Front of House Manager
Salary: £40,000 per annum plus company benefits
Location: London, EC2V
Contract: 12 month Fixed Term Contract, Full Time
Shifts: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday on rotational shifts rotational shifts between 07:45 and 19:00, with 1 hour unpaid lunch break.
Work Model: Fully Onsite
Williams Lea seeks a Front of House Manager to join our team!
Williams Lea is the leading global provider of skilled, technology-enabled, business-critical support services, with long-term trusted relationships with blue-chip clients across investment banks, law firms and professional services firms. Williams Lea employees, nearly 7000 people worldwide, who provide efficient business services at client sites in often complex and highly regulated environments, from centralised Williams Lea onshore facilities, and through best cost company offshore locations.
Purpose of role
Working on behalf of a prestigious international law firm, the Front of House Manager is responsible for the leadership and day-to-day management of the Front of House and Hospitality operation within the London office.
The role is responsible for ensuring an exceptional, consistent and professional experience for clients, visitors, employees and senior stakeholders, while maintaining high standards of operational delivery, compliance and customer service.
As the senior representative of the Front of House function, you will provide visible leadership across reception, hospitality, meeting room services, events and other client-facing activities. You will set the tone for service excellence and ensure that every interaction reflects the professionalism, values and brand standards of the client.
The role will operate across a full rotating shift pattern between 07:45 and 19:00, Monday to Friday, with flexibility required to support business requirements, events and client activity.
You will work closely with the Account Manager, client stakeholders and wider onsite service teams to ensure contractual obligations, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and client expectations are consistently achieved.
The successful candidate will be a highly visible, proactive and commercially aware leader who is passionate about creating exceptional experiences, developing people and continually improving the service proposition.
Key responsibilities
1. Service Excellence & Client Experience
- Take overall day-to-day ownership for the Front of House and Hospitality service.
- Set and maintain consistently high standards of professionalism, presentation, hospitality and customer service.
- Act as a visible and approachable ambassador for the service, ensuring a welcoming and seamless experience for clients, visitors and employees.
- Ensure reception, hospitality, meeting room and event services are delivered in accordance with agreed service standards and client expectations.
- Work with the Account Management team to complete the monthly Account Review Report, identifying trends, opportunities and areas requiring improvement.
- Develop strong working relationships with key client contacts, senior stakeholders and frequent users of the service.
- Proactively seek customer feedback and use insight to improve service delivery.
- Lead the resolution of customer complaints, ensuring issues are addressed promptly, professionally and with appropriate follow-up.
- Identify opportunities to introduce new ideas, initiatives and value-added services that enhance the client experience.
- Ensure the Front of House environment consistently reflects the client's brand, culture and expected standards.
2. Operational Management
- Provide effective operational leadership onsite, ensuring consistent standards and processes.
- Maintain, review and continuously improve Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), work instructions and service processes.
- Ensure all processes are aligned with company policies, global OPEX standards and client requirements.
- Conduct regular operational audits, service checks and quality reviews.
- Monitor service performance against agreed KPIs and SLAs, taking corrective action where required.
- Ensure appropriate escalation procedures are followed for operational, client or employee issues.
- Maintain operational resilience through effective resource planning, contingency arrangements and cross-training.
- Work collaboratively with Facilities, Security, Hospitality, Workplace, IT and other onsite teams to provide a seamless client experience.
3. People Leadership & Development
- Lead, motivate and develop the Front of House and Hospitality team, creating a culture of service excellence, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Set clear expectations around performance, behaviour, appearance and customer service.
- Conduct regular 1:1 meetings, performance reviews and development discussions.
- Provide regular coaching, feedback and recognition to support individual and team development.
- Manage performance, attendance and conduct in accordance with company policies and procedures.
- Identify training and development requirements and ensure team members have the skills and knowledge required to perform their roles effectively.
- Build a flexible and multi-skilled team capable of supporting the service requirements.
- Coordinate holiday, sickness and absence cover while minimising disruption to service.
- Support recruitment and selection activities, including agency resource where appropriate.
- Lead onboarding and induction for new team members and ensure they are fully trained against relevant SOPs and client requirements.
- Create an environment where team members feel supported, valued and accountable for delivering excellent service.
- Conduct 10-minute daily briefings with the team each morning.
4. Client Relationship & Stakeholder Management
- Develop trusted relationships with client stakeholders and act as the primary FOH point of contact for operational matters.
- Maintain regular communication with key client contacts regarding service performance, upcoming activity and potential issues.
- Anticipate client requirements and proactively identify opportunities to improve the service.
- Attend client meetings and service reviews as required.
- Prepare operational updates, performance information and service improvement recommendations for the Account Manager.
5. Events, Hospitality & VIP Services
- Oversee the delivery of Front of House and Hospitality support for internal and external meetings, conferences, events and VIP visits.
- Ensure appropriate planning, staffing and preparation for high-profile events.
- Coordinate with relevant teams to ensure rooms, refreshments, signage, visitor access and other requirements are delivered to the expected standard.
- Establish clear event briefs and communicate requirements to the team.
- Conduct post-event reviews where appropriate to identify lessons learned and opportunities for improvement.
6. Compliance, Risk & Health & Safety
- Ensure all Front of House activities comply with company policies, client requirements and applicable legislation.
- Maintain a strong understanding of relevant Health & Safety requirements and ensure these are embedded within daily operations.
- Complete or support risk assessments, incident reporting and operational audits.
- Ensure team members understand and comply with emergency procedures, security protocols and building requirements.
7. Financial & Commercial Management
- Support the Account Manager with the management of the Front of House service budget/forecast.
- Monitor controllable costs and identify opportunities to improve efficiency without compromising service quality.
- Monitor overtime, agency usage, absence cover and other discretionary expenditure.
- Complete monthly financial GMT pack and monitor variance analysis.
- Ensure services are delivered in accordance with contractual requirements and agreed commercial arrangements.
- Support accurate client invoicing and associated internal processes.
8. Continuous Improvement & Innovation
- Develop and implement initiatives that improve the client and visitor experience.
- Regularly review existing processes and challenge inefficient or outdated ways of working.
- Use customer feedback, operational data and team insight to identify improvement opportunities.
- Share best practice across the wider organisation and incorporate relevant external trends into the service.
Personal attributes
- Proven experience managing Front of House, Reception, Hospitality or Client Experience operations within a corporate or professional services environment.
- Previous experience leading and developing a customer-facing team.
- Strong understanding of what constitutes an exceptional Front of House and client experience.
- Demonstrable experience managing service standards, customer expectations and operational performance.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the confidence to engage with stakeholders at all levels.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate, coach and hold team members accountable.
- Highly organised, with excellent attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities.
- Proactive approach, with the ability to anticipate client requirements rather than simply respond to them.
- Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
- Professional appearance, demeanour and communication style.
- Strong customer-service ethos and a genuine passion for delivering outstanding experiences.
- Good commercial awareness and an understanding of how operational decisions impact cost and service delivery.
- Competent IT skills and the ability to learn new systems and technologies quickly.
- Ability to remain calm and professional in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
- Experience managing soft services or facilities-related operations preferred.
- Experience working within a contractual, SLA/KPI-driven environment preferred.
- Experience with continuous improvement methodologies or operational excellence programmes.
Rewards and Benefits
We believe in supporting our employees in both their professional and personal lives. As part of our commitment to your well-being, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, including but not limited to:
- 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part time roles)
- Salary sacrifice schemes, retail vouchers – including our TechScheme which can be used on a range of gadgets such as Smart TV’s, laptops and computers or household appliances.
- Life Assurance
- Private Medical Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Health Assessments
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Discounted gym memberships
- Referral Scheme
You will also have the opportunity to work for a global employer who is dedicated to offering each and every employee an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding career with future career development prospects!
Equality and Diversity
The Company values the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation and will not discriminate because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation (each of these being a “protected characteristic” in discrimination law). It will not discriminate because of any other irrelevant factor and will build a culture that values openness, fairness and transparency.
If you have a disability and would prefer to apply in a different format or would like to make a reasonable adjustment to enable you to make an interview, please contact us at careersatWL@williamslea.com (we do not accept applications to this email address).
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