Overview:
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Operations Manager manages the facility's day-to-day operations and directly oversees the Mental Health & Addictions Support Worker (MHASW) team and facility support services, including maintenance, housekeeping, and food services.
The Operations Manager ensures the facility operates safely, efficiently, and consistently while supporting a high-quality residential treatment environment. The role provides leadership to operational and support staff, coordinates facility and client-support activities, manages staffing and resources, and works collaboratively with clinical, nursing, admissions, and other interdisciplinary team members.
The position creates an environment that promotes collaborative teamwork, client satisfaction, staff development, accountability, effective communication, continuous improvement, and appropriate autonomy in decision-making.
As a member of the site leadership team, the Operations Manager works closely with the Executive Director, Clinical Supervisor, Nursing Supervisor, Admissions Coordinator, and other leaders to ensure operational practices support client care, treatment programming, safety, and organizational objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership and Staff Management
- Provide direct leadership, supervision, coaching, and day-to-day direction to MHASWs, Maintenance, Housekeeping, and the Head Cook.
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding, orientation, training, performance management, and ongoing development of assigned staff.
- Evaluate staff performance and identify areas of improvement or concern.
- Conduct regular performance feedback, goal setting, and performance reviews in accordance with organizational practices.
- Address attendance, conduct, performance, and workplace concerns in collaboration with the Executive Director and Human Resources as appropriate.
- Promote a positive, respectful, accountable, and collaborative workplace culture across operational departments.
- Support staff development by identifying training needs and ensuring assigned teams maintain required certifications and competencies.
- Lead regular operational and MHASW team meetings and participate in interdisciplinary and leadership meetings as required.
- Ensure effective communication and handover between shifts and departments.
MHASW and Client Support Operations
- Provide operational leadership and supervision to the MHASW team and ensure consistent delivery of client-support responsibilities across all shifts.
- Ensure MHASWs understand and adhere to their role, scope, program expectations, client safety procedures, documentation requirements, and professional boundaries.
- Support MHASW staffing and scheduling to maintain appropriate coverage across days, evenings, nights, weekends, and statutory holidays.
- Provide guidance to MHASWs regarding operational, behavioural, environmental, and client-support concerns and ensure clinical or medical matters are appropriately escalated to the Clinical Supervisor, Nursing Supervisor, or other regulated professional.
- Review operational incidents, client concerns, shift reports, and other relevant documentation and ensure appropriate follow-up occurs.
- Support the maintenance of a structured, respectful, recovery-oriented residential environment.
- Act as liaison with Admissions, Clinical, Nursing, and other interdisciplinary teams to maintain effective communication so that client treatment, safety, programming, and operational goals are achieved.
- Handle client concerns and complaints within the scope of the role and escalate clinical, medical, privacy, or other specialized matters to the appropriate leader.
- Participate in client admissions, discharges, transportation planning, activities, and other operational processes where coordination with support staff is required.
Facility and Support Services
- Oversee the safe, effective, and efficient operation of the physical facility and support-service departments.
- Provide direct oversight to the Maintenance Representative and coordinate preventative maintenance, repairs, inspections, service calls, and facility improvement needs.
- Provide oversight to Housekeeping to ensure client rooms, common areas, offices, and other facility spaces meet organizational standards for cleanliness, safety, and infection prevention and control.
- Provide operational oversight to food services through the Head Cook, ensuring appropriate staffing, food-service standards, supply management, cleanliness, and coordination with client programming needs.
- Monitor building systems, equipment, furnishings, grounds, and other physical assets and ensure deficiencies are identified and addressed in a timely manner.
- Coordinate external vendors, contractors, service providers, and facility-related projects as required.
- Maintain appropriate inventories of operational, housekeeping, maintenance, food-service, client-care, and other facility supplies and coordinate ordering within approved budgets.
- Support emergency preparedness, fire safety, environmental safety, occupational health and safety, security, and business-continuity planning.
- Ensure required facility inspections, maintenance records, safety checks, and other operational documentation are completed and retained.
- Respond to urgent facility or operational issues and escalate to the appropriate leader when required.
Scheduling and Resource Management
- Oversee workforce planning, scheduling, vacation coordination, and coverage for assigned operational departments.
- Monitor overtime, vacancies, staffing utilization, and other workforce pressures and identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency while maintaining safe client care and service delivery.
- Review operational expenditures and departmental budgets and make recommendations to the Executive Director regarding resource utilization and cost-management opportunities.
- Manage purchasing and supply needs within delegated authority and in accordance with organizational procurement and financial policies.
- Identify innovative and practical opportunities to improve service quality, operational efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
- Support annual operational planning and contribute to departmental budget development.
Quality, Safety and Compliance
- Ensure that applicable regulatory standards are met regarding client safety, workplace safety, infection prevention and control, food safety, facility operations, and other areas within the Operations Manager's responsibility.
- Monitor compliance with organizational policies, procedures, directives, and standard operating procedures within assigned departments.
- Conduct operational audits, reviews, and quality-control activities and lead improvements or corrective actions where required.
- Participate in incident investigations, risk reviews, accreditation activities, quality improvement initiatives, and organizational audits as appropriate.
- Monitor operational performance against established goals and identify corrective action when required.
- Support compliance with occupational health and safety legislation, fire and life-safety requirements, licensing requirements, and other applicable provincial or municipal requirements.
- Draft, review, and support implementation of operational policies, procedures, and workflows as assigned.
- Escalate issues to the Executive Director or appropriate on-call leader where required.
- Ensure follow-up and communication with site leadership regarding significant operational, staffing, facility, or client-safety matters.
General Operations
- Support project planning and execution for facility improvements, new operational initiatives, equipment purchases, and other assigned projects.
- Contribute to continuous improvement and organizational initiatives as required.
- Maintain accurate operational records, schedules, inventories, reports, and other administrative documentation.
- Participate in an on-call or after-hours leadership rotation as required by the operational needs of the facility.
- Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- A minimum of one year of recent supervisory or management experience is preferred, ideally within health care, mental health and addictions, residential treatment, hospitality, facilities, social services, or a related environment.
- Post-secondary education in business administration, health-care administration, human services, facilities management, hospitality, or a related discipline is preferred; an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered.
- Demonstrated leadership and management competencies.
- Experience supervising multidisciplinary operational or support-service teams is strongly preferred.
- Experience with staff scheduling, performance management, recruitment, coaching, and employee development.
- Experience overseeing facility operations, maintenance, housekeeping, food services, or residential operations is considered an asset.
- Experience working in a 24/7 residential, health-care, mental health, addictions, or human-services environment is considered an asset.
- Independent, self-driven, results-oriented, and resilient.
- Excellent organizational and coordination skills, including communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with a diverse range of people.
- Strategic and critical thinking as well as decision-making and negotiation skills.
- Technologically savvy and able to identify and implement viable solutions.
- Dedicated, well-organized, meticulous, analytical, and proactive.
- Able to adapt, prioritize, exercise initiative, manage pressure, multitask, and work both collaboratively and independently.
- Demonstrated ability to manage competing operational priorities while maintaining a strong focus on client safety, service quality, and staff support.
- Strong conflict-resolution, problem-solving, and crisis-management skills.
- Knowledge of occupational health and safety, facility safety, incident management, and quality improvement practices is preferred.
