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Position Details

External Relations

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £25,506 to £27,399, with potential progression once in post to £31,718

Band 500

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 6th August 2023

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The University of Birmingham is one of the UK’s largest providers of distance learning and, as part of our Birmingham 2030 strategy, we are aiming to significantly increase our online portfolio. In line with this aim, the University Executive Board has recently approved the creation of University of Birmingham Online (UoB Online).

UoB Online will be a new operating unit within the University, comprised of both academic and professional services staff, charged with delivering our growth ambitions. It will be focused on designing, delivering, and supporting high quality distance-learning programmes. It will develop and embed a new operating model, working collaboratively across the University and with external partners.

Role Summary

The UoB Online Administrative Officer will be an integral role to the start-up and running of the newly established unit, as such, they will be comfortable with flexibility in their role, enjoy the opportunity to innovate and be adaptable to change.

The post holder will be the first point of contact for the UoB Online Leadership Team; the Academic Dean and Associate Director. They will be expected to deliver exceptional levels of customer service at all times and at the highest level. Reporting to the UoB Online Operations Manager, the role is critical to the smooth running of the team and will cover significant areas of activity (e.g. meetings, financial monitoring, health and safety, supporting HR and recruitment, data management and departmental events). The post holder will also provide high level PA support to the UoB Online Leadership team and will have a good understanding of the University’s policies and procedures and work with a high level of discretion.

Main Duties

Personal Assistant Duties:

• Management of the Leadership Team’s diaries.
• Fielding incoming requests to the Leadership Team and identifying urgent matters that require immediate attention, ensuring that they are dealt with, often without reference to the Team.
• Management of the Leadership Team’s inbox.
• To be the main point of contact for the Leadership Team for both internal and external contacts.
• Organisation of internal and external meetings, including meeting and greeting high profile visitors and booking catering and AV equipment.
• Collation and monitoring of monthly management reports (e.g. finance, HR, strategic projects).
• Booking and organisation of travel for the UoB Online team members, ensuring that transport and meetings are booked and ordering currency.
• Management of incoming/outgoing correspondence to ensure that the information meets the needs of the recipients. This may include letters, briefing reports and any other communications, maintaining the appropriate tone and style.
• Providing minute taking support for committees and meetings as required.

Financial Administration Duties:

• Administration of key budgets across the team including requisitioning and budget monitoring.
• Acting as first point of contact for finance across the team and co-ordinating financial reporting with the External Relations Business team.
• Supporting the Leadership Team and Managers with budget setting, tracking previous annual spend, co-ordinating new budget bids and end-of-year procedures.
• Supporting training and guidance to budget holders and budget administrators on financial procedures.
• Facilitating the process for distribution of funding for Schools and Colleges to develop programmes for UoB Online, liaising with relevant contacts, ensuring accurate record-keeping and arranging journal transfers when needed.
• Working closely with the External Relations Business Team/Operations Network to ensure ER procedures are followed and deadlines are met.

Office Management Duties:

• Working with the UoB Online Operations Manager (and the ER Operations Network), to review the administrative systems used to support the wider team, recommending and implementing improvement, identifying problems and providing solutions.
• Co-ordination of HR processes across the team including, but not limited to, PDRs and the induction process.
• Supporting the administration of the recruitment process including co-ordinating interview panels, collating information packs for panel members, assisting with tests and providing logistical support to the preparation for the arrival of new staff.
• Collection and distribution of post.
• Representing the team at the External Relations Operations Group and sharing relevant guidance to the team.
• Under the guidance of the Operations Manager, being an information champion for data management and information security including GDPR adherence, interpreting and explaining these as required.
• Responsible for being the core systems (HR and Finance) super user; advising on processes and providing training to staff as required.
• To act as Health & Safety Co-ordinator (including Fire Warden duties), representing the team at the External Relations Health & Safety Committee.
• Providing guidance on Display Screen Equipment (DSE) checks for colleagues across ER and liaising with Heads of Team and Occupational Health when required.
• Responsible for co-ordinating telecoms and IT requirements across the team and ensuring any IT issues are resolved quickly.
• Disseminate information issued by the UoB Online, and wider External Relations, Leadership Teams as appropriate.
• Planning and organising team Away Days and team meetings. To include booking rooms for the wider team across campus and externally, organising and booking refreshments/catering as required.

Other duties:

• Other duties commensurate with the grade as may be requested from time to time by the UoB Online Operations Manager or Leadership Team including providing cover for other members of the team as necessary.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including tact, diplomacy and confidentiality and the ability to establish effective working relationships at all levels.
• Ability to respond positively to change and able to react with flexibility and agility in a fast-paced change environment.
• Strong financial awareness and numeracy with demonstrable evidence of budgetary and financial administration.
• Proven ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own (and sometimes others’ workloads) to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines. Experience of minute writing and good proof-reading skills is desirable.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
• Experience of providing diary management support to senior management is desirable.
• Highly proficient IT skills, in particular, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including Excel and PowerPoint. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.

Dimensions

• Staffing: the post-holder will be responsible for supporting the Leadership Team on recruitment, induction and continuing professional development of staff within the team as required.
• Financial: the post holder will have administrative budget responsibility.
• Customer: the post-holder will engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and partners, including some senior individuals including all of UEB and Senior Officers.

Planning and Organising

The role is required to work independently on daily, weekly, and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium-longer-term horizons without daily supervision.

• They will have the ability to plan ahead and have excellent organisational skills in order for the office to run smoothly.
• The post-holder will be able to demonstrate a high level of accuracy and attention to detail in all aspects of their work and deliver on time.

Problem Solving and decision making

• The post-holder will have a flexible approach to work, with the ability to multi-task to meet changing priorities. They will work with direction from management but with a significant degree of autonomy. They will deal with more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in their area of responsibility.

Internal and External relationships

• The post-holder will report to the UoB Online Operations Manager.
• The post-holder will work closely with colleagues across External Relations including the Directors, and External Relations Business Team in a way that is consistent with the External Relations values and behaviours. They will also need to build relationships with colleagues within their team as well as in other Professional Services functions across the University.
• The post-holder will engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and partners, including some senior individuals including all of UEB and Senior Officers.
  

Informal enquires to Kabir Ganguly, email: [email protected]

View our staff values and behaviours here

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working .