Senior Project Manager – Business Development

We are looking for a Senior Project Manager to coordinate an 18-month project exploring how we can operationalise a new in-work poverty benchmark for employers in London. This benchmark, developed by the Social Market Foundation, has the potential to improve the lives of low paid workers, building on the success of the Living Wage campaigns

The in-work poverty benchmark project is a new and exciting pilot project at the Living Wage Foundation. We want this person to build a case for employers going further than our existing accreditations and taking a more holistic approach to tackling in work poverty. This role would help us develop the pilot through employer case studies and extensive stakeholder engagement with a view to launching a new vehicle to recognise employers who adopt the in-work poverty benchmark.

Three key parts of the role would be working with:

-          Our Membership team and our Operations and Insights team: to scope out and enhance their capacity to support employers to implement the benchmark through e.g. workshops, provision of guidance and /or new ways of working with employers.   

-          The cross organisational Making London a Living Wage City (MLLWC) team to build upon the successes and networks of this project and align where helpful to encourage London employers to go further

-          London based community organisers to ensure that the experiences and stories of low paid workers are a primary driver of the case for change and how we develop this work.

The ideal candidate would be a proactive and experienced project manager with experience of building and implementing new products, projects or services. They should have excellent communication skills and a track record of engaging diverse stakeholders and building a network.

Living Wage Foundation

The Living Wage Foundation was launched in 2011 by Citizens UK to tackle in-work poverty and ensure that workers earn enough to live on and participate in family and community life. Citizens UK is the home of community organising with diverse civil society alliances set up to develop leaders to work on the issues that matter to them, such as the Living Wage. Other projects include Parent Action and Sponsor Refugees to add depth to the impact of Citizens UK’s work.

The Living Wage is a movement of businesses, organisations and people who believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. The real Living Wage is an independently-calculated hourly rate based on the cost of living and announced each October ahead of Living Wage Week, our annual celebration of a growing network of over 15,000 Living Wage Employers.

The Living Wage Foundation celebrates employers that voluntarily choose to pay the real Living Wage through an accreditation scheme that recognises a long-term commitment to fair pay and has secured pay rises for 475,000 low paid workers. Over recent years, the Living Wage Foundation has built on the success of the real Living Wage by creating new responsible employment standards – Living Hours and Living Pension – for those employers who want to go further and provide the security workers need now and in the future.

Main Responsibilities

Contribute to the achievement of the LWF and CUK’s strategic aims

·       Work with the Living Wage Foundation team to embed this project into the wider work and strategy of the Foundation, and to identify and share learning from across our projects on how to mobilise employer action to tackle poverty.  

Develop and manage external relationships

·       Develop and implement a stakeholder engagement plan to support and promote the project.

·       Manage strong relationships with the project partners and funders to involve and update them on the project as required.

·       Progress our existing partnerships whilst proactively securing new partnerships with organisations that can help promote and build demand for the in-work poverty benchmark.

·       Develop a wide-ranging network of stakeholders with an interest in this project, finding ways to involve them in its development.

·       Coordinate and manage a project working group of senior Living Wage Employers, in work poverty experts and employee stakeholders.

Build and manage projects and achieve work targets effectively

·       Set up, manage and evaluate a set of action pilots with employers, low paid employees and relevant experts to develop and test the in-work poverty benchmark and the standards within it.

·       Design and develop the recognition mechanism and support programme for employers who sign up to the in-work poverty benchmark.

·       Provide regular progress reports and deliver agreed project milestones including events, reports and other agreed outputs.

·       Oversee the project being integrated into our CRM system and developing robust project management systems.

Learning, expertise, wellbeing and inclusion

·       Conduct desk research, stakeholder interviews and organise events as required to inform the project. Manage research partners to conduct additional research as required.

·       Monitor, review, evaluate and write up pilot progress with each employer using qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods.

·       Working with others to identity and share learning on how to mobilise employer action to tackle poverty, considering this in the development of the in-work poverty benchmark.

·       Develop and host employer facing events to gain insight and test appetite to support the development of this work.

·       Design and facilitate employer workshops and employee focus groups to identify best practice and shared learning.

·       Produce a final report and recommendations for how the work might be taken forward at the conclusion of the project, presenting this to relevant stakeholders.

Communications

·       Oversee the collation and dissemination of research and evidence to build the case for the in-work poverty benchmark. Work with the Living Wage Foundation Communications and Research team to enable this.

·       Develop the support we offer Living Wage Employers that are interested in implementing the in-work poverty benchmark and lead the production and design of research reports, toolkits, best practice guides and other resources.

·       Promote the Living Wage Foundation to build our reputation as a leader in good work practices for low paid workers, including launching research and reports and celebrating progress made.

·       Represent the Living Wage Foundation at meetings, events and conference to build awareness and support for our work. 

Develop and manage internal relationships:

·       Build and manage strong relationships across the LWF and wider Citizens UK teams for effective collaboration and to support development of this work.

·       Work closely with community organisers in London to ensure the voices of low paid workers are a leading influence on this project.

·       Contribute to the LWF and Citizens UK Senior Management meetings and cross organisational working groups.

Generate income and resources

·       Oversee the development and implementation of an employer fee structure for the in-work poverty benchmark vehicle.

·       Work with the Head of Business Development and Policy to produce a sustainable fundraising strategy for this work whilst developing relationship with potential funders.

·       Oversee the creation of proposals to secure funds from corporate partners and attract funding from grants or donations to support ongoing work.

Key Skills 

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS 

Essential (E), Desirable (D)

Experience of building consensus between diverse stakeholders to drive progressive change (E)

A track record of developing mutually rewarding corporate and /or third sector partnerships to deliver project objectives (E)

Primary research skills with experience of conducting evaluations and an ability to develop surveys, analyse data and conduct focus groups (D)

Experience of conducting secondary research and writing reports (E)

Understanding of the importance of good research design (D)

Previous experience of developing and implementing new products, projects or services (E)

Experience of securing funds to deliver and scale up projects (D)

KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Excellent project management skills with the ability to juggle a wide range of competing demands (E)

Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships, lead, influence and motivate others (E)

Strong communication skills with the ability to engage and work effectively with a diverse range of stakeholders, including senior business leaders (E)

Strong report writing skills and ability to share and disseminate knowledge with project partners (E)

An ability to take initiative and work independently across different teams (E)

Understanding of anti-poverty policy and campaigning (D)

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

A proactive approach to all areas of work with a ‘can do’ attitude and a flexible approach to work demands (E)

A strong commitment to the Living Wage campaign and principles of Citizens UK (E)

Application Procedure

At Citizens UK, we use Applied, an applicant-tracking recruitment system. Applied aims to overcome unconscious bias in recruiting. Often the Hiring Team will not see your CV as part of the shortlisting process and instead ask questions to test skills needed for the role. The responses are anonymised and reviewed by the panel. The Applied platform also asks some demographic questions before you start your application. Citizens UK cannot see individual demographic responses, only summary statistics to monitor our candidate pool for balance. Applied aims to give an equal chance to be hired irrespective of background. Candidates can opt out of answering the demographic questions. 

We are committed to being an inclusive employer. In line with our inclusion value, we would love to see applications from LGBTQIA+ people, people from racialised communities, disabled people, and people of faith to better represent the communities we work in. We also strongly welcome applications from people who have lived experience of low pay and poverty. For questions and reasonable adjustments regarding your application, including information in a different format, or our recruitment process, please contact us.

Many of our employees enjoy flexible and hybrid working, and we are open to adapting/flexing our roles to embrace a diverse workforce. If you are interested in a particular vacancy and wish to discuss flexible working, please contact us.

Even if you don’t quite meet all the required criteria still consider applying, as we invest in our employees and support them to develop the skills and knowledge required to deliver their role.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK as Citizens UK is unable to sponsor visa applications. Our community organisers work in the community and their employment is subject to satisfactory standard/enhanced DBS checks.