Soni Rai - Curriculum Vitae

Personal Profile

A passionate, positive and highly motivated Customer Service and Operations Manager with the skills, experience and expertise to deliver a World Class Service to both domestic and commercial customers by managing directly and/or indirectly a Direct Labour, Franchise or Contractor workforce model. Has experience in developing and managing the frameworks for recruitment, induction and on-going governance across a variety of trade skill-sets to ensure delivery meets the necessary standards for health and safety, service and regulatory compliance.

Genuine compassion for the customer - a drive to deliver a safe, world class service. Excellent networking skills – builds strong relationships to motivate and engage others. Maintains an energetic and positive outlook which inspires others. Commercial awareness – delivering a quality service at the right price. Results-driven with logical and methodical approach to achieving tasks and objectives. Self-driven and self-reliant; sets own aims and targets in line with business objectives and leads by example. Adaptable and flexible; well organised with strong time management skills. Ability to work and deliver within tight timescales and budgets. Self-aware; always seeking to learn and grow.

Professional Highlights

Successfully managed the introduction of the Contractor Model into Electrical Services by designing, developing and introducing the framework for contractor recruitment for both Electrical and White Goods skilled trades and within Dyno Group for Alarm Installers, Glazing and Locksmith skilled trades. These models also included selection criteria, induction and service delivery governance to ensure the contractors met set standards.

Delivered a 24 month period of no safety related injuries across the franchisee workforce and our customers and also delivered a 25 month period of no safety related injuries involving contractor engineers and our customer’s between June 2014 and July 2016. These results were delivered by engaging franchisees and contractors in attending Health and Safety workshops which were made relevant and engaged all to participate and understand the full impact if Health and Safety standards fall below standards, on both business and family.

Successfully introduced a new Franchise model into Dyno Group, called Dyno Secure. This involved developing and recruiting franchisees for national coverage to the Network, building franchisee areas, developing rates for license agreements and royalty; this on top of the challenges of introducing new systems and processes. During recruitment of franchisees and contractors, transferred Home Security customer contract base from British Gas direct labour model to Dyno Franchise model without an impact on service delivery – achieving at its height a NPS MAT high of 80.

Successfully developed, recruited and managed a new network of ‘non destructive’ locksmiths, built as a hybrid of contractors and franchisees, to support meter exchanges for British Gas Revenue Protection team – delivering in an overall increase in Dyno Group top line growth by 16%.

Developed Service Level Agreement for contractors which were then delivered within the Contractor Agreements by British Gas legal team.

Improved Attendance Failure rate from 5.9% to 2.0% within London and from 3.3% to 1.9% nationally within 12 months following introduction of contractor network to the business.

Improved the customer service delivered to British Gas insurance customer by the introduction of the contractor network. The NPS MAT score improved from 44.6 to 66.2 within 12 months in the London Region and from 62.9 to 73.4 nationally following the rollout of the contractor network in the business.

Improved customer attended within 2 days of job receipt from 23.7% to 72.5% in London region and from 48.9% to 68.7% nationally following introduction of contractor network.

Managed the improvement of First Time Fix rate across White Goods engineers within London from 57% to 65%, enabling ability for more fresh work to be planned in to resource challenged region.

Reduced Contractor Parts costs by £132k over a 12 month period by managing the contractor’s performance and developing process for access to BG supplied parts.

Successfully managed the relationship with HAUK to deliver an OOH’s emergency service for our HEC and KAC customers via a network of contractors. Introduced a Operational and Safety governance meeting each week and challenged HAUK on their initial service delivery performance to a position where the metrics achieved, like broken promises, first time fix and completion rates, are in line with those delivered by our direct labour workforce. Also developed processes to enable the safe conclusion for our vulnerable customer’s journey.

Career History

July 2014 - Current Contract Manager - Electrical British Gas

Designed, developed and introduced contractor framework model to support the resource challenges within the Electrical Services business. This included the selection, recruitment, induction and on-going governance of Electrical and White Goods contractors. Contractor recruitment is in line with the British Gas Good Repute Policy as well as Category 1 and 2 selection and recruitment process. All electrical work met ECA standards. Current resource pool of over 1000 engineers across 20 contractor businesses, including Whirlpool, BSH, Miele and 0800 Repair along with internal supplier Home Assistance UK. Also built processes to ensure we protect customer data when shared with an external business in line with the Data Protection Act 1998, along with compliance to IR35 (on shore legislation) when

making payments to the contractors. Annual spend on electrical contractor of £3.0M in 2015, 2016 on course to deliver costs of £3.5M.

Sep 2013 - Jun 2014 Regional Operations Manager British Gas

Operationally managed the North London region in Electrical Services via a team of 5 Service Managers who in turn managed a total of 125 white goods and electrical engineers, who deliver KAC and HEC service delivery for our insurance business. As well as overseeing the day to day operation, I also managed the recruitment process of direct labour within the region along with any escalations involving employee disputes and escalation of customer complaints. Also built the framework for the planned years banked hours, following trends in the year to manage when best to use the banked hours available. With an income of £20M delivered a profit of £10.5M.

Jun 2005 - Aug 2013 Regional/National Franchisee Manager Dyno Group

Over an 8 year period held regional and national roles within Dyno Group. With the transfer of the Home Security operation out of British Gas into Dyno Group, the role involved the set up of a new franchise model along with the selection, recruitment and management of franchisees and contractors in compliance to their license agreement. Management of up-to 65 franchisees and contractors across the UK and Ireland, covering varied trade skills like Glazing, Locksmiths, Security Installations and Security Service and Repair. Final project within Dyno Group was to move the Dyno Secure franchise model out of Dyno Group following its sale to G4S. Turnover of £10M generated a profit of £1M.

Jan 2003 - May 2005 Area Operations Manager British Gas

Managed a team of 25 engineers skilled across White Goods, Electrical and Security installations within the London region, managing the day to day issues including resource availability, complaint management and service delivery compliance, meeting ECA, NSI and Health and Safety required standards.

May 1999 - Dec 2002 Security Installation Engineer British Gas

Installation, service and repair of Security Systems including Police Monitored systems which met NSI and APCO standards.

Jun 1998 - May 1999 Senior Electrician KMS Properties

Installation and upgrade of electrics which met NICEIC standards within commercial and domestic premises.

Jun 1989 - Jun 1998 Apprentice/Senior Electrician Bel-Air Electrical

Working on a wide range of electrical projects across domestic, commercial and industrial sites. All work met NICEIC standards.

Skills and Experience

Operations Management

Have managed a service delivery operation of over 125 direct labour engineers via a team of 5 managers. Ensured that the service delivery met the required standards by conducting safety and technical audits via a team of managers and safety assurance engineers.

Have managed the performance of the areas within my region of control, setting up non negotiable standards for delivery by all team managers, contractors and engineers as well as regular governance meetings to manage costs, service delivery and safety performance.

Contractor Management

Managed a network of Electrical and White Goods contractors with a combined field engineer workforce of over 1000 engineers to deliver. Network of contractors raged from Category 1 to sizeable Category 2 contractor businesses, with companies like Whirlpool, BSH, Miele and 0800 Repair forming part of the network.

Performance managed the contractor network along with service delivery metrics which needed to be met. Safety Assurance team supported the safety assurance process. Introduced Governance meetings with actions captured on a Action Log with agreed dates for actions to be completed.

Contractor/Franchise Framework Development

Developed a framework for Contractor recruitment, agreeing the standards for both category 1 and category 2 contractors within the Electrical Services business, including selection criteria, induction process and on-going governance of service delivery, costs and health and safety. The recruitment process also ensured that any contractor taken on ensured payment for works met in accordance with IR35, on shore legislation.

Developed contractor take on framework for other trades whilst working within Dyno group, including Glazing, locksmiths and alarm installer skilled trades.

Change Management

Key part of the project team involved in a change programme which is involving the closure of Home Assistance UK and the move of the OOH’s Electrical coverage to PH Jones. This includes the movement of contractors as well as development of compliant systems along with negotiation of contractual rates and service delivery criteria.

Key part of the project team which moved the Home Security Business out of British Gas into Dyno Group – which at the time not only meant the transfer of the contracts and services, but also the set up and recruitment for a brand new franchise model.

Contract Negotiation

Negotiated the rates and service levels for delivery within the agreement between Dyno Group and both British Gas Revenue Protection and British Gas Business for the supplying of non destructive locksmiths to support warrant work activity. Have just recently completed negotiations between British Gas and Ph Jones on agreed rates and service delivery measures for the OOH’s HEC service

With the understanding of commercial rates for the industry, negotiated rates and service levels for contractors to support the HEC and KAC service delivery for Electrical Services. This took strong negotiating to achieve a price which met within the financial budget, particularly as there was no guarantee on volumes of work for the contractors.

Resource management

Built and reviewed plans with the planning and dispatch team to manage the resource availability against demand, filling in the gaps in availability with recruitment of contractor resource as well as movement of engineers to support during busy periods.

As well as supporting the field teams, with the pending closure of HAUK, I have engaged with the BG field management team to reduce the risks of failed appointments, especially during our busiest workload period.

Franchisee Management

Recruited and managed a network of franchisees, managing growth targets and developing business and action plans for the growth of both franchisee and franchisor.

Ensure the franchisee remains compliant to the License Agreement, and where required working with legal and compliance team with issuing of legal notices where license agreement had been breached.

Career Qualifications

Six Sigma – Yellow belt Finance fundamentals with IIR Management Development City and Guilds Level 3 – Assessing candidates performance through observation Variety of in house management training modules including Penny Ferguson Living Leaders course City and Guilds in Electrical Installation

Hobbies / Interests

I enjoy watching most sports, with my main passion being football and my team West Bromwich Albion. I also manage a local football team, both with their on field and off field activities.

My wife and I have a real passion for travelling and we enjoy experiencing different cultures in our travels around the world.

I enjoy reading, particularly autobiographies of sports people I admire like Cyrille Regis and Sir Alex Ferguson, and business books written by authors like Simon Sinek and Seth Godin.

Personal Details

Balbinder (Soni) Singh Rai Walsall Contact Details - Mobile: 07957 341075 - Email: sonisrai@yahoo.co.uk Age 43