Wardrobe Manager
Hours: 32-40
Salary: £28,600 – £32,000 FTE depending on experience
Planned start date: 02/01/2024
Role: Wardrobe Manager
Salary: £28,600 – £32,000 FTE depending on experience
Working Pattern: 32-40 hours per week
Location: London
Closing date: 29th November, 09:00
About Smart Works
Smart Works is a dynamic, high profile and fast-growing UK charity that dresses and coaches unemployed women for success at their job interview. We empower each woman by giving her the clothes and the confidence she needs to succeed. After visiting Smart Works, 69% of clients secure a job within a month, gaining financial independence and transforming their lives.
More information about who we are can be found on our website.
About Smart Works Wardrobe
The Smart Works wardrobe is central to everything we do as a charity. During a dressing appointment each client receives a high-quality interview outfit, with the pieces selected by volunteers from our curated wardrobe. Each of our 11 Smart Works centres contains around 4,000 items, with each piece having been carefully selected and prepared by our wardrobe team.
As a charity we take huge pride in our wardrobe. We know the presentation, organisation, inclusivity, and quality of our wardrobe directly contributes to client’s chance of job success. The quality and management of our wardrobe plays a central role in ensuring our clients leave Smart Works feeling confident ahead of their upcoming job interview.
The Smart Works wardrobe is filled with pieces donated by retailers and individuals, with every item hanging on our rails having been reviewed closely by a member of the team. If clothing is donated that is not suitable for our clients but has a value, then it is used to raise funds to support the charity through fashion sales and other pop-up events.
Our wardrobe is at the heart of everything that we do. We believe in fashion as a force for good and are looking for someone who shares that vision to join our wardrobe team.
About the role
The role of Wardrobe Manager will play a central role in ensuring the wardrobes across our three London centres are well organised, perfectly presented, and expertly managed.
In practice, this involves managing a team of dedicated and engaged wardrobe volunteers to ensure every piece of clothing donated to Smart Works is processed in a timely manner, treated with respect, and utilised in the best possible way for Smart Works clients. The Wardrobe Manager must build strong working relationships with the wardrobe team and identify opportunities for improvement in how the charity currently processes donations.
There is also an important role organising, logging, and pricing all clothing that cannot be used for client appointments and will be utilised for sales. The Wardrobe Manager will play a central role merchandising and overseeing the stock management in Smart Works pop-up shops and fashion sales. It is essential the Wardrobe Manager is adaptive in their approach and uses feedback and insight gained during previous retail events to maximise sales in the future.
The successful individual will have exceptional organisational skills, strong attention to detail, good relationship building skills, enjoy refining systems and believe passionately in our mission and the ability of fashion as a force for good.
The role would be based across our Smart Works centres in North, West and South London. Due to the Wardrobe Manager’s central role in our retail activities, there will be occasional evening and weekend work.
This is a fantastic role for someone with a background in retail, although that is not a prerequisite. If you are passionate about supporting women and building relationships with other likeminded individuals, we would love to hear from you.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Oversee the smooth-running of the wardrobes in our three London centres, ensuring they are fully stocked, well organised and beautifully presented.
- Recruit, on-board and manage our dedicated London wardrobe volunteer team, ensuring those giving their time to Smart Works feel supported in their role and have clarity on their responsibilities.
- Manage corporate wardrobe team-building days, as well as drop-in and taster volunteering sessions, ensuring participants have a rewarding and positive experience at Smart Works.
- Working closely with the Head of Events, coordinate the pricing, cataloguing, and merchandising of non-client appropriate clothing stock for use in fundraising events and pop-up shops.
- Develop and improve the Smart Works online sales strategy, utilising a range of platforms to deliver against fundraising KPIs.
- Assist the Head of Wardrobe with processing major retail donations that are received in London for use across the 11 Smart Works centres across the UK.
Personal Specification
The position of Wardrobe Manager is central to the effective management of our wardrobe in London, with the successful candidate drawing on their skills and experience to ensure every client has the best possible experience during their dressing appointment and every clothing donation is used as effectively as possible.
We are eager to hear from anyone who is passionate about our service and feels able to complete this role. We have included a list below to guide potential applicants, with the successful candidate likely being able to demonstrate the following:
- Excellent organisational skills, with experience improving ways of working.
- Interested in fashion, with an excellent general knowledge of clothing brands.
- A people-person, with a proven track record of building good working relationships with others. Experience managing volunteers is desirable but not essential.
- Experience working against and meeting KPIs and targets.
- Confident managing multiple concurrent projects to tight deadlines, with good time management skills.
- Demonstrable record of identifying and implementing new ideas or ways of working.
- Experience working in a retail-setting is desirable, but not essential.
- Comfortable using Microsoft Office, particularly PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.
How to Apply
Please visit our website or click “Apply Now” to find out more information – we can’t wait to hear from you.
Smart Works promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion in our workplace. We make employment decisions by matching the Charity’s needs with the skills and experience of candidates. These decisions are made irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
How to apply
Apply for this opportunity using the web link below
Application deadline: 29/11/2023
Web link: https://smartworks.livevacancies.co.uk/#/job/details/21
Email address: recruitment@smartworks.org.uk
More about Smart Works
Smart Works is a UK charity that provides high quality interview clothes and interview training to unemployed women in need. We harness the power of clothes and confidence to allow a woman to be her best at a crucial moment in her life, giving her the confidence, the self-belief and the practical tools required to succeed at interview and transform her life.