swim@ Business Manager

Great things happen when people with talent and purpose come together to create what couldn’t be done alone. 

At swim, we don’t just know this, we live it, and we’re looking for people like you who do the same. 

Founded by Olympians, Becky Adlington OBE & Steve Parry MBE,  we are revolutionising swimming, changing lives, building infrastructure & developing talent. 

We engage 30,000 children every week in physical activity, we’ve delivered over 4,000 leisure qualifications, and we develop leisure facilities for local communities – but until every child is given the opportunity to learn this vital life skill. We’re fast paced, we challenge each other and have fun! We love inspiring the next generation and our people are at the heart of everything we do. For those with a passion for teaching and engaging in this fantastic sport, we offer fantastic career opportunities built on strong values and real investment in our people. 

swim@ is on a mission to revolutionise swimming, and change lives. They believe every child should have the opportunity to learn-to-swim and love to swim! 

Operating in school and university venues, we deliver a best in class learn to swim experience in the local community for 3-11 year olds. ?By delivering lessons from the school pool we are able to teach high-quality lessons to more children and give back to the local community. We invest in the local school pool and in many instances help prevent the closure of more pools across the country. 

There's room for you to join our community of teachers, managers, and skilled leisure personnel. From providing a safe/ fun place for children to swim, to smarter ways of delivering our programs, to improving children's health around the UK is our passion. Is it yours too? You can stretch across our UK network to learn from others, offer support, and gain new experiences along the way. 

You will be responsible for ensuring the efficiency of business operations as your allocated venue as well as setting  goals for the future. You will be well-versed in business skills and processes; you will be a competent leader able to provide guidance that enhances performance in a manner which incorporates the company’s vision and culture. The key accountability of this role will be to ensure the profitability of our company’s activities to drive sustainable development and long-term success.

Our business managers are talented, experienced professionals who are responsible for leading and supervising a team to ensure productivity and efficiency of operations, providing direction to deliver operational excellence for customers and implementing commercial strategies that ensure site profitability contribution to the existing estate performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Implement goals and objectives that align to growth and profitability.
• Deliver business plans and strategies to ensure performance against the balanced scorecard
• Ensure that the company has the adequate and suitable resources to complete its activities (e.g., people, collateral, equipment.
• Organize and coordinate excellent operational practice to ensure premium customer journey for Learn to Swim clients.
• Regularly supervise the work of the team and provide feedback consistently to improve efficiency and quality.
• Ensure all venue operations meet the relevant organisational and statutory policies including health and safety, safeguarding, data and equality laws.
• Maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders and partners.
• Gather, analyse and interpret external and internal data and insight to inform performance and responsibilities.
• Regularly assess and report overall site performance against objectives.
• Play an active part in the storytelling of our people across the swim@ brand
• Actively contribute to internal reviews and feedback to produce continual improvement strategies for future provision.
• Inspire the swim@ teams through smart ways of working, high-quality and open and honest culture.
• Keep up to date on industry updates, competitor analysis, best practice and trends
• Continuously improve through feedback and actively seek opportunities to expand skill set, knowledge and experience.

Personal Specification

E = Essential / D = Desirable

Skills and Attributes (E)

• Be self-reflective, with authenticity and an approachable, genuine desire to invest in people.
  • Be able to communicate effectively, openly, and transparently.
  • Be able to organise self and others with excellent planning and preparation skills.
  • Proven ability to provide high quality and effective feedback to mentor, guide and influence others.
  • Outstanding interpersonal skills to support effective working relationships at all levels internally and externally and with key team-mates and stakeholders.
  • Has a positive ‘can-do’ attitude and demonstrates high energy at all times.
  • Can follow organizational processes and procedures.
  • Able to work remotely with initiative and as part of a national team.
  • Has the mental wellbeing to look after self and others.
  • Reliable and trustworthy.
  • A passion for the industry and change.
  • Ability to travel nationally and to stay away overnight when required.
  • Ability to drive with a full UK driving license.

Knowledge

• Qualifications in Business Management or relevant fields would be of benefit. (D)
• Leadership and Mentoring qualifications. (D)
• Commercially driven with experience of working with and articulating Key Performance Indicators (E)
• Thorough understanding of diverse business processes and strategy development (E)
• Knowledge of the principles and standards that underpin excellent operational delivery in Learn to swim provision. (D)
• Knowledge of legal aspects of role and excellent practice in relation to Health and Safety, Safeguarding, First Aid, Equality and Diversity and Data Protection. (E)
• Enhanced knowledge through recent and regular CPD opportunities and vocational experience. (E)
• Sound financial acumen including knowledge of revenue/target setting and financial management packs (D)
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office and CRM systems. (E)
• Good understanding of research methods and data analysis techniques (E)
• Strong literacy, numeracy and IT skills (E)

Experience

• Proven experience as business manager or relevant role. (D)
• Experience of line managing and/or mentoring others. (E)
• Customer service focused, demonstrates a committed approach to quality of standards
• Experience of managing programmes and projects (E)
• Ability to manage budgets effectively
• Experience of positively engaging and influencing people both in direct line management/structures but also across other teams and through collaboration and teamwork. (E)
• Experience of quality standards and compliance/regulatory requirements for high quality operations (D)
• Experience of working under pressure, meeting targets and deadlines. (E)