AGRop
1. What we do
Founded in 1968, the Association of Graduate Recruiters is about to celebrate 40 years of continuous growth and success in the graduate recruitment market.
AGR is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting employers in all aspects of graduate recruitment. Membership is at all time high with almost 800 businesses and affiliates. Member organisations consist primarily of businesses, public and private, that recruit graduates, suppliers of services to those businesses and universities.
Our aim is to set the agenda for change in graduate recruitment and our unrivalled knowledge and experience in this field gives our member organisations employers the edge in what is a very competitive market.
As well as offering impartial, expert advice, we provide our members with access to invaluable market surveys, research findings and briefing papers. We enable members to network and share best practice by organising a variety of seminars, conferences, focus groups and online discussion forums. We also ensure that recruiters’ views are heard by decision makers in government, universities and careers services.
In recent years we have strengthened our training portfolio and introduced the agr Standard, a toolkit to raise standards in graduate recruitment. We deliver a series of master classes and expertise workshops to cover each of the 5 elements that make up the Standard:
- Graduate marketing
- Graduate selection
- Understanding education
- Business & resource management
- Graduate development.
We also organise a one day national spring conference and in July of each year hold our annual conference which attracts 500 plus delegates and exhibitors making it the largest event of its kind in
2. Background to the new post of Operations Manager
It is often said that AGR punches above its weight. Our very lean team currently consists of:
- Chief Executive
- Information Services Manager
- Membership Coordinator
- Executive Assistant to the CE
- Administrative Assistant.
It has been our policy to buy-in a range of specialist services including:
- Editing Graduate Recruiter magazine
- Print management
- Training design and delivery
- Conference organisation
- Survey work
- Public relations
- Payroll, accountancy
- IT support
This arrangement has stood us in good stead during a period of sustained growth in size and scale of operation but we have reached the point at which further gains require a dedicated resource to help us to:
- Maximise the returns on existing services and products e.g. conference sponsorship, attendance at courses and conferences
- Build the business of our recently established consultancy arm, AGR Consultancy Services Ltd
- Strengthen the ‘professional’ as opposed to ‘administrative’ resource
- Redistribute some responsibilities to release the chief executive to concentrate on external networking, policy development, building relationships with members, representation of members’ interests, supporting board members, goal setting and strategic management
- Meet deadlines and enhance the quality of what we do e.g. briefing papers
- Lighten the load and enhance the servicing of 8 sector focus groups that meet on average 4 times a year
All of which has led us to create this new post. Our vision of AGR is that of a ‘concierge service’ providing for our members those things that they either cannot or are disinclined to provide for themselves. At the heart of this is the tacit requirement to build on the relationship and understanding we have with our members. We are highly visible to our members. Despite a massive increase in online communications, our team meet face to face with a majority of our membership at regular intervals. Not surprisingly we find that this leads to our members expectations rising year on year.
The Board of Directors (made up of representatives of the membership) believes the time is right to appoint an Operations Manager to help further build the relationship with members and in particular, to maximise the usage and returns on new and existing business enterprises. The Board believe that in the first year, the post-holder should be able to achieve a 40% return on the costs incurred and within three years the post will pay for itself.
3. Responsibilities of the new post
Key purpose
To maximise the usage and returns on new and existing business enterprises and to build the relationship with the membership.
Business development
- Project management of new business initiatives
- Review of existing services and products with a view to maximising the returns
- Marketing of services and products
- Initial responsibility for negotiating sponsorship, endorsement and partnership deals
- Promotion of other money-earning services such as mail-shots, e-bulletins, business directory
- Execution of new service developments – an example of which is an AGR graduate careers portal that allows members to list their vacancies by function at a small charge (as requested by a few members).
- Identification of new business possibilities (with an emphasis on diversifying income streams). One example of this is consultancy work
- Promoting services externally to businesses not in membership
Annual conference and other events
- Strengthening of sponsorship deals for conferences and awards
- Oversight of exhibition packages
- Assistance with the organising of conference and other events
Training
- Co-ordination of training programmes including contract management, negotiating of fees, premises etc
- Training programme design including drawing up the training schedule
- Marketing of courses to ensure maximum take-up of training places
- Identification and targeting of members to attend courses and participation in the agr Standard
- Oversight of the agr Standard participants files and answering queries
- Organisation of the one-day conference
- Organisation of the master class series
4. Pay and conditions
- Salary is negotiable and dependent on the skills and experience of the successful candidate. In addition to the salary there will be a performance related bonus. The successful candidate and the chief executive will together consider how best to incentive the post.
- The intention is to monitor the income/savings that accrue to the role and a target of 40% of salary be set for the first year. The performance related bonus will be influenced by the success in reaching the 40% target. In the second year the target should be raised to 70% with the aim, over three years, to make the post self-financing.
- Staff work a 37 hour week and receive 25 days holiday per calendar year plus statutory holidays.
- Sick leave is payable dependent on length of service
- AGR has set up a stakeholder pension provision with HSBC bank. At this stage the employer does not contribute to this scheme.
- A non-contributory health scheme operates for all staff with Westfield Health.
5. What kind of person would suit the role?
The following list of attributes would ideally be on our wish list but we want to stress that to some extent the role will develop around the strengths and experiences of the individual – a common approach in small businesses.
- Entrepreneurial
- Motivated, especially by difficulties, problems, targets etc
- Focused and driven by targets, outcomes
- Energy and enthusiasm
- Project management skills
- Systems oriented
- Sales and marketing skills
- Effective organiser
- Networking skills
- Analytical – thinking, figuring, calculating, analysing and dissecting
- Creative –developing what already exists or innovating to improve
- Someone who makes things happen
- Seeks a role in any given situation but not necessarily as the boss
- Committed to AGR and its mission
- Commercial experience
If the Operations Manager was to take a significant role in the training arena then they would also need to have a proven track record in that area of work. Experience of working in the graduate recruitment sector would be a definite advantage but is not essential. We should also point out that our sales practices are currently under review and the Operations Manager will be directly involved in considering how best to ‘sell’ AGR services and products. Should this, for example, be part and parcel of the role of Operations Manager or is there a case for appointing a dedicated salesperson?
6. Other information
- The position is based at the AGR offices in
Warwick - The post-holder will be expected to travel around the country, especially to
London
7. Application procedure
- Having read through and carefully considered the descriptions above, interested parties should submit a letter of application in which they state why they are interested in the position, what they feel they can bring to the role and how it fits in with their career ambitions. They should also give some indication of salary expectations.
- In addition they should also attach an up-to-date CV including information on qualifications and work record.
- This information can be sent either by post or electronically to:
Carl Gilleard
Chief Executive
AGR
The Innovation Centre
Gallows Hill
CV34 6UW
Carl@agr.org.uk.
If further information is required this can be sought by email to the above email address or by telephoning 01926 623236 and speaking in the first instance to Andrea Soukup, Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive.
- Closing date: Wednesday 30th April 2008