Part 1: K2’s Operations Team is divided into a number of pods, each of which is responsible for a different client/set of clients.
Each pod is managed by an Operational Lead, a multifaceted role which plays a key part in fulfilling the K2 promise of exemplary service delivery. To find out more about the multiple elements of the role, the Marketing Team approached K2’s Operational Leads with a set of probing questions…
What does the role of an Operational Lead entail?
People Management: This comes first and foremost. You need to ensure that your team members have all the support and tools necessary to deliver great customer service. Equally important is ensuring that they feel valued for the work that they do.
Development Plans: This is closely linked with people management. You need to help build pathways for those Relocation Managers (RMs) who wish to develop their career. These pathways are built using the SWOT Table model, through which you identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Mentoring: Sometimes, you may be asked/may choose to further support an RM in your team through mentorship, sharing your knowledge and experience in order to help that individual progress.
Client Projects & Meetings; Implementation Calls; Other Projects & Workshops: All of this will vary from one Operational Lead to another – it is heavily dependent upon the scope of services and the volume for each individual client. Across the board, however, many hours each week are spent on implementation calls/workshops to ensure that when go live rolls around, all goes smoothly. A significant amount of time is also spent helping Account Managers to put together review decks and to deliver presentations.
Internal Projects: You need to collaborate with other departments internally on a daily basis, monitoring, evaluating and improving current processes. It is your responsibility to create and manage projects which span tech, processes and people development.
Relocation Manager Training: You need to be actively involved in organising training for your team.
1:1s: During these sessions, you need to review the personal and business goals set for each RM, check that they are up to date with billing, check that they have updated all records on Ascent (K2’s case management platform), ensure that they are using all relevant templates, and ensure that their general housekeeping is on point. 1:1s are also a good opportunity for you to have a transparent conversation with each team member about their workload and their professional development.
Global Consistency: You need to play a part in pushing for global consistency across the Operations function. This involves working closely with your fellow Operational Leads to strategise in relation to regional variances in role requirements, best practice, management style, and alignment with One Voice (K2’s Operations Playbook).
Exemplary service delivery, always and everywhere, is one of K2’s USPs. How do the Operational Leads contribute to this?
K2 has always prided itself on service excellence, and the most important factor in delivering that is the people who are providing those services – the Relocation Managers.
We need to make sure we have the right people to provide quality service to our clients and assignees. For us Operational Leads, this starts with recruitment, as we want to make sure that we are employing people who are the right fit for K2.
Experience is great, but we have recruited plenty of people who were new to the industry when they joined us: in spite of this, we saw something in them that convinced us they would be able to learn the role and perform to a high level. They had ‘Q’. Sometimes that can be difficult to tell in an interview, so we really work hard to bring people out of their shells when meeting with them, so we can see the real person behind the interview persona.
We want our teams to feel fully supported, equipped with the resources they need to be able to perform to a high standard. Happy Relocation Managers are much more likely to deliver great service, and we work diligently to give them the support they need – the freedom to ask questions, training, opportunities to develop, a culture which embraces failure – rather than always looking for someone to blame when things don’t go as planned.
Operational Leads have regular one to one meetings with the members of their team, as well as weekly team meetings, but we are also always available to each and every member of our team should they need ad hoc or additional support. We have high standards, and we need to see that reflected within our team. We expect people to work hard, and to want to go the extra mile, and we make sure our teams embrace that culture.
We have all been Relocation Managers ourselves, so we understand the challenges our teams can face, the stress that the busy summer period can bring, and the feeling of seeing an inbox that keeps receiving a new email every two minutes. Because we have that shared experience, we can see potential problems before they develop and strategise ways to avoid them, while still delivering the excellent service our clients expect.
And of course, we are often the first point of escalation for clients on the occasions where things don’t go as planned. In relocation, there are always things that can go wrong, and it’s important to know how to manage that when it happens, solve the problem that has presented itself, and use it as a learning experience as to how we can avoid the same issues reoccurring in the future. We audit files regularly, and where we do identify areas for improvement, we discuss with the individual or team as appropriate, then put a plan of action in place.
An Operational Lead is always heavily involved in any client implementation process, helping put in place processes to seamlessly onboard new clients, set the tone, and kick things off on a positive note.
One of our main aims as Operational Leads is to provide our teams with the tools and support that they need to provide quality service, as they are the ones on the front line, running the files and managing the moves: I really do think the teams feel and appreciate that level of support. The feedback obtained from clients and assignees shows what a great job our teams are doing.
