Operation Manager Jobs in Appleton, WI (NOW HIRING)

This position is open to remote work in the following approved states: WI, AL, AZ, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NC, ND, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV

As one of Wisconsin’s largest travel companies, Fox World Travel has excellent benefits and perks for all Fox associates including but not limited to: competitive wages, flexible time off (vacation, sick, personal), FAM Adventure Bucks to help you explore the world, remote/hybrid work, a full benefit package including medical, dental, vision, long-term disability, company-sponsored life insurance and short-term disability, tuition reimbursement, 401(k) contributions and a fully engaged leadership team dedicated to treating associates as part of the Fox Family!

Core Values

At Fox World Travel, we operate as one Fox with a find a way mentality, embracing our integrity and passion. We take pride in leading with our people-first culture, by providing genuine care and concern for our associates, which in turn leads to authentic and superior customer experiences. We've been able to create a culture where our associates can grow, learn, and succeed, and, in turn, exhibit the value we bring to every interaction and partnership.

Summary

Provide positive, supportive front-line leadership for assigned onsite and rent-a-plate client operations, ensuring exceptional service delivery, associate support, and day-to-day operational management. This role drives service performance, SLA adherence, business continuity, process improvement, and client satisfaction while partnering with internal teams and client stakeholders to resolve issues and strengthen operational consistency.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as management may deem necessary from time to time.

A day in the life of an On-site Business Travel Operations Manager at Fox may include:

• Meeting and exceeding customer expectations by managing customer service to agreed upon levels related to telephone, quality, and productivity and by providing value added solutions and recommendations.
• Ensuring that members of the team are provided with a platform to achieve their goals, whether developmental or role critical, by ensuring you provide ongoing honest feedback both positive and improvement related.
• Driving continuous process improvements by identifying opportunities to increase productivity, improve efficiency, strengthen standards, and enhance service delivery across the team and department.
• Ensuring that internal expertise is utilized in your team (‘knowledge management’) with a focus on peer to peer, rather than always top-down coaching, to best support team development.
• Maintaining a high level of availability and responsiveness to staff needs. Providing the primary leadership role for any support needed for phones, system connectivity, and other related issues/concerns.
• Maintaining an optimum staffing schedule and monitoring shifts to always ensure proper staffing coverage.
• Developing new and existing associates through ongoing training, support, constructive feedback, monthly one-on-one meetings, and annual performance reviews to help associates achieve professional and role-critical goals.
• Participating in new hire interviews, making recommendations for qualified candidates, executing disciplinary action up to and including termination, while maintaining a work environment that promotes positive team reinforcement/reward and recognition.
• Ensuring proper human resources and company processes and policies are followed.
• Providing internal communication with staff regarding vendor and Fox related issues including participation in monthly manager meetings, and monthly branch staff meetings.
• Updating knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks.
• Positively supporting and using new technology that has been rolled out to associates and continuing to use these processes to provide support to team members.
• Coordinating and participating in recurring customer reviews, presenting program updates, service trends, operational performance metrics, quality monitoring results, debit memo trend analysis, airline rewards audits, open issues, action plans, and process improvement recommendations to drive service excellence and operational efficiency.
• Monitoring account health and proactively addressing escalations, client requests, and any other operational needs internally and externally.
• Conducting research, troubleshooting, testing, and rule-request support related to client, account, agent, and operational needs.
• Opening, monitoring, and managing support tickets across operational and technical teams to ensure timely follow-up and resolution within service expectations.
• Maintaining process documentation, standard operating procedures, account specific references and operational readiness materials to support consistency across onsite and rent-a-plate accounts.
• Reviewing service metrics, internal support requests, customer feedback, and issuing trends to maintain visibility to open items, response timeliness, root causes, and corrective actions.
• Building and maintaining strong partnerships across Business Travel Operations, Support Services, Technology, Account Management, Leadership, and cross-functional teams to drive strategic operational results, enhance the customer experience, promote best practices, and cultivate a culture of engagement and continuous improvement.
• Maintaining a favorable and collaborative working relationship with team members in all departments to foster an environment of trust and mutual respect. Driving standards and best practices whenever possible and effectively fostering a culture of engagement.
• Enhancing the organization’s reputation by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and different requests; exploring opportunities to add value to job accomplishments.
• Being innovative and recommending new approaches, policies, and procedures to effect continual improvements in efficiency of operations and services performed.
• Other duties, projects and alternate assignments as determined by business need.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Competencies

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Knowledge, Skills and/or Abilities

This opportunity might be for you if you have:

• Some post-secondary education in Business Administration, Management or related field (preferred).
• At least 5 years progressive corporate travel experience, with proven ability to lead and coach successfully; prior managerial experience of at least 2 years.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities while demonstrating ability to remain flexible in a changing work environment.
• Proficiency in Travelport+ and Sabre GDS.
• Strong knowledge and demonstrated proficiency of all Microsoft Office applications.
• Proficient experience in all facets of business travel centers to include support functions and domestic and international reservations; thorough understanding of front, mid and back office functions.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment.
• Ability to gather and analyze statistical data, generate reports, and to plan, coordinate and administer complex administrative systems and processes.
• Ability to work flexible hours.
• Experience with operational support tools and workflows such as Zendesk, Smartsheet, Five9.
• Knowledge of airline contracts, fare filing, airline rewards, debit memo process and related service -impacting operational trends preferred.
• Ability to travel up to 30% of the time.
• Ability to communicate with confidence and create a credible impression.
• Effective listening skills with ability to determine root cause quickly, check for shared understanding and address misunderstandings promptly.
• Ability to develop strong trusting relationships to gain support and achieve results.
• Self-motivation; demonstrate initiative with a strong commitment to personal goals, objectives and work ethic.

Key Competencies

You’ll love this job if you have:

• Personal effectiveness/credibility.
• Organizational and planning skills.
• Strong conflict management skills.
• Customer-focused and service-oriented mindset.
• Communication proficiency – verbal and written; appropriate use of grammar.
• Information gathering and monitoring skills.
• Problem analysis and problem-solving skills.
• Highly adaptive, change management and coaching skills.
• Sound judgment and decision-making ability.
• Attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to comfortably deal with highly complex situations.
• Flexibility; ability to work efficiently and effectively with frequent interruptions

Regular business travel with overnight stays may be required for the following (but not limited to): training events, meetings, and/or visiting clients and Fox World Travel locations.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Note: The phrases “occasionally,” “regularly,” and “frequently” correspond to the following definitions: “Occasionally” means up to 1/3 of working time, “regularly” means between 1/3 and 2/3 of working time, and “frequently” means 2/3 and more working time.

While performing the duties and responsibilities of this position, the associate is regularly required to stand, walk, sit, climb, reach above shoulders, and move from place to place. The incumbent is frequently required to talk and listen and use hands to finger manipulate or handle. Specific vision requirements for this position include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

The incumbent may occasionally be required to lift up to 50 pounds.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an incumbent encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

For On-site and Hybrid Associates: Regular attendance is necessary to successfully perform this job; extended hours may be necessary from time to time. The incumbent works in an office environment where the noise level is low to moderate. This role routinely uses standard office equipment including but not limited to computers, a headset, a mouse, a keyboard, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.

For Work-At-Home Associates: Regular attendance is necessary to successfully perform this job;

extended hours may be necessary from time to time. This role routinely uses standard office equipment including but not limited to computers, a headset, a mouse, and a keyboard.

We acknowledge that attracting and retaining the best talent is key to our strategy and success as a company. As a result, we strive to structure competitive compensation offers to ensure we are able to attract the best candidates. The estimated base pay range for this position starts between $59,000 and $80,000 annually, less applicable withholdings and deductions, and is paid on a bi-weekly basis. The salary range provided represents our good faith estimate as to what our ideal candidates are likely to expect. We structure our offers within the range based on location, experience, education, industry knowledge, technical and communication skills, market conditions, and other factors that may prove relevant during the interview process.

Eligible positions may receive additional incentive or commission, as outlined in applicable program details.

Each benefit is subject to eligibility requirements as specified in plan documents, and Fox World Travel reserves the right to modify the benefits it offers.

If you share in our passion for teamwork, our vision to have culture, engagement, and innovation at the heart of all our initiatives, we want you to come soar with Fox World Travel! If you fit the description AND meet the qualifications, please don’t hesitate to apply online at www.foxworldtravel.com/careers.

Fox World Travel, the best place to work, grow & succeed! Join The Fox Family today!

Fox World Travel is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all associates to work.

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The above statements reflect the general details necessary to describe the principal functions of the occupation described and shall not be construed as a detailed description of all the work requirements that may be inherent in the occupation.