HOSPITALITY MANAGER

About the Academy

African Leadership Academy (ALA) seeks to transform Africa by identifying, developing, and connecting a new generation of young leaders who will lead the continent towards lasting peace and shared prosperity for all. Since our inception in 2008 we have worked to lay the foundations of this audacious mission by identifying and developing a group of exceptional young leaders who will work together to shape Africa’s future.

The Academy achieves it vision by identifying future leaders across Africa, developing them in a world-class boarding school in South Africa and placing them in the world’s top universities and continuing to nurture them by connecting them to powerful networks that will enable these leaders to create transformative impact.

Position Overview

The Hospitality Manager at ALA serves the purpose of delivering a wide range of the hospitality objectives in our pursuit to achieve the Academy’s mission. This includes delivering all our catering and events on and off campus. The role fully understands the varied hospitality, cleaning and housekeeping needs of ALA and uses excellent communication, strong team and relationship management, operational excellence, and quality customer service to meet these needs. The role reports to the Director of Operations

Key Responsibilities

To manage the direction, coordination, and evaluation of the hospitality function in relation to events, catering and cleaning. The incumbent will be the key person receiving and responding to matters and complaints relating to hospitality

To spearhead the development and implementation of relevant policies, procedures and processes, guidelines for efficient delivering of the hospitality requirements for ALA.

To manage systems and automation of several processes where possible to boost effectiveness of the hospitality services.

Work with relevant internal and external partners to manage the procurement of goods and services relating to hospitality including events, catering and cleaning. This will include negotiating service level agreements/contracts with external vendors to secure favourable terms such as best price, superior quality of goods and services and credit terms.

Partner with the Director of Operations and Facilities Manager to ensure statutory and internal compliance for all matters relating to events, catering and cleaning.

Partner with relevant departments to plan and execute annual events such as Global Scholarship Program,, AllStaff, annual party, Anzisha events.

As directed by the Director of Operations, track and report key functional metrics to highlight risks and opportunities for improvement and achieve target cost efficiency goals. Critical reports to be delivered may include quarterly ExCo report that measure progress against established OKRs.

To problem-solve and identify areas for improvement to continually drive ALA Hospitality’s effectiveness including cost effectiveness.

To spearhead continuous policies and procedures training to ALA community using multiple forums to boost compliance. This includes Child Protection Policy awareness for contractors and service providers.

To partner with key stakeholders to ensure successful event on and off campus.

To maintain a high standard of customer service according to Academy operating procedures

To ensure quality of hospitality services by implementing effective customer feedback loops/interactions through the year. This includes attending to any complaints logged by ALA community or guests in a timely and professional manner

To manage the inventory of food and beverages to ensure that campus and events runs efficiently. This includes checking quantities and quality of supplies and equipment regularly.

To coordinate and communicate with key partners to events and ensure that they are run effectively as per all items relating to hospitality

To prepare and manage annual budget of the hospitality department and prepare monthly expenditure reports for review, including the processing and careful reconciliation of the monthly invoices according to orders placed

Manage weekly departmental meetings and collaboration meetings with Facilities, Procurement and Security departments

Place accurate meal and event orders according to the needs of the community and review when necessary.

Ensure a high level of cleanliness and strict adherence to Health and Safety protocols by contractors

Resident Faculty apartment inspections are done bi-annually to ensure level of cleanliness is acceptable and to check on ALA’s inventory in each apartment

Resident Faculty apartment curtains are to be washed annually

Review, manage, price, and submit incoming catering requests on Sage Intacct and ensure orders reach the catering team in good time

To undertake strategic projects and responsibilities as required.

Profile of the Ideal Candidate

The Ideal Candidate will demonstrate:

Bachelor’s degree and qualifications in hospitality management or a relevant field, with a minimum of 5 years applicable work experience as a hospitality manager.

Good knowledge and demonstrable experience of interacting with and complying with statutory requirements, standards, and procedures for the hospitality function.

3-5 years’ experience working in a boarding school environment

Ability to keep a positive attitude in an extremely fast-paced and demanding work environment.

Multitasking, organizational and time management skills are important

Attention to detail and problem-solving aptitude.

Strong customer service knowledge and experience, and the ability to resolve conflict in a calm and professional manner

Strong written and verbal communication skills, and other language proficiency

Proficiency in MS Office (MS Excel and MS Outlook, in particular)

Ability to cultivates authentic partnerships and work effectively with others.

Reporting: Director of Operations

Start Date: 1 January 2023

Location: ALA Campus, Honeydew, Johannesburg