Operations Graduate Training Programme 2022

Zenergi provides energy procurement, invoice validation and contract management services. Zenergi works across the education hierarchy, care homes, housing associations, health care, commercial and councils providing 3 terawatts of energy and a management team with considerable industry experience to ultimately save both time and money.

Vision & Values

At Zenergi we strive to provide excellence in all areas of service to our clients, colleagues and suppliers based on being professional, efficient, conscientious and progressive at all times. Communication through all levels is the key to our success and we pride ourselves on our exceptional quality of service.

Investors In People

It is important to us that we provide you with all the tools you need on your journey with Zenergi, therefore we encourage you to take part in the “Zen Academy”, a bespoke training program tailored to your needs. This allows you to personally develop your skills and abilities in communication, business development and customer service so you shine and fulfil your potential.

Benefits & Rewards

Every day, we ask you to bring your best and to support our mission, strategy and culture. So, in turn, we aim to bring our best to you by continually assessing, refining and enhancing the benefits we offer to ensure they meet the evolving needs of our diverse team, and strengthen our ability to attract and retain amazing talent.

What Do We Offer Our Customers?

Zenergi – specialising in utility procurement, invoice validation, contract management and technical services in the education sector. Watch the video to find out more about our services or click here to visit our website.

Position

This programme offers the opportunity to work in a broad range of Zenergi activities in the Operations division to gain all-round experience. In this programme you will do 3 rotations during your 24 months here.

You will also

• Earn a full salary
• Develop skills all employers are looking for
• Make lifelong friends and connections
• Experience real responsibility from day one.

Our programmes are development programmes, designed to give you opportunities to learn on the job, and to develop and hone your skills in a variety of areas. They suit candidates who enjoy being challenged, are excited by trying new things and can come up with fresh ideas.

Soon after joining you will also be assigned a mentor to help you navigate your career development and make the most out of your time at Zenergi. You will have monthly meetings will your mentor to assess your progression but will report to the department lead during rotations.

The programme has been designed to lead you through the business following the customer’s journey. It will give you an understanding of each operational department so you can appreciate how each area plays a key role in our successes and how each departments activities affects and supports others.

Introduction

Your first week will be spend with your mentor understanding the company, its employees and its ethos and gain a basic understanding of the industry.

You will:

• Have group and one on one sessions with your mentor to understand your objective from the training programme
• Take part in department meetings
• Have training sessions on company policies, procedures, basic industry knowledge and office etiquette
• Spend time shadowing team members to build rapport
• Help with company activities

Rotation 1- Months 1-5 Bill Validation

You first rotation will be for 5 months, reporting to the Bill Validation Specialist Team Leader where you will be working as a Bill Validation specialist and understanding the industry and the business. Your primary responsibility is to undertake the accurate and efficient processing of customer invoices and related data on a consistent basis month on month, in what is a critical business function. You will support the reporting needs for key customers who have opted into this service level, particularly for large group customers and multi-site billing.

You will learn to

• Complete all administrative requirements in relation to the Zenergi bill validation process, including but not limited to; sourcing billing data through a variety of methods including accessing portals to download files, manual validation of invoices using CRM, and importing large amounts of billing & related data, where available
• Identify issues leading to a failed validation, associated investigation & resolution where appropriate, which may require escalating this to the queries team or relationship managers using the Zenergi case raising process
• Facilitate the sending of large volumes of invoices to customers on behalf of the relationship manager, ensuring absolute attention to detail to support seamless customer service to end users
• Reconciliation of accounts by processing credit notes rebills & producing statement of accounts as required
• Undertake all aspects of incoming post; processing, scanning, renaming & compliant disposal of originals
• Support key supplier(s) billing portfolio, taking end-to-end ownership for the monthly bill cycle to closure (usually within month). Liaise with supplier contacts to request missing information whilst working to tight deadlines, and keep company records up to date at all times
• Build and maintain a positive working relationship with suppliers, primarily day-to-day interactions but also attending meetings as the associated billing specialist where relevant to provide constructive feedback on the bill cycle performance, and raise any risks or concerns
• Embrace a continuous improvement mindset & formalise any resulting proposal for change, to evolve the quality or efficiency of Zenergi or supplier processes
• Identify trends, billing issues or potential delays through managing your dashboard & communicating this effectively to your team leader for wider awareness & risk management
• Build relationships with other stakeholders within the Zenergi group, maintain effective communication & provide consistent support with the core objective of delighting our customers
• Conduct bespoke billing requirements including reporting, which may include historic validation and analysis.

Rotation 2 Months 6-10 (Operational Support)

During your time in operational support specialist, you will be deployed for fixed periods into projects or teams where additional resource is required. You will fall under the relevant team or project lead for all day-to-day management and support, working to clear timescales and objectives which will be set out in conjunction with the operations director. This is a varied role offering maximum exposure to all functions in the operations division, and the ability to add value when and where it is needed most. Your role will also involve pre and post-sales support, to help ensure a smooth transition through the renewals cycle by undertaking pre- and post-sale activity.

You will learn to

• Lead with commission data entry and working with suppliers to obtain missing data for non-bill validation clients
• Work with suppliers to obtain missing invoices to enable our bill validation to be completed within month
• Problem solving queries on behalf of the customer by liaising with suppliers - these can be raised by supplier, internal teams or customer via the RM - including but not limited to, COT, meter readings, copy invoice, SOA
• Managing the go live process from pre-reg checks through to confirming live contracts
• Maintain up to date records on behalf of all stakeholders, using the appropriate systems and processes
• Work with other Service Delivery functions to ensure a reliable service is provided and to share information/learning to prevent delays to customers where possible
• Support your designated supplier(s) relationships alongside service delivery
• To provide general administrative support which may include but is not limited to; data entry, processing documents, call handling, quality sampling, data analysis, problem solving, mapping and testing processes, preparing presentations and communications, and providing assistance during training
• You may be required to support the activities of other teams or projects on an adhoc basis, allowing opportunity for growth and development. In all cases full training will be provided as required
• Attend regular one to one catch ups, monthly meets and PDPs where applicable
• Collaborate within operations to ensure cohesive working practices
• Complete all administration requirements in relation to the sales function, including locking in contracts
• Manage sales related queries from internal and external parties where applicable
• Manage the sales dashboards to assist the wider team with reporting expectations
• Maintain up to date records on behalf of the customer using the appropriate systems and processes
• Obtain all required information pertaining to renewals and associated new business (HH data, contract details) which may involve speaking with customers and suppliers
• Processing of Letters of Authority to suppliers
• Sending and associated record keeping of VAT and DD forms in relation to signed contracts
• Set up of customers of supplier portals to ensure we are ‘ready to bill’
• Receive and coordinate price requests from the Sales Team; set up with the suppliers, update CRM system
• Input, analysis, and production of quote documents on behalf of the sales relationship managers
• Assist with end of month figures for internal and external parties.

Rotation 3 - Months 11-13 (Quality)

With quality assurance, your primary purpose is to review whether the right information is in the right place at the right time within our contract and account management software and support the business in doing something about it if it is not. This is a varied role offering maximum exposure to all functions in the operations division, and the ability to add value when and where it is needed most.

You will learn to

• Using a risk-based approach identify the areas within our contract and account management systems where storing the right information is critical to the functioning of the business
• Develop tools to assess the correctness of this data and carry out those data integrity checks, including monthly audits on individual performance against agreed criteria
• Where exceptions have been found undertake further work to identify how far spread the data integrity issue is and the reason for that issue arising
• Work with the relevant managers to formulate solutions and fixes for the data integrity issues, empowering the managers to carry out these fixes with their team
• Follow up on fixes to ensure that they have worked as intended and are not causing other problems
• Work with IT and the ops leads (HOCO, HOCD, HOOD, HOOP) to develop process controls within the contract and account management software such that if data is input and it is outside of the set parameters error reporting will flag this instantly
• Keep track of data integrity dashboards and flag where data quality is deteriorating, as well as developing the dashboard to further protect the quality of data in the system
• Test check data sets where information is being transferred from one company’s system to another to ensure there is no data corruption and the data is populating the same fields in each
• Carry out data cleansing on contract databases for existing or acquired businesses
• Report to the operations director monthly in a format for inclusion in the month end board pack
• Explore further opportunities to support quality initiatives and projects across the group.

Rotation 4- Months 14-18 (Query Resolution Specaialist)

As a query specialist your primary responsibility is to manage the resolution all supplier facing queries on behalf of our customers, in what is a critical business function. This vibrant team offers to opportunity to specialise in a key product or query type, whilst maintaining focus on efficient and effective query resolution.

You will learn to

• Dedicated supplier relationship manager for query resolution
• Problem solving queries on behalf of the customer by liaising with suppliers - these can be raised by supplier, internal teams or customer via the RM
• Strive for the right outcome for the customer and Zenergi, be confident in challenging suppliers and other stakeholders where appropriate
• Work a varied flow of queries, from standard customer request to complex cases that will require investigation and initiative to relevant SLAs
• Demonstrate agility, with a main area of specialism (energy, water or technical) but being able to support other areas in peak periods or absence
• The technical query specialism will utilize their knowledge to manage all metering queries regards issues or faults (including for water or energy meters), and manage the MOP/DC framework internally and supplier facing
• Complete all administrative requirements in relation to the Zenergi query resolution process, and maintain up to date records on behalf of all stakeholders
• Reconciliation of accounts by processing credit notes, rebills & producing statement of accounts as required.

Rotation 5- Months 19-24 (Relationship Manager)

Your final rotation fundamental to Zenergi and its ethos, as the relationship manager your primary purpose is to delight customers by supporting genuine relationships with your portfolio, to positively promote our services and demonstrate our value through providing reliable service on a consistent basis. Development into the higher roles if you feel you are ready is an option where you will manage the contract renewal process for their energy supplies and demonstrate our value through providing reliable service on a consistent basis.

You will learn to

• Responsible for a varied portfolio of Zenergi Group customers
• Provide a reliable and WOW standard of service as the single point of contact from Zenergi
• Co-ordinate the delivery of all services to your customers using product and service specialists as required
• Clear, professional, and effective communication, by telephone, email and face to face meetings
• Continuously review your portfolio to identify opportunities, risks and successes
• Maintain up to date records on behalf of the customer using the appropriate systems and processes
• Negotiate and manage the renewal of current contracts across all services providing consultation and recommendations on procurement, and demonstrate high retention rates
• Support the customer with Governors or board presentations as required
• Go above and beyond to delight the customer
• Ensure service levels are maintained including validated invoices sent to site, queries progressed to resolution and Positive Energy Pack updated monthly
• Complete data protection, data integrity and GDPR checks as required
• Actively identify new business opportunities within your portfolio and network
• Co-ordinate any ad-hoc customer requirements
• Resolve contract termination and objection issues at contract renewal
• Comply with updates to company procedures as a result of technology upgrades, process improvements, industry regulations, etc.
• Assist on the collection of non-payments of Zenergi invoices.

Completion

On completion of the 24-month programme you will have gained an understanding of how the operational division works within Zenergi and have gained a deeper understanding of working for a Small Medium enterprise.

We want to invest in your future and ours. We hope that the end of your 2 years on our graduate scheme is actually just the beginning of your journey with Zenergi.

Requirements

Our programmes are development programmes, designed to give you opportunities to learn on the job, and to develop and hone your skills in a variety of areas. They suit candidates who enjoy being challenged, are excited by trying new things and can come up with fresh ideas.

The key skills we look for, and want to develop through our programmes, are:

Acting with Integrity- Instils mutual trust and confidence; creates a culture that fosters high standards of ethics; behaves in a fair and ethical manner toward others; demonstrates a sense of corporate responsibility and commitment to all stakeholders

Demonstrating Initiative- Works independently to solve problems; looks for opportunities to take on responsibility and takes thoughtful risks; effectively acts on new and ongoing initiatives, objectives, and solutions to problems to gain sought-after results.

Working Collectively- Commits to working together as a cohesive team toward a common purpose to achieve the best possible outcome for clients and customers.

Working Compliantly- Understands, encourages, and carries out the principles of integrated data management; complies with or oversees compliance with defined policies and procedures; completes all required compliance training; takes personal responsibility for compliance.

Organising and Planning Work- Defining tasks and milestones to achieve objectives while ensuring the optimal use of resources to meet those objectives

Delivering High-Quality Work- Demonstrates an authentic interpersonal style that engages others and encourages high performance; manages resources to achieve maximum value and efficiency with minimum costs; communicates clearly with co-workers to ensure alignment.