Job Title: Operations Specialist

Contract: Permanent, Full-time

The B Corp Movement

B Lab UK is the UK home of the B Corp movement, a community of over 2,000 UK businesses who meet high standards of social and environmental performance, legal accountability, and transparency. Some B Corps you might have heard of include Innocent Drinks, Patagonia, Tony’s Chocolonely, Finisterre, Jude’s Ice Cream, GiffGaff and WeTransfer. Our goal is to transform our economy so that all businesses can be a force for good - and we’re looking for people who can help us get there.

B Lab is a global non-profit network that inspires and enables people to use business as a force for good. It creates standards, policies, tools, and programs that shift the behaviour, culture, and structural underpinnings of capitalism.

B Lab UK is a registered charity, building and engaging the UK B Corp community. Our team of 40 staff is friendly, hard-working and committed to changing how business operates. We strive to foster an environment where staff can bring their whole selves to work, by their own definition.

The Role

This is an exciting time for B Lab UK as we continue to grow. We are looking for an Operations Specialist to join our Operations team, led by the Head of Operations.

The Operations Specialist will play a crucial role, leading the implementation and management of operations initiatives and projects that drive efficiency and deliver effective business operations, enabling continued organisational growth and facilitating the high performance of the B Lab UK team in line with B Lab UK's culture and values.

Responsibilities:

Cross-Organisational:

● Implement and improve business management systems, processes and best practice ways of working, maximising integration, efficiency and staff experience and ensure they are used consistently and effectively across the organisation.

● Lead on knowledge management, creating tools, coordinating and developing consistency to enable staff to be effective in their roles.

● Carry out learning reviews of key projects and initiatives across the organisation, working closely with the Learning and Skills specialist to champion a learning culture and actively promoting innovation and continuous improvement.

● Collaborate and engage staff in implementing new processes, systems and best practices within their areas of work that enable and maintain a culture of inclusion, ambition and high performance as we grow.

● Create documentation to disseminate processes, guidance and/or advice.

● Work with others, e.g. counterparts in B Lab UK global partners, B Corps and others to establish their current and future needs.

● Contribute to cross-organisation discussions to provide operations input and considerations.

Finance & Operations initiatives:

● Deliver projects or initiatives to achieve Operations planned objectives, trialling, implementing, and continuously improving where necessary as we grow and evolve.

● Manage the delivery and implementation of improvements identified to ensure that the organisation is operating effectively.

● Lead on the programme of measuring ourselves against the B Corp Standards, managing and monitoring our progress towards agreed targets, and ensuring that we are reporting in a timely manner and making any necessary adjustments.

Operations:

● Manage the strategic relationship with key suppliers e.g. IT Support provider, office landlord.

● Lead improvements to operations functional processes.

● Task management for staff delivering projects, overseeing the work of the Operations Coordinator where necessary.

● Provide ad-hoc support and coordination to projects, events and other activities as required.

Skills and Experience:

Essential

● Experience of designing and improving business processes across different functions, including providing accessible guidance to staff on new processes and ways of working.

● Proven track record of project management to implement initiatives and activities, working across teams to deliver results.

● Experience of collaborating with colleagues to identify their needs and design, develop and implement appropriate solutions.

● Experience in managing key supplier relationships.

● Good knowledge of IT systems.

● Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, able to adapt style to different audiences.

Desirable:

● Experience of working for a charity, non-profit or campaigning organisation.

● Sound IT skills including use of spreadsheets, communication tools (e.g.Slack) and project management tools (e.g. Asana).

● Experience of knowledge management.

Person specification

● Passionate about the role that business can play in creating the future that benefits all people and the planet.

● Proactive, organised, flexible and self-motivated.

● A problem solver.

● Customer focused and able to collaborate effectively with colleagues to identify solutions and good outcomes.

● Demonstrates professional integrity.

● Ability to work and react in a fast-paced environment.

● Committed to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

● Ability to build effective working relationships with colleagues, and communicate in a professional manner in writing, remotely and face to face.

● Receptive to and willing to adapt to constructive feedback.

● A commitment to the values of B Lab UK.

● Eligible to work in the UK (we do not have a licence and so will not be able to provide visa sponsorship).

What we give you

• Purpose driven work enabling B Lab UK’s mission of redefining the role of business as a force for good

• Hybrid and flexible working, we have a high trust environment and are advocates for right place working

• Hybrid working (min 1/2 days per week in office)

• Flexible working hours (based around core working hours)

• Opportunity to work 4 days a week 

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (pro rata for part-time staff)

• 1 additional annual leave day (pro-rata for part-time staff) for each complete annual year of service, up to a maximum of 30 days

• Our office is closed between Christmas and New Year, no need to take extra holiday!

• Private Medical and Dental cover

• £200 per annum tax free Annual Wellbeing allowance and Employee Assistance Programme

• 2 paid volunteer days per year

• Enhanced Parental Leave and family friendly policies, including carers leave

• Learning and Development opportunities

• Enhanced Pension and Life Assurance

• Cycle to Work Scheme

• Income Protection policy

• Working in a flexible office workspace

How to apply:

All applications must be made through Be Applied.

If we can offer accommodations for you in the recruitment process, please contact hiring@bcorporations.uk. 

We use a blind recruitment process, to avoid biased screening, where the initial selection is based on answers to predefined questions and an anonymised CV review which are scored by a panel against predefined criteria for the role.

N.B. the anonomysed scoring panel does not see the applicant's CVs or any other information about them (until interview stage). Please ensure your answers to the questions are specific and give real examples of what you have done to demonstrate your experience and skills that are required for the role.

All candidates will be contacted after the initial screening process. The short-listing process will consist of at least 2 panel interviews. Candidates may be asked to prepare and present a task. Interviews will likely to be remote, and one conversational in-person interview.

B Lab believes an equitable and inclusive work environment and a diverse, empowered team are key to achieving our mission. We’re not looking for candidates who are “culture fits.” We’re looking for candidates who can expand our culture and challenge business as usual. We strive to foster an environment where all staff can bring themselves to work by their own definition, and we strive to provide all candidates with an equitable and accessible recruitment process.