Job Description
The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.
Libraries & Collections comprises four departments: Education & Learning, Research & Impact, Service Design & Delivery, along with Business Operations. We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, which manages the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond.
This role is based Service Design & Delivery, which is responsible for designing and delivering services for Libraries & Collections that enhance the experience for individuals from across the King’s community.
Library Frontline Managers provide operational management of frontline services that enhance the experience of individuals from across the King’s community and support our Education and Research Strategies. Managers proactively support the Head of Frontline Services to provide welcoming, supportive and accessible services and environments that empower learning and support study and research. The role involves coordinating local campus management teams and hubs to ensure that first line and in-depth enquiries services are managed and delivered in a complementary way, in both library and non-library spaces. Frontline Managers work closely together to balance advocacy for nuance at their local campus with the need for cross-site consistency.
This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work on the development of services to deliver strategic objectives, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in operational and team management. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in taking coordinated approaches to prioritising and planning with a shared accountability for delivering aims.
All Libraries & Collections staff are encouraged to take responsibility for their own performance and development, through agreeing clear objectives, maintaining professional awareness, participating in professional networks and reflecting on own performance. We expect all managers to role-model a positive, proactive, flexible and committed approach that inspires others.
You will be required to participate in frontline services as required, including contributing towards a Manager on Duty rota for evening and weekend working.
This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.
This is a full-time post
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Key responsibilities
- Collaborate with other grade 6 colleagues in Libraries & Collections to prioritise, plan and share accountability for delivering on our aims
- Promote continuous improvement, service innovation and the delivery of results
- Manage people or a team, through project or line management, in order to deliver high quality services
- Support the implementation and use of Business Intelligence to steer operational service planning and decision making
- Make and evaluate key management decisions for local campus, based on data and stakeholder engagement, results from key surveys, local campus requirements and horizon-scanning
- Liaise and engage with appropriate stakeholders to ensure efficient service delivery
- Work with the Head of Frontline Services to maintain effective plans, policies and guidance for Lending, Membership and Library Environment services
- Identify process gaps and barriers to success to ensure all workflows are efficient, and provide guidance for the development and implementation of effective administrative working practices
- Support Library Frontline Co-ordinators in their management duties, acting as a point of escalation to resolve complex issues
- Working with Head of Operations to ensure business continuity at local campus
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.
Skills, knowledge, and experience
- Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in Library, or customer-facing service. Relevant educational experiences should include being educated to degree level and/or professionally accredited library / customer service qualification.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to present information to a range of different audiences
- Experience of supervising or managing projects and/or service improvements
- Experience of managing and motivating staff for high performance
- Experience of implementing change and supporting others through the process, balancing day-to-day operational activities with developing the service
- Ability to work independently in a fast-changing environment and to meet challenging deadlines
- Ability to work effectively and proactively with other teams and stakeholders to provide a high-quality service
- Experience in positively and proactively resolving a range of problems
- Experience of delivering excellent customer service in a team environment
- Ability to prioritise and organise own workload and those of assigned staff
- Commitment to equity, equality, diversity and inclusivity in your own learning and ways of working
- Understanding of the current and future challenges facing academic libraries in research-intensive universities
- Experience of conducting benchmarking exercises to improve services
- Understanding of the current and future challenges facing academic libraries in research-intensive universities