Business Improvement Manager

The OVO Group’s purpose is to drive progress towards net zero carbon living. To reach Plan Zero, we need everyone to come together - not just as customers buying energy, but as members with a common goal. As part of this ambitious plan, our goal is to become the ‘Leading Employer in the UK’ by 2030. If you think you could be the talent we’re looking for, then come and join the adventure!

Where in the world of OVO will I be working? 

You will be working within OVO Retail, playing a crucial role in helping OVO become the number one trusted energy brand. You will be part of the Value (Reads and Estimation) team within Energy Operations. We are accountable for delivery and facilitating improved value through Meter Reading & estimation services.  The value is both for members/customers by increasing the volume of reads, timing of reads plus ensuring as accurate as possible billing and estimation, as well as to ensure consumption assurance for working capital, financial controls and debt management.  

Operating in a small team reporting to and working closely with the Improvement Lead (Reads and Estimation), the role holder will have the opportunity to instigate and manage a wide range of improvement initiatives across meter reading journeys, suggesting and delivering change and improvements.  Working with operational teams to understand areas of waste and to identify opportunity, you’ll use an analytical approach based on learn, six sigma to prioritise and deliver improvements.

Using these approaches, combined with a deep understanding of the value journey for reads and estimation to solve critical business problems will be a key outcome for this newly created team.

Development is a key focus and we are always seeking to learn and implement the latest tools and standard methodologies, as well as upskilling team members.  This is an excellent opportunity to make a meaningful difference to OVO and it’s members, working within a small team you’ll have the chance to learn and grow as well as share learning with peers.

What will I be doing?

Simplification and continuous improvement are key tenets of everything we want to achieve.  As Business Improvement Manager you’ll be vital to the success of delivering the key outcomes of our strategy. Your primary responsibility will be to initiate and deliver improvements across the retail business as part of a small team of specialists focused on the end to end read journey.

You’ll have the opportunity to work collaboratively with other business areas on data and performance measures as well as having key accountability to delivery against project objectives using a lean approach.

You’ll be a fast learner who is able to build great relationships right from the off, understand when to dive into the detail and when to rely on expert team-mates. 

Your responsibilities include:

• Accountable for identifying future opportunities for process improvements.
• Managing short-term fixes: achievable in under 12 weeks, with low material cost, and with pre-defined and validated solution
• Outlining and supporting longer term formal projects likely to take longer than 12 weeks, and requiring investment and solution outline
• Creation of great business cases that demonstrate an understanding of the customer, commercial and business outcomes to be delivered
• Accountable for ensuring process improvement initiatives are executed at high levels of quality and achieve benefits set out in business case
• Performance tracking and monitoring of key KPIs through pilots
• Accountable for renewing and understanding external best practices and changes in technology and ways of working.
• Inputting into the development of future business benefits pipeline
• Accountable for ensuring that future system requirements are understood so they can be incorporated into appropriate plans
• Ensure Change Initiatives and their dependencies are aligned with other change projects in business areas

Is this the job for me? 

• 2+ years of Continuous Improvement experience where the following were central: analyzing, tracking, creating, planning and delivering projects, working with a multiple range of stakeholders on improvement initiatives
• Knowledge of Utilities processes, appropriate legislation, regulations, policy and procedures
• Excellent organisational, project management and planning skills
• Qualification in and great understanding of Continuous Improvement methodologies (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma) and Business Change implementation methodologies

• Ability to foster strong relationships through collaborative working with the business and all process stakeholders
• Able to effectively manage conflict/issue resolution and challenge 
• Ability to deliver under pressure whilst building relationships with multiple stakeholders
• Sets expectations, tracks and communicates results, and creates environment for accountability for results and actions
• Passion for delivery and working with others to drive improvements, showing a pioneering spirit to deliver the best outcomes
• The ability to keep the complex simple 

Essential Functional / Technical Skills

• Accountable for ensuring that any changes to E2E process design are suitably recorded and updated by appropriate teams
• Accountable for renewing and understanding external best practices and changes in technology and ways of working
• Excellent presentation skills and ability to present complex information and recommendations to various audiences
• Ability to put yourself in the customers position and to the right thing for them
• Proven track record of delivering business change projects
• Proven track record in benefit realisation and tracking
• Able to monitor progress against targets, and take action to manage stakeholder expectations as appropriate
• Organisational awareness with ability to operate with confidence and credibility across OVO Retail#

We're looking for somebody with a strong delivery background who is confident managing numerous improvement initiatives with effective governance and is happy driving their own workload based on strategy and analysis outcomes. 

Life at OVO is pretty fast-paced so you’re happy working in a dynamic high growth business. You're confident working in a constantly evolving environment and are confident proposing, justifying, initiating and implementing change.

You'll be a great teammate - an open communicator and collaborator with strong presentation and communication skills who's able to articulate results clearly and concisely to senior colleagues. You're transparent with work that makes things simple for the wider team.

You’ll love working with us if you…

• Are passionate about working in a dynamic environment and delivering change
• Enjoy understanding the impact and opportunities of change and improvements, and converting this understanding into new concepts and recommendations
• Find new concepts easy to understand, and show the tenacity to keep asking until clarity is achieved
• Love developing talent in yourself and your colleagues
• Are passionate about helping OVO deliver Plan Zero

From us you’ll get* 

• An annual discretionary bonus
• 4% of your salary to spend on flexible lifestyle benefits
• 5% matched employer contribution to your pension
• 25 days holiday + 1 for your birthday
• And many more... 

(*) Please note that certain benefits kick-in once you have passed probation which can be up to 6 months after your start date.

We want the best people 

At OVO, we empower our people to have choice around where and when they work - flexible working arrangements can be discussed for all of our roles. Please speak to the Talent Acquisition team for more info.

We’re keen to meet people with varied backgrounds - our view is the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We want to build teams which represent a variety of experiences, perspectives and skills, and we recognise talent on the basis of merit and potential.

We understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they tick every box. If you're excited about joining us and think you have much of what we're looking for, even if you're not 100% sure… we'd love to hear from you.

Learn more about working in the OVO family of companies on our careers page and Glassdoor. We’re also delighted to have received a Top Employers certificate in 2018, 2019 and 2020!