United Grand Lodge of England seeks a Strategy and Engagement Manager

Strategy and Engagement Manager 

United Grand Lodge of England are looking to hire a Strategy and Engagement Manager for the Secretariat Department. The role is closely aligned with ensuring the department’s focus and delivery of the UGLE strategy and ensuring we provide ‘strong foundations’ to our members. A key focus will be to horizon scan and ensure the department is fully adopting a ‘Yes, if’ approach and avoiding slipping into a ‘No, because’ attitude. Challenging accepted ways of doing things and providing a fresh pair of eyes to processes and procedures will be crucial. The role will therefore require an ability to cross-skill to understand how different elements of the department work, to be suitably tactful to challenge how things are done and have appropriate resilience in doing so as well. A good knowledge of Adephi and other IT solutions may assist here in identifying credible alternative solutions or finding suitable efficiency savings.

The role will require a good understanding of the Strategy and an ability to keep up to date with developments by aligning closely with appropriate staff in the Membership and Communications Department to understand the developments of the M&CWP and to also liaise with Director of Secretariat to understand developments from the Strategy Working Party. 

A key focus for the role will also be assisting the Director and Deputy Director of Secretariat in producing relevant and effective Management Information to assist in understanding the department’s performance and to articulate to the Grand Secretary and the Board of General Purposes where issues may be that require a surge of resources or may lead to a dip in delivery due to resourcing constraints. 

Ensuring strong engagement across the department is crucial. This role will have a dedicated focus on the engagement by the department. This will be in part focused on ensuring that team members understand the Strategy and its impact on them as well as UGLE’s values and how these are being reflected within the team. It will also be part of breaking down silos and helping encourage an ethos in the team of engaging with each other and more broadly across the organisation. 

Engagement across the organisation will involve managing key relationships with the IT department – supporting the CIO in the development and rollout of Project 2023, ensuring a Secretariat voice in the design and implementation – and with the Membership and Communications department – focused on supporting the production of effective and meaningful MI on membership trends especially the Membership Challenge and assisting with the coordination of meaningful statistics linked to the NDMC and other key membership initiatives and helping to ensure that Secretariat are joined up with the Membership team in supporting the delivery of the Strategy. 

Finally, engagement will look at how we engage with our customers – focusing on identifying and setting appropriate SLAs (in line with the MI collected to measure timescales); ensuring lines of communication are clear and effectively used; assisting the Director and Deputy Director of Secretariat to engage with customers and stakeholders to garner feedback on the team and its performance.

Focused on the cross-skilling and de-siloisation ethos that will be embedded in the department, another aspect of the role will be to provide resilience across the department at the managerial level. This will require building credible and effective relationships with the Managers of the Provincial/District Support Team and the External Relations Team. 

Background

UGLE is the governing body of Freemasonry in England, Wales, the Channel Islands, the Isles of Man consisting of 48 Provinces roughly based on the old county boundaries and 32 Districts overseas. English Freemasonry is a membership organisation of 175,000 people meeting in more than 7,000 Lodges across the globe. Membership is open to any man over the age of 18 irrespective of their background, race or religion, with students also able to join one of 87 University Scheme Lodges. The largest Province in UGLE is Metropolitan in London with many Lodges meeting at Freemasons Hall in Covent Garden which also serves as the Headquarters for English Freemasonry worldwide. 

Freemasons’ Hall is a unique art deco building which can date its origins back to 1769 when Freemasons first started meeting at this site. The current building was completed in 1933 as a memorial to those who died in the Great War. It houses 22 meeting rooms including some unique spaces regularly used for major international events and as film locations. The Hall itself provides a magnificent meeting place for UK and international masonic lodges. It is open to both Freemasons and the general public who are provided with both self-guided audio tours as well as guided tours of the facilities.  The Museum of Freemasonry with one of the finest collections of masonic artefacts and archives in the world, is housed within the building. 

The United Grand Lodge of England is an equal opportunities employer. 

Key Responsibilities 

• To provide a dedicated focus within the Secretariat on ensuring the department’s alignment with the UGLE Strategy;
• To focus on continuous improvement on the department’s processes and procedures, especially focused on possible technical solutions or better use of existing systems (e.g. Adelphi, Hermes, Project 2023);
• To lead on producing relevant MI on the department’s performance in conjunction with the Director of Secretariat and CIO;
• To ensure strong team engagement, with a particular focus on the UGLE Strategy and UGLE’s Organisational Values, an ethos of cross-skilling and communication within the team and the organisation and also to assist the Director of Secretariat on building strong communication with our stakeholders and customers;
• To lead on engagement with the Membership and Communications Department, focused on ensuring appropriate support is offered to produce MI on the Membership Challenge and meaningful statistics on the NDMC; 
• To provide resilience within the department at the Managerial level;
• To assist across the teams as required, surging to provide resource on critical tasks and ensuring the successful delivery of the department’s critical functions.

Skills and Attributes:

The following are essential:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A robust understanding of the 7-year strategy and what it will take to deliver it successfully.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver quality and excellence.
• Organised and efficient.
• High attention to detail.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and build strong relationships.
• Integrity, diplomacy and professional skills to work effectively on complex, cross-team initiatives.

Desirable skills:

• Detailed knowledge of secretarial procedures and a strong understanding of the Craft and Royal Arch.
• The ability to understand, interpret and communicate management information.
• A detailed understanding of Adelphi, Hermes and the planned Project 2023 systems.

Hours of work:

Full time (35 hours per week) Monday to Friday  

Salary and Benefits:

Competitive salary plus the following benefits package: 

• BUPA private medical cover
• Pension (3.5% employee & 9% employer contributions – increasing to 12%) 
• Free Life Assurance 
• Holiday (25 days increasing to 30 days) 
• Interest free season ticket loan 
• Gym membership (subsidised)
• Employee Assistance Programme 
• Flexible working 

Application details:

To apply please send your CV and covering letter to: Elizabeth Gay - Director of HR - United Grand Lodge of England via email to [email protected] 

CV’s received without a covering letter will not be considered.

Closing date for applications is close of business (5pm) on 8th April 2024.