Warehouse Shift Coordinator

Warehouse Manager

Nechells, Birmingham, B7 5QT

Salary: £27000 per annum

Location: Birmingham, B7 5QT

Hours: Full Time 37.5 per week

Benefits: 25 days holiday, pro-rata, 5.5% Employer Pension Contribution including Life Cover, Occupational Sick Pay Benefits & Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Paternity Leave and Pay, plus more

Reporting to: Regional Warehouse Operations Manager

FareShare Midlands is the region’s largest food redistribution charity, fighting food poverty and hunger by tackling waste. We source good quality food that is surplus to requirements from the food industry. An army of volunteers help redistribute this food to over 500 frontline charities and community groups such as school breakfast clubs, community centres and organisations supporting those who are homeless, unemployed, socially isolated and recovering from addiction. These organisations provide meals and food parcels to over 67,000 vulnerable people every week.   We also support people through our Employability programmes, enabling them to learn skills and find rewarding work – some for the first time.  

Hunger is a growing issue in the UK and while there is surplus food that is otherwise going to waste, we believe that this food should be used to feed people first.

The Role

FareShare Midlands is a high-profile charity with stakeholders from varying sectors not least over 500 companies in the food industry and FareShare UK.  You will work towards, and achieve, a best-in-class in operation not accepting standards or a service that falls short of this.

As the senior person on site, you will be the key point of contact for operations, logistics and stock allocation for your region. You will be responsible for all compliance issues including food hygiene, health & safety and security of the depot and the safety and wellbeing of all visitors, contractors, depot staff and volunteers.

The main role will be to lead the successful day to day operations and ensure the ongoing success of the FareShare Midlands Regional Centres. This will involve working closely with staff and volunteers to ensure that all activities, including operational and order processing are completed to the agreed standard & daily timetable.

With colleagues in the Supply chain & Development functions, you will help develop new operational/logistic activity and lead on the implementation of growth of your RCs activity, capacity and output.

You will report to the Regional Warehouse Operations Manager and will be a key member of the Operations team across the Midlands region. You will identify and share good practise within and outside the Midlands, working closely with colleagues in the other regional centres.

In agreement with the Regional Warehouse Operations Manager, you will set out relevant Ops KPIs and targets and will join daily calls and weekly meetings to discuss and help resolve issues across the Midlands region, working as ‘one team’ with colleagues from other functions and regions.

Opening times:

Over the week the depot will be open for the hours required, with staff working 37.5 hours per week which may include working in evenings and weekends on a rota basis if the performance and growth of the region requires it. You will work with the Regional Operations Manager to implement the shift patterns required to provide the service to our members and communities.

Main responsibilities

Job responsibilities will prioritise but not be limited to:

1.   Operations:

·       Co-ordinate the work schedule and daily activities of the depot, within the guidelines of FareShare Midlands policies and procedures on food safety and Health & Safety

·       Be responsible for the supervision, development, and training of all staff & volunteers

·       Ensure that all shifts are efficiently planned, controlled, and resourced at least a week in advance.

·       Maintain and use the in-house stock management system, with responsibility for the training of depot staff and volunteers on the database and accuracy of stock.  Maintain good relations and communications with food suppliers and community member recipient projects, responding to any complaints or service issues with pace and courtesy as set out in our Service Charter

·       Ensure that the vans are maintained as roadworthy and legal (taxed and insured)

·       Ensure that community food members in your region receive a service, supply and variety of food that is expected / agreed, working closely with the Development Manager to flag potential issues with supply and/or service

2.   Health & Safety, Food Hygiene & Equal Opportunities:

·       Be responsible for the Health & Safety and security of the operation, including warehouse, vehicles, staff, visitors, and volunteers

·        To support health and safety advisor in carrying out risk assessments

·       Ensure compliance with all FareShare policies and procedures and industry standards as required by food donors and regulators, and maintain gold standard at audit level

·       Ensure the service is delivered in accordance with FareShare Equal Opportunities Policy and maintain the values and culture of the FS Midlands operation.

3.   Human Resources

·       Lead & develop your direct reports on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that all are aware of their responsibilities and have the resources, capacity and capability to carry them out

·       Be responsible for warehouse staff personal development reviews, regular 1-2-1 meetings and support as required

·       Work with the Volunteer co-ordinator to recruit and train the right volunteers and other work placement trainees within the project

·       Work alongside the volunteer team to ensure a complete and Up To Date rota is available – supervising volunteers should also be included on the JD

4.   Key Performance Indicators and financial responsibilities

o   Cost control

o   H&S – accidents and near misses

o   Service level & complaints

o   Food safety standards and audit scores

o   Waste and conversion rate

General

Person Specification - Skills, Qualities & Experience

Essential

·       Established (minimum 3 years) warehousing knowledge including managing Staff and Rota’s.

·       Depot management experience, managing stock control, payment reconciliation and putting all required warehouse processes in place.

·       Stock management of perishable goods, putting processes and checks in place from goods in to goods out, creating stock count processes, managing stock rotation.

·       Line management experience, including projects and associated budgets to time, to cost and to quality.

·       Commercial experience; managing budgets, identifying cost savings, revenue generation and meeting KPI targets.

·       Familiarity with and experience of working in CI or Lean culture including leading on review and improvement processes.

·       Experience of developing and implementation of performance management systems for service delivery including monitoring and evaluation.

·       Understanding of the voluntary and community sector and volunteering.

·       Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to deal with people at all levels building successful and productive relationships, both internally and externally.

·       Facilitation, networking and group work skills and the ability to work successfully with groups of different sizes and backgrounds.

·       Working within diverse communities such as urban, suburban, small towns and / or rural and with a wide variety of voluntary and community sector organisations.

·       Enthusiastic and self-motivated with excellent team-working and team building skills.

·       Ability to use own initiative, working independently when required.

·       Good time management with ability to manage workloads, set priorities and meet deadlines.

·       Demonstrable IT literacy, in particular of using Microsoft applications (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

·       Encouraging and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in the delivery of services and experience of working effectively with people from a range of backgrounds.

·       Evidence of continual self-development of knowledge and skills.                                                                    

Desirable

 ·       Some experience of financial management, including control over budget setting and performance management

·       Relevant experience of working in the food industry, probably in a retail operations management or production management resulting in a strong understanding of all the core areas around operations, food safety, health and safety and good business practice.

·       Relationship management and partnership working with senior stakeholders across multiple sectors.

·       Transferable experience that demonstrates a high likelihood to fit into the management culture of a medium sized voluntary sector organisation that is underpinned by the organisation’s values.

·       Volunteering Experience & Experience of Managing Volunteers

Values and behaviours 

·       A commitment to Equal Opportunities

·       An appreciation of FareShare Midlands’ mission and vision

·       Flexibility of approach and ability to work in a team

·       Proven ability to develop and maintain good working relations, with both internal and external audiences

How to Apply:

If you would like to apply for this role, please create a supporting statement to demonstrate your suitability and to explain your interest in both the job and FareShare Midlands. Please send your supporting statement with a copy of your CV.

We continue to strive to ensure that the profile of our staff and volunteers reflects the diverse communities we serve across the Midlands. As such we encourage and welcome applications from all our communities. We particularly welcome applications from people from ethnically diverse backgrounds as they are currently under-represented within FareShare Midlands. 

Closing date for receipt of applications is 1st May 2024.

Interviews will take place on 9th May 2024.