted upon without exception so that we are their first choice for nominations and their direct recommendation to students. • Responsible for keeping a clean, tidy and well-maintained environment; the business leader will never walk past a mess without doing something about it, and holding the team accountable to take action when required. • Accountable for the profit and cash generation of the region, having detailed understanding of all cost variance to targets with a plan for recovery or strategic spending.

KEY SUCCESS METRICS

Student NPS

Service Score

Problem Handling

Higher Education Trust Score

Unite Quality and Safety Audits

Occupancy

Total Revenue

EBIT/NOI margin

Colleague Engagement

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

As a Regional General Manager, you will always show that you CARE ;

• Be able to C onnect with our students, your team and support functions. That means being open to diversity, being approachable to everyone and leaving a great first impression so that people leave a conversation feeling good. • Be A ction orientated – that means being observant to everything that’s happening around you, taking ownership to make things right and to speaking up and ensure lessons are shared and improvements are made for everyone to benefit. • Give R espect – that means being open to different cultures and beliefs, being considerate of other people’s needs and treating others how they wish to be treated. • E ncourage others – that means being positive and using positive verbal communication and body language, being solutions focussed and coaching others to help them find solutions for themselves and being supportive – never letting our students feel lost. You will believe in and actively demonstrate our promises; • We want to create room for everyone – equality and sustainability matters • Keeping us safe is a top priority – you are able to keep calm under pressure • You believe in doing what’s right – you will stand up and speak up when you know that something is not right • We want to raise the bar together – you can be creative and are willing to take a chance You will be an inspirational leader: • Be able to articulate Unite Students vision and purpose in a way that is meaningful and motivating • Is highly authentic and self-aware, you naturally create an environment where people are free to be themselves, are open and best practice is shared • Be responsible, dependable and contactable at all times in accordance with the role • Creates pride in the team to deliver a consistent Unite experience according to our brand standards

Get in Touch If you are interested in

North and Central London – contact Hannah Searle

Bristol, Bath and Cardiff – contact Anna Kacprzak Anna. [email protected]

Get in Touch If you are interested in

North and Central London contact

Hannah Searle [email protected]

Bristol, Bath and Cardiff contact

Anna Kacprzak [email protected]