Gardening Enterprise Manager

Job details
Location: 
Your base is at The Gillian Webb Garden, Springfield Hospital, SW17 7DT. You may occasionally be required to work at our Head Office, 64 Altenburg Gardens, SW11 1JL.
Closing date: 
Thursday, July 17, 2014 - 18:00
Interview date: 
Thursday 31st July
Salary: 
£26,000 - £27,500 (depending on experience) + 3% pension contribution
Contract type: 
Permanent
Working hours: 
Monday – Friday, 5 days a week with occasional weekend work (includes a 1 hour unpaid lunch break). Times flexible according to jobs.
Reports to: 
Head of Finance and Operations
Contact email address: 
hradmin@sharecommunity.org.uk
Contact telephone number: 
0207 801 9825

Share offers a range of training, education, social enterprise and personal development opportunities to disabled people in order that they may progress towards their personal and career goals and aspirations.  Share Gardening is our horticultural social enterprise.

Share Gardening is involved in plant and produce sales, landscaping and grounds maintenance.  We have been taking on more external contracts, so that we are able to work with more people, build up our business, and offer real job opportunities to our graduate students.  We’re offering traineeships to young people with mild to moderate learning disabilities to get them on their road to a successful future, and they will be experiencing real work through Share Gardening.

The post-holder will be responsible for building and developing Share Gardening business, supervising and training the work teams, and ensuring that our customers are delighted by our work.

Main responsibilities

We are seeking someone with substantial experience in horticulture operations and estimating.  The Gardening Enterprise Manager will:

  • Provide training and supervision to students/workers when working with Share Gardening.
  • Prepare and price competitive tenders.
  • Work with Share’s management team and Horticulture Manager to identify new ground maintenance opportunities.
  • Research competitive pricing for the supply of plants and other ground maintenance resources.
  • Liaise with existing and potential clients, which includes attending meetings and site visits in order to develop and maintain good working relationships.
  • Secure and negotiate new business.
  • Manage, report, and produce evidence of Share Gardening’s activities.
  • Lead on the commercial and work focused elements of Share’s horticultural training project (eg propagation, plant sales).
  • Contribute to the training of young people on traineeships.
  • Be a self-motivated individual who is capable of using their own initiative to prioritise a busy workload.

Experience, skills and knowledge

All of the following are essential to the role, and should be addressed individually in the supporting statement:

  • Experience of working within a horticultural environment, qualified at level 2 or 3.
  • Experience of managing people, resources, and projects.
  • Experience of working within a business environment, ideally in either garden maintenance or landscaping.
  • Experience of costing jobs.
  • The ability to get on with and train people at different levels and with different abilities.
  • Excellent team working skills.
  • An entrepreneurial approach, with a passion for growing projects.
  • Proactive approach to selling and able to negotiate and secure new business.
  • The ability to promote a businesslike approach to Share horticulture students.
  • A passion for seeing jobs through, making sure they’re done well and that the customer is delighted.
  • Able to work under pressure, have the ability to plan ahead, achieve given deadlines and have an eye for detail.
  • IT literate with the ability to use various software packages. Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel are essential.
  • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
  • Good literacy and numeracy skills.
  • A full, clean driving licence is also essential.
  • Being an accredited trainer would be desirable.

How to apply

Please complete our application form and equal opportunities form and email both to hradmin@sharecommunity.org.uk.  Please put your name and job title in the email subject line.  If you wish to post your application form, please post it to: Private & Confidential, HR Department, Share Community, 64 Altenburg Gardens, London, SW11 1JL.

We will endeavour to acknowledge receipt of your application form by email; however only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.  You will be required to provide proof of qualifications and ID at the interview. Share welcomes applications from everyone.  We focus on ability and believe people work best when they feel valued, safe and happy. We do all that we can to make sure that Share is friendly and welcoming to everyone. Applications received after 5pm on the closing date will not be considered.  

This job is subject to two satisfactory references, evidence of qualifications, an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check and providing evidence of right to work in the UK. If you have a disability and would like to discuss other ways of submitting your application, please call 0207 801 9825.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Downloadable forms
Application form: 
Equal opportunities form: