Are you the next Cuvva Squad Captain?

Line management can be a tough role to break into, especially if you have little to no experience.

Here at Cuvva, we recognised that the experience and skills gap between entry level team members and line managers can be substantial.

To solve this, we created an exciting new role called the 'Squad Captain' to help people upskill and get valuable experience too. 🎉

If you're looking to break into line management, this Squad Captain role could help you get started in your career.

Find out what you'll be doing day-to-day and you could be our next Squad Captain! ⭐

What is a Squad Captain?

A Squad Captain's main focus will be the wellbeing and development of their team. 🌱 You'll work alongside our 'Team Leads' who are fully-fledged line managers that primarily focus on strategy. The idea is for Squad Captains to eventually develop into these leaders, learning the required skills along the way.

The Squad Captain role allows you to train and develop into a line manager in real time. So, there's no expectation for you to have been a manager previously. All you'll need to do is demonstrate certain leadership skills. This includes (but isn't limited to):

• Motivating a team
• Mentoring and coaching
• Project management
• Having a scaling mindset

What Makes Our Customer Operations Team Unique?

We offer a 1 minute response time to all of our customers, 9am to 9pm, 365 days a year. This means that we deliver great customer service all year round including; bank holidays such as Christmas and New Years' Day. 📆

Our Customer Operations team (COps for short) is a friendly bunch of down to earth people who love problem solving. Whenever we ask the team what they like most about the role, we always get the same response - team culture.

We've spent years building a supportive and transparent team environment that encourages creativity. We're continually learning and adapting to create the best team dynamic and work environment.

Currently, the COps team mostly works from home due to lockdown. We already had flexible working in place before the pandemic which made the transition really smooth. Previously, on Wednesdays, the COps team worked from home. You could also work remotely if your shift wasn't during normal office hours.

Cuvva has also introduced a working from home allowance to help pay for equipment such as desks, chairs and anything else we might need. We use lots of tools like Slack, Lattice and Bamboo which have also helped us stay connected and motivated.

We also moved out monthly team socials online including wine tasting, prize-filled quizzes, bingo and lots more. 🥳

Overall, it's been a massive success for us and we'll be continuing to work remotely, with the potential for returning to office work when restrictions ease.

What does a day in the life of a Squad Captain look like?

As a Squad Captain, you'll be given a lot of autonomy and independence from day one. How you decide to manage your time and check-in with your team members is down to you.🕓

If you've got brand new team members, you'll be an important part of their first few weeks at Cuvva, helping them to settle into the role. With more experienced team members, you could be managing a project they're working on or helping them along their chosen progression path.

The most important thing to consider is the wellbeing of your team. Customer operations can be a stressful place to work, particularly when we're busy, so making sure you check in with your team regularly is essential.

You'll also be working towards COps and company-wide goals which include things like reviewing the structure and efficiency of our processes, or meeting with other line managers to tackle any pressing issues within the team. Our goals change once a quarter and we encourage our whole team to have a say on what they should be.

Flexibility is key as you might find yourself in new and challenging situations. You could be tasked with scheduling the COps team for their 9am to 9pm rota, or looking forward to the next generation of new hires through interviews and CV screenings. Sometimes you'll also have to jump on live support and help respond to customers, or direct the team to sources of knowledge. 💻

You'll be given top class training for anything you haven't experienced before, all you need is an open mind and a willingness to learn.💡

Once you're feeling comfortable with your support skills, you might find yourself working as an SOS (Support on Shift). An SOS is the go-to person for when the team can't find the answer, a leader in challenging situations (such as system outages) and again someone who will monitor the wellbeing of the COps team.

It's a varied and exciting role that you'll be able to make your own.🌟

What's the biggest challenge Squad Captains face?

Line management is a big part of the Squad Captain role, which can be challenging if you have little or no experience. We provide detailed training to prepare you as much as possible, but every team is unique and you'll have to find the best way of managing and supporting everyone.

Personally, I found the transition from a COp team member to Squad Captain difficult because I didn't really know how to manage my time. ⏰ When I was working on live support, my entire focus was on responding to customers for the duration of my shift. I had opportunities to work on other projects too, but my time was organised for me.

Once I was promoted to Squad Captain, I suddenly had a team to manage and almost complete autonomy on my working hours and calendar. I went through periods of having lots of work to do and some days where I felt like I had nothing to do.

A top tip from me would be to write up every responsibility you have from day one and work out ways in which you can spread this evenly across your entire week. This allowed me more flexibility for when I've got extra work to do but also filled out some of the calmer moments of my working week.📝

What's the best piece of advice you could offer to someone interested in the role?

Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. We have a great team of line managers, all with their own personalities, experience levels and opinions. This means you've got a lot of opportunities to receive feedback on how to handle certain situations and plenty of people to lean on when you're struggling.

This collaborative environment is really valuable to build confidence and develop the skills you need to thrive in the role. I found it useful to plan out the action I was going to take and run it past another manager to see how they'd handle the same situation.

Most of the time you'll find you're on the right track, but it's always great to see how someone else would handle it. By doing this you're opening yourself up to different ways of thinking and working.🌟