Account Manager

Account Manager

Salary: £55,200 per annum , plus company benefits

Location: London E14 4SG

Contract: Permanent, full time

Shifts: 40 hours per week worked Mon-Fri 9am-5:30pm with a 1-hour lunch

Work model: Fully onsite

Williams Lea seeks an Account 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 7,000 people worldwide 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 the Role

The Account Manager is an operations leader who will communicate a vision for how Williams Lea best serves our clients across single or multiple service offerings, and who empowers and enables their team to bring that vision to life. The role focuses on executing service delivery, delivering operational excellence, implementing optimized cost to serve models, applying continuous improvement initiatives, and team growth and development.

The Account Manager, as the most senior manager onsite, will be responsible for the overall management of the client relationship; staff management; service delivery; financial management and business growth. They will be the driving force behind our outstanding professional service delivery, continuous service innovations and improvements, and a leader who develops teams and inspires individuals. This role demands a combination of exceptional client management, project coordination, team collaboration skills, sector, and commercial awareness.

The Account Manager is responsible for onsite and offshore Creative and Presentations service and an onsite Reprographics, Archiving and Distribution services. Key to this role is developing strong relationships with all clients, built on understanding their needs and the pressures. This individual needs to demonstrate leadership by inspiring the team to deliver a solution at very short notice, be able to advise clients on the best and most appropriate solutions to meet their needs and project manage the implementation of these solutions to exceed expectations. They will utilise the use of internal and external resources onsite and offsite to fulfil these needs on a project-by-project basis. They are responsible for championing innovation within the account and will work closely with the Account Director to ensure continuous innovation and growth of the Williams Lea service portfolio.

The Account Manager will have a strong hands-on operational approach, commercial knowledge be analytical and have at least 2 years in a leadership role.
Key Responsibilities

• Be aware of industry trends and developments and the effect it might have on the client
• Build and drive strategic relationships with key contacts in the Client's business and internally
• Develop a thorough knowledge of the client's business and sector
• Drive continuous improvement; keep client and Director informed of significant and potential issues, and communicate proposed solutions or processes that will avoid future or other potential issues; resolve issues escalated by the client
• Maintain an active interest in new industry trends, emerging technologies, ESG and innovation
• Manage relationships with clients by ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction
• Understand clients' business aims and objectives as well as profit pressures and ensure that ideas are presented that will positively affect the achievement of their plans

• Ability to identify contractual risks and take appropriate mitigating action
• Develop a detailed understanding of your accounts' contractual obligations service level agreements and support the teams to ensure that we are always meeting and exceeding these
• Ensure all variances in financial performance are analysed and effective cost controls implement as required
• Preparation of monthly service invoices and ad-hoc production reporting for sign off by the Account Director
• Provide performance analysis of the whole process and identify areas for improvement and innovation
• Support account growth and proposals for extended services
• Take responsibility for the financial performance of the account, monitoring sales and contribution targets throughout the year
• Undertake reforecasting as required and ensure a structured plan is in place for profit enhancement

• Ensure all human resource matters are managed effectively, consistently and in accordance with company policy
• Manage an effective two-way communication with direct reports and with their staff
• Plan coaching and development for your direct reports and implement personal development plans
• Provide learning and development, and performance management for all direct reports
• Regular communication and dissemination of company messages with direct reports
• Resource allocation: allocating resources effectively, including personnel, equipment and materials to optimise productivity
• Responsibility for the employee life cycle, with appropriate support from the HR, Talent Acquisitions and Learning & Development teams
• Team management; leading and supervising a team of employees providing guidance, setting performance targets, appropriate corrective action, and fostering a collaborative work environment

• Oversee contracted operations to ensure needs of the contract and client are met while addressing needs of employees
• Champion the Williams Lea culture by living the values and leading by example
• Compile accurate management information, complete the monthly Account Review Report and lead the Account Review Meeting on a monthly basis
• Ensure compliance throughout your service with all contractual obligations including service level agreements
• Ensure that SOPs and all elements of the Williams Lea toolkits are effectively used to deliver first class service to clients and internal colleagues
• Ensure the immediate resolution of operational issues or complaints and ensure that corrective long-term action has been taken
• Establish, execute, and sustain quality service delivery through standard operating procedures, account planning, and achieving agreed-upon metrics and goals to ensure client satisfaction and exceptional employee performance
• Follow all operational procedures as determined and authorised
• Highlight issues, before they become problems, and report feedback in a pro-active manner to Account Director
• Investigate errors within the team and provide ensure resolution and remedial action such as training is in place
• Manage workload and deadlines ensuring all parties are kept in the loop at all times regarding project status and timings
• Support Account Executive team in accurately estimating all production requests and keep the Client updated regularly
• Take responsibility for and run account governance meeting schedules, including recurring Service Reviews, ensuring all Client/internal meetings are followed up with relevant reports and paperwork
• Take full accountability for all client requests, ensure deadlines are met and that execution is to a high standard

Key Competencies

• An effective people manager who is confident to delegate work to achieve the best results, and confident to do so within a remote working environment
• Excellent communication and organisational skills with the ability to prioritise an often-conflicting workload, and a good understanding of [industry specific]
• Commercial and financial awareness, ability to manage both cost plus and commercial fee structures
• Driver of change and ability to identifying new business opportunities
• Self-motivated and passionate, with the ability to lead by example
• Well presented with a professional manner
• Excellent computer skills, including MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint ​

Personal Attributes

• Self-Motivated
• Organised
• Analytical
• Commercial
• Customer focused
• Strong personality
• Effective communicator and delegator
• Methodical and logical approach
• Commitment to deliver
• Strong leadership skills
• Innovative

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

• 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 work for a global employer who is dedicated to offering each 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 [email protected].

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