Description

Summary: 

The Location Manager is responsible for the overall success and profitability of their specific location. A successful manager will display excellent skills in team leadership, resource management, and problem solving. All of these skills will be used to provide every person who walks through the door with an exceptional customer experience in line with our mission to Inform, Outfit and Excite the community.

The Location Manager is first and foremost a leader of people and processes. The Location Manager is ultimately responsible for motivating, guiding, and coaching staff to achieve business success and growth for their location. The Location Managers must be able to effectively motivate staff, possess a deep knowledge of the products, thoroughly understand the NA sales process, be able to turn raw financial data into effective action plans, and demonstrate a high level of management and leadership skills. Above all, they are the stewards of their Location, and are responsible for the success of their location.

Job Responsibilities:

• Be the cornerstone of leadership, management, knowledge of your location and oversee all operations at your location.
• Conduct regular strategic planning meetings to prepare for future growth and business needs.
• Provide excellent leadership for the entire location team. Consistently lead in a positive, balanced, mature, and fair way. 
• Take immediate action on situations that could endanger staff, customers, facilities, product, or the company’s reputation. Monitor and maintain a safe and comfortable environment for both customers and staff, including compliance with OSHA guidelines. Consistently complete and submit incident and accident reports. 
• Facilitate any needed repairs, maintenance, upgrades, cleaning, or other physical needs of the location.
• Create an atmosphere of professionalism and accountability and ensure staff are meeting the expectations laid out in their job descriptions.
• Create and implement training programs that effectively educate staff. Be a mentor and develop pathways of growth for staff.
• Ensure good communication throughout the Location such that everyone, including the customers, have the accurate information they need to play their roles effectively, before they need it.
• Ensure that hiring and training programs at their location result in retaining the highest quality staff in all positions.
• Create the location's scheduling template by using analytics to maximize the ROI from our staffing expenditures. 
• Thoroughly document all feedback, attendance information, and performance data for each employee.
• Inform and enforce company policies.
• Quickly, consistently, and proactively conduct disciplinary conversations when necessary.
• Conduct JWDs on a regular basis so they become expected and routine. Document these interactions in our payroll software.
• Be skilled at making agreements and following through with action items.
• Be decisive and prompt about terminating employees who consistently underperform. Apply and document discipline and termination uniformly and in alignment with established guidelines stated in the Policy Manual.
• Conduct regular performance and compensation reviews with direct reports, giving prompt, honest, balanced feedback to staff. 
• Responsible for approving/denying/editing time off approvals, time cards, and schedule change requests.
• Manage sales floor changeovers, coordinating with the Buyers and Marketing Team months in advance to ensure a smooth and efficient process.
• Work with the Marketing team to implement marketing plans and initiatives at the location.
• Be skillful in practicing and teaching the 5-step Next Adventure Challenge Resolution process.
• Provide clear work plans for all projects and ensure that they are followed and deadlines are met.
• Have moderate IT skills to help troubleshoot in store issues, and know how/when to contact IT. 
• Lead loss-prevention efforts and maintain a high level of loss-prevention awareness among staff. Be proficient in operating the location’s video surveillance system.
• Participate in HR policy development and documentation for the location.
• Be the first point of contact for security calls for their location.
• Work directly with the Buyers to understand their categories and assortment plans and how that affects sales at the specific location. 
• Identify merchandising needs throughout the location and work with the location’s staff, Buyers, and Marketing Team to create and implement an effective merchandising plans. 
• Identify missing product categories and work with Buyers to stock new options in the location. 
• Facilitate warranty claims properly, while being able to identify unique solutions outside of the manufacturer's warranty.
• Actively participate in ongoing professional development around retail management by studying best practices, reading current publications, and researching industry trends.
• Perform advance POS and WMS functions 
• Buy used gear the Next Adventure way and know how to use the RAPID software.
• Be able to work effectively in the rental department as needed and meet the standards laid out for all entry level Technicians.
• Perform basic Easyrent functions: issuing rental articles, returning rental articles, creating customer profiles, and setting up reservations.

Requirements

Qualifications: 

• Previous experience working in a leadership role at Next Adventure for 2 years or experience managing an outdoor retailer for 3 years.
• Have experience managing 20-30 employees.
• Have received Next Adventure’s used gear buyers training or equivalent.
• Have experience handling warranty claims and customer complaints.
• Ability to work under pressure while meeting tight deadlines. 
• Experience managing, leading and training a team.
• Excellent problem solving skills.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Ability to talk in general about any outdoor gear. 
• Light to moderate lifting, with reasonable accommodation.
• Standing for long periods of time.
• Availability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Key Competencies:

• Leadership- Organizing and influencing people to believe in a vision while creating a sense of purpose and directions.
• Customer Focus- Anticipating, meeting and/or exceeding customer needs, wants and expectations.
• Goal Orientated- Setting, pursuing and attaining goals, regardless of obstacles or circumstances.
• Influencing Others- Personally affecting others actions, decisions, opinions or thinking.
• Futuristic Thinking- Imagining, envisioning, projecting and/or creating what has not yet been actualized.
• Negotiation- Listening to many points of view and facilitating agreements between two or more parties.
• Conceptual Thinking- Analyzing hypothetical situations, patterns and/or abstract concepts to formulate connections and new insights.

Hiring Process at Next Adventure - What to Expect:

• At Next Adventure, our primary objective is to hire the most qualified candidates and ensure their long-term success within our organization. We place great value in our hiring process, and we ask that all applicants submit a cover letter with their resume. We appreciate the time and effort that goes into submitting an application, please be assured that we will respond to all applications within 1-2 weeks, and we will maintain open communication with our applicants throughout the process. 
• We use a generic email account to communicate with applicants, and sometimes our emails may end up in your spam or promotions folder. Please ensure that you check these folders for any correspondence from Next Adventure. To streamline our communication process, we highly recommend opting-in for text messages, as this will allow for quick questions and reminders about interviews. 
• At Next Adventure, we take a personal interest in every applicant, and we read each resume and cover letter carefully. We value creativity, initiative, and a passion for the industry. Our goal is to hire the best candidates and retain them for the long-term, and we believe that this process begins with a strong application and a commitment to kaizen. 

Next Adventure provides the following benefits to full-time (FT) employees:

• Group health, dental, and vision insurance - Aetna & Principal
• Short-term disability
• Voluntary life insurance, and 25,000 basic life insurance
• OregonSaves Retirement plan
• Vacation up to 4 weeks, based on position and years of service. 2 week sabbatical added after 10 years.

Next Adventure provides additional perks to any employee as follows:

• Employee discount: Max 35%
• Free Demos & Rentals 
• Circuit Bouldering Gym Daily Passes
• The Source Climbing Gym Daily Passes
• Membership discounts at Movement and PRG 
• Access to Industry Pro Deals on products, events, lift tickets, and more