Purpose of Job

Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center is the nation’s oldest freestanding nonprofit speech, hearing, and deaf services center. At four locations around Northeast Ohio as well as at multiple contract sites, we serve more than 12,000 children and adults per year with services that include speech-language pathology, audiology, early intervention, language interpreting, vocational rehabilitation, case management, and advocacy. The purpose of this role is to oversee and direct the CHSC Interpreting Services department following the policies and objectives of the Agency, ensuring that the highest quality American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken language interpreting services are provided on behalf of community customers. The Director is responsible for the ongoing quality improvement of services, the revision and development of policies and guidelines for the work of interpreters, and the development and maintenance of business relationships with current and prospective customers, with a strong focus on meeting ambitious revenue goals. The Director will represent Interpreting Services on the directors’ team and with the Board of Directors.

Major Duties and Expectations:

• Create annual strategic direction, goals, objectives, budget, and performance measures for the department. Adhere to the proposed annual budget, managing staffing and contractors to support the demand for services.
• Oversee the Interpreting business including revenue growth, expense containment, and continuous quality improvement of services.
  • Responsible for the achievement of annual net revenue goal
  • Learns to use and optimize scheduling and dispatching software to oversee the work of the Operations Manager.
  • Determines pricing of products and services and fee schedules for contracts to maximize margin and minimize cost.
  • Routinely reviews competitor’s charges for similar products, and services and determines the need for updating pricing annually
  • Monitors cost of services internally
  • Updates and maintains client relationship manager software
  • Negotiate contracts and services
  • Prepares proposals for high-profile RFP processes
  • Ensure that the software supporting scheduling and dispatching of interpreters meet business needs; select new software, as needed
  • Responsible for managing expenses to budget and explaining significant variances every month
  • Development of a monthly productivity calculation and reporting process that agrees with the revenue dollar budget
  • Monitor and proactively react to suboptimal weekly schedules to ensure maximum revenue generation. Addresses and resolves unexpected downtime
  • Performs an analysis to determine standard cost per hour internal vs contractor. Makes recommendations for optimized staffing model moving forward
  • Review all current contracts. Prepares a summary of contract periods, rates, terms, renewal dates, etc.
  • Prepares responses to Requests for Proposals for interpreting services.
  • Identifies and rolls out other revenue-generating offerings.
  • Annually reviews competitors’ compensation and benefits practices and determines the need to update internal practices accordingly.
• Oversee operations and staffing of the interpreting department
  • Supervises the work of the Senior Lead Interpreter/Assistant Director of Interpreting which may include:
    • Actively recruits, attracts, hires, and retains high-quality staff and contract interpreters.
    • Creates and maintains interpreter policy and procedures handbook.
    • Updates Interpreter forms as necessary and compiles and creates best practices for interpreters within the Interpreter policy and procedures handbook.
    • Creates any necessary checklists and review materials to ensure that both internal and external interpreters (contractors) are up to date with CHSC policy changes.
    • Assesses prospective staff and contract interpreters and determines candidacy for employment.
    • Sets objectives and establishes goals for each team member. Empower staff to take responsibility for their jobs and goals.
    • Provides effective performance feedback in addition to providing employee recognition, rewards, and disciplinary action.
    • Coordinates yearly (as well as biannual) interpreter evaluations. Assists staff interpreters with identifying goals, and meeting milestones. Assists staff interpreters, as needed, with achieving defined goals.
• Directs the creation and maintenance of collateral and marketing materials to support program growth and development.
  • Updates/develops materials workshops as they relate to interpreting and best practices
  • Works with the marketing department on communications to ensure that materials are Deaf friendly and represent interpreting best practices
• Work collaboratively with the Directors’ Team, Board, and Executive Director
  • Represents Staff Interpreter issues in internal CHSC management meetings and acts as an active participant in those meetings.
  • Disseminates any relevant information to interpreting staff and seeks interpreting staff input when necessary.
  • Represents Interpreter issues in the Deafness Advocacy Committee (DAC) and other board and committee meetings and acts as an active participant in those meetings.
  • Represents interpreting services in statewide meetings with other Community Centers for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• Represents CHSC and Interpreting in the Community: Participates in fundraising, educational, and/or public relations programs and presentations for clients, families, and community professionals regarding the mission and efforts of CHSC, Interpreting, and CCDHH.
• Consciously creates a workplace culture that is consistent with the overall mission, vision, and values of the organization.
• Ensures that all legal, ethical, moral, and safety considerations are followed as appropriate.

Education/Experience/Skills: