Director of Staff & Customer Engagement. 6-9 FTC. Royal Charity

In light of our Chief Executive retiring in six months time it has been decided to appoint an interim until the new CE is in place.

This is an exciting and rewarding position and requires someone with a broad skill set, taking on a wide range of responsibilities, to support the Chief Executive and the company in delivering our strategic project plan for 2024!

Role Info:

Director of Staff and Customer Engagement - 6-9 Month Contract
Hampton Court Palace, KT8 / Some Home Working Available when Attendance isn’t Required for High Profile Meetings and Tasks
£55,000 - £60,000
Plus Benefits inc Pension

Founded 1872.

Our Mission: To ensure the future of hand embroidery through teaching, practising and promoting the art and techniques of hand embroidery to the highest standard Tradition, quality and innovation.

Who are we?

The Royal School of Needlework is a renowned centre of excellence in the teaching and creation of hand embroidery. It offers Degree, Certificate, Diploma and day classes at its base in the iconic Hampton Court Palace and 7 other centres, four in the UK, two in Japan and one in North America.

Being 150 years old gives us a background and pedigree second to none, but we are also a dynamic and contemporary organisation with students coming from all over the world to study on our courses.

In addition to teaching, we run a Studio for textile conservation, restoration and new work for a range of clients from individual families to public bodies. We have a Collection and Archive of some 60,000 objects including embroideries, designs, photographs and documents which are used for student reference and public exhibitions. We also run tours to see our exhibitions and have a shop supplying stitch and RSN related products.

P.S. You might know us from our work for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla. The Royal School of Needlework embroidered 9 pieces for the 2023 Coronation inc. The King’s Robe of State; The Queen’s Robe of Estate; The Anointing Screen; The Stole Royal and Girdle; The Chairs of Estate and The Chairs of State.

The Director of Staff and Customer Engagement role:

Reporting to the Chief Executive, you will become responsible for all HR activity and internal and external engagement, and line manage our Marketing and the Retail operation.

This post requires someone with a broad skill set who can hit the ground running. In the short term the focus will be putting in place the strategy and undertaking actions in response to the staff and tutor engagement strategy, reviewing salary levels for inclusion in budget plans and chairing and leading the Customer Joy group to enhance the customer experience at all points they interact with the RSN. In addition there will be work on reviewing and updating policies.

You will need to be comfortable operating at all levels of the organisation and be adept at building relationships both within the organisation and with our partners. You will have the capacity to work across teams at both a strategic level, as well as be operationally hands on, is critical to this role. You will need to work with the Director of Education so marketing and education work seamlessly together to deliver offers that meet customer needs and wants.

The RSN is open-minded to background and range of experience, and we also encourage applications from outside the charity sector as there are many commercial roles with directly transferable skills. Whatever your background, you will share our vision, have a genuine passion for HR and operations, and a flair for just making things work and ensuring tasks get done in a timely manner to achieve overall objectives.

About you:

Essential:

+ HR experience including recruitment, policies, procedures and staff engagement
+ Line management experience at a senior level
+ Experience of working with, and building constructive relationships with, many stakeholders internally and externally
+ Health & Safety Management in a complex organisation
+ Policy Development and implementation
+ Strong relationship building skills

Desirable:

+ Corporate Insurance management
+ Knowledge of HE/FE environments
+ Project planning and management
+ Space planning and management
+ Retail Management (online or physical)
+ Senior Management experience

Sounds like a good fit? Apply here for a fast-track path to our Leadership Team.

Your Background / Previous Roles May Include:
Human Resources, HR, Senior HR Consultant, HR Consultant, HR Business Partner, People Engagement, Customer Ops, Customer Engagement.

Application notice… We take your privacy seriously. When you apply, we shall process your details and pass your application to our client for review for this vacancy only. As you might expect you may be contacted by email, text or telephone. Your data is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests in fulfilling the recruitment process. Please refer to our Data Privacy Policy & Notice on our website for further details.

If you have any pre-application questions please contact us first quoting the job title & ref. Good luck, Team RR.