Posted on February 16, 2012

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Business Services Manager

Seedco is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1987 that works to advance economic opportunity for people, businesses, and communities in need. Seedco’s work focuses on three primary areas: workforce development, work and family supports, and community finance and small business services. Seedco is a leader in implementing innovative, multi-partner initiatives that foster financial advancement and security. Learn more at www.seedco.org.

Position Overview:

The Business Services Manager (BSM) provides key management and oversight to the Upper Manhattan Workforce1 Career Center’s Recruitment and Placement (RnP) team—a team of 14 staff, including the Recruitment Manager (Community Partner Coordinator), 8 Recruitment Account Managers, 4 Sales Account Managers, and 1 Operations Assistant. As the team conducting the core business of the Center, the RnP team is accountable for making an average of 2,500 placements per quarter. The BSM is responsible for developing and executing a strategic plan to drive the team toward its placement goal. The BSM is responsible for directly managing the 4 Sales Account Managers, overseeing the generation of prospect lists for high volume placements, setting monthly sales goals and managing the team’s efforts to achieve those goals. To date, the Center has a continued track record of engaging large employers such as Starwood Hotels, TJX Companies, Eataly, Time Warner Cable, Aloft Harlem Hotel and tenants of the East River Plaza Shopping Center. The BSM is also responsible for working closely with the Center’s Career Advisement team to align existing and developed training services to Center business development targets. In order to successfully achieve these goals, consistent communication with all center teams is necessary. Additionally, the BSM will work closely with the Bronx Workforce1 Career Center’s BSM to ensure that all sales activity is coordinated between the two Seedco-operated centers.

Responsibilities:

• Strategically facilitates business-driven job placements as an active member of the Center’s leadership team
• Works with the Center Director, and Strategic Operations Coordinator to identify operational challenges and to design and implement process improvements;
• Effectively manage and supervise a staff of 14, including a Recruitment Manager, and 4 Sales Account Managers. Work closely with Sales Account Managers to achieve performance targets;
• Spearheads Business Development Planning process with the team to ensure strategic sales efforts and recruitment activities result in meeting or exceeding quarterly placement goals;
• Serves as the Center’s primarily Liaison with Department of Small Business Services (SBS) Marketing and Sales Unit, participating in all weekly calls/meetings designed to guide system-wide sales activities;
• Serves as the primary liaison for a range of additional business support and hiring services tailored to small businesses available to employers through Seedco’s Business Solutions Centers;
• Coordinates with the Seedco operated New York City Business Solutions Centers sales teams to encourage and facilitate cooperation and best practice sharing across teams;
• Provides regular feedback to the Career Advisement Manager and Membership Coordinator on the accuracy of initial assessment information and appropriateness of referrals to the Sales and Recruitment Account Mangers for appropriate matching to open job opportunities;
• Ensures Sales Account Managers are equipped with relevant information on center resources, policy guidance, and related material to support their business development progress;
• Guides Recruitment Account Managers’ efforts to set sourcing, recruitment and candidate reengagement priorities for Recruitment Account Managers to assure monthly and quarterly hiring targets are met or exceeded;
• Works closely with Career Advisement Manager on outreach and engagement of strategic training providers and CUNY partners to create cohort training opportunities that align with Center business development target sectors and occupations to create a pipeline of qualified jobseekers for Center employment opportunities; and
• Works collaboratively with the Career Advisement Manager to communicate which jobs are available, what qualifications are needed, and which workshops and trainings can best prepare jobseekers for these positions.
• Ensure Sales and Recruitment services operate smoothly and result in employers utilizing the center as a prime source for their hiring needs.
• Interviews prospective staff to make recommendations to center leadership on appropriate hires for the team;
• Trains and supervises the team to effectively develop robust hiring accounts with large employers, source, recruit and screen jobseekers, and match only the most appropriate candidates to the job openings in order to maintain a 3:1 recruit-to-hire ratio;
• Undertakes key business development efforts for the center; meeting prospective employers, maintaining relationships, and growing hiring accounts;
• Works with existing employer accounts to fill a greater range of positions, particularly higher level positions on the career ladder;
• Reviews and revise employer recruitment plans to ensure maximization of quality and service as desired by each employer;
• Monitors the recording of recruitment and placement service utilization and analyze Worksource1 data related to business development and quality placements to ensure that the team is on track to meet Strategic Operating Plan goals; and
• Serves as a point of escalation for employer and customer complaints and issues related to Business Development, Recruitment, and Employer Fulfillment.
• Manage the performance and development of the Business Development and Recruitment Team and the Community Partner referral process.
• Develops and maintain a standard communication plan to keep staff aware of center-wide issues and their role in meeting operational goals;
• Coordinates the workflow of recruitment, referral and placement processes for the center both internally and from outside workforce referral partners;
• Holds staff to performance expectations through regular formal evaluations and informal feedback; works with individuals to identify and address areas for growth;
• Tracks performance outcome data and prepares reports as required by funding partners and/or senior management;
• Monitors quality of partner referrals and provides feedback to partners to ensure the highest numbers of referrals are placed with center employers;
• Coordinate with SBS;
• Works closely with the Strategic Operations Manager to ensure the implementation of SBS-driven projects related to business development and fulfillment working with the team and center leadership to ensure effective execution of new procedures, policies, and tools;
• Is proactive and responsive as the primary liaison to SBS Business Solutions Sales managers; communicates regularly with the Center Operations Manager to keep SBS abreast of ongoing challenges; escalate training provider concerns to SBS;
• Identifies and facilitates the sharing of best practices across the WF1CC system by actively communicating these practices to the Center Operations Manager;
• Participates in system-wide calls, meetings, and trainings as appropriate; and
• Creates sector and occupation-based sourcing plans for and strategies for SBS review utilizing internal sourcing pipelines (Department of Labor, ITG pipeline, Advancement jobseekers).

Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree required; Master’s degree or requisite experience preferred;
• Must have a minimum of 5 years experience in business development and sales;
• Must have a minimum of 2-3 years recruitment experience;
• Must have a minimum of 5 years relevant management and supervisory experience;
• Sales management experience is strongly preferred and an understanding of community-based employment services is a plus;
• Excellent organizational skills, time management, and attention to detail;
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills;
• Must be articulate, motivating, and possess strong sales and client management skills;
• Ability to work effectively in a high volume, fast-paced, and performance based environment;
• Ability to effectively interact and work with individuals with diverse backgrounds;
• Ability to understand and utilize reporting systems as they are related to unit management, performance and customer flow; and
• Past Experience with Sales Management or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems is essential.

Application Instructions

Interested applicants should send their resume and a brief cover letter to: jobopenings@seedco.org, with the subject line “Business Services Manager (Ref# 12-014)” Due to the large volume of applications we receive, we are unable to personally acknowledge the receipt and status of each one. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Please visit our website http://www.seedco.org/careers for other job opportunities.