Shelter Manager

Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

Job Description

PAWS’ Shelter Manager is a highly motivated, process and procedure-oriented manager committed to the mission, values, goals, and success of PAWS. The Shelter Manager oversees the daily operations of the Grays Ferry Avenue shelter’s animal care, on-site volunteers, and facilities, and sets and models high standards. This role requires strong leadership skills, a passion for animal welfare, an ability to interact empathetically and cooperatively with staff, volunteers and members of the public, and the ability to handle multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.

General Duties
-Foster and model a positive, team-oriented work environment for staff and volunteers, including providing hands-on support and training opportunities for animal handling and enrichment.
-Oversee the wellbeing of animals on-site by integrating cleaning, animal handling, and enrichment best practices and protocols to ensure animals are receiving the highest quality care from staff and volunteers, including the idea that we treat each animal as an individual and tailor their care as such.
-Work collaboratively with the veterinary and lifesaving leadership teams to implement nationally recognized animal sheltering, animal handling, and lifesaving best practices.
-Partner with the Dog Program Manager and Cat Resource Manager to grow and implement in-kennel enrichment programming for staff and volunteers.
-Communicate PAWS policy changes, values and vision related to animal care and facilities to staff and volunteers.
-Work directly with animals, including but not limited to: taking dogs out for walks; providing socialization and enrichment; restraining animals for medical care; transporting animals; cohabitating with “office animals”.
-Provide leadership and support for customer service issues needing manager intervention. This includes listening, empathizing, and providing effective responses and remedies to customers’ questions and needs and communicating in a patient, courteous, and respectful manner at all times, even in stressful situations.
-As part of the management team, explore, implement, and utilize software and systems to increase automation and efficiency in the management of volunteer and animal data and communication across teams.

Management of Animal Care Team
-Directly supervise and schedule animal care staff to ensure individual duties are being completed and the department has sufficient daily coverage.
-Interview, hire, and train new animal care department staff and interns, with the goal of maintaining a high standard of employee performance.
-Coach, evaluate, and discipline animal care staff with support from the Director of Operations.
-Hold regular team meetings and schedule “continuing education” opportunities for animal care staff.
-Schedule animal care duties, including weekly, monthly and quarterly deep clean and preventative maintenance assignments, and delegate select administrative duties, as needed.
-Perform daily walk through of animal housing areas to ensure on-site animals are receiving individualized housing/location, enrichment, or other interventions for optimal quality of life.
-Create processes for ensuring information about on-site animals are communicated across teams and recorded in the appropriate databases.
-Create, edit, and/or update all animal care, cleaning, animal handling, and enrichment materials as needed (policies and procedures, applications, contracts, handouts, etc).
-Proactively communicate planned intakes with special housing/handling needs to appropriate staff.
-Perform data entry tasks to maintain accurate records of animals in the shelter.

Oversight of Shelter Facilities
-In partnership with the Director of Operations, ensure the Grays Ferry facility is kept clean, sanitary, and organized in order to create an inviting, attractive, and professional environment for visitors, staff, and volunteers.
-Ensure adequate stock of animal care, housekeeping, enrichment, and facility supplies.
-Refine inventory and ordering processes for animal care (including prescription food), housekeeping, and enrichment supplies.
-Serve as primary contact for staff and volunteers with facility concerns and questions.
-Serve as primary contact for contractors/vendors providing scheduled maintenance and visits for time-sensitive/emergency repairs.

Management of In-Shelter Volunteers
-Directly supervise in-shelter volunteers, ensuring essential shifts are covered, volunteers are appropriately scheduled and trained, and volunteers have support for questions and concerns.
-Lead virtual and in-person new volunteer orientation for the Grays Ferry shelter location, including coordinating orientation (sending confirmations, taking attendance) and providing post-orientation follow-up communication to ensure conversion to volunteer shifts.
-Perform shelter volunteer administration and tracking, including: volunteer account set up; adding volunteers to applicable spreadsheets, calendars, and databases; coordinating shadow/mentor shifts; sending regular team emails; regularly auditing the volunteer schedule to recruit coverage for open shifts;
auditing data to identify and address issues with conversion and retention.
Respond to phone and email inquiries from prospective Grays Ferry shelter volunteers.
-Serve as one of the primary contacts for volunteers participating in “day trips” with shelter dogs.
-Develop new processes for engaging cat volunteers in the collection of photos, personality, and behavior information for on-site cats.
-Develop and build teams of specialized volunteers to assist with specific shelter populations.
-Serve as primary contact for group volunteer opportunities at the Grays Ferry location.
-Support general volunteer program needs when the Community Outreach & Volunteer Manager is away.
-In partnership with other shelter leadership, coordinate volunteer transport for animals between locations.
-Develop continuing education and other opportunities to engage, empower, and build the knowledge and skill sets of shelter volunteers.

Required Skills and Qualities:
-At least one year of experience in staff or volunteer management.
-At least two years of experience working in an animal shelter or rescue.
-Working knowledge of basic animal health and behavior and experience handling cats and dogs of various sizes and temperaments.
-Ability to read, write, and understand English (other language proficiency a plus).
-Strong sense of initiative, identifying tasks that need to be accomplished and prioritizing appropriately, working independently with minimal supervision and direction.
-Computer proficient in Microsoft office and Google/G-Suite products, and proficiency or comfort with learning the internet-based software used by the organization (ShelterLuv, Airtable, Volgistics).
-Excellent customer service skills.
-Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
-Flexibility, maturity, and ability to manage multiple tasks and accommodate varied work assignments and schedules.
-Ability to communicate effectively with a culturally diverse staff, volunteers, and community in a professional, pleasant, respectful, courteous, and tactful manner at all times.
-The ability to remain pleasant and calm even in stressful situations, and to turn people down, firmly when necessary, without becoming aggressive or unpleasant.

Educational Requirements:
-High school diploma or equivalent required, BA/BS preferred.

Physical Requirements:
-Ability to walk and/or stand on your feet throughout a normal workday and tolerate loud noises.
-Ability to lift and move objects and animals weighing up to 50 pounds for short distances and to humanely restrain an animal when necessary.
-Allergic conditions that would be aggravated when handling animals may be a disqualification.

Hours/Location:
This is an exempt position. PAWS is open seven days a week. A minimum of 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week, is required, with at least one weekend day worked. This position is based out of our Grays Ferry location. Daily schedule may vary according to the needs of the organization and may include weekend, night, and holiday work.

This is a full time job