Senior Business Support Officer

Working at the centre of King’s Foundations, the Business Support Team delivers a human-centred service, continuously ensuring that the team is well organised, effective and efficient.  

The Senior Business Support Officer works as part of a team to ensure consistent support and delivery of departmental operations by providing high quality and effective administrative support, in accordance with university and Centre priorities, timelines and policies. The role holder will be responsible for day-to-day operation of King’s Foundations, supervising the Business Support Officer and will role-model a culture of professionalism with a focus on providing responsive and timely customer service.   

The post will have an HR focus, supporting and coordinating recruitment across the department. These responsibilities encompass a range of activities across the staff life cycle, such as co-ordinating recruitment activity, supporting staff members with onboarding processes, managing administrative processes around professional development and leavers. 

The role encompasses the following areas: 

• Human resources support, including, staff recruitment , staff induction, changes to working patterns, departmental professional development 
• pay/expense claims 
• Departmental business support, including data reporting and analysis, purchasing and invoicing processing, IT/Estates for space management and Health & Safety 
• Event management: internal and external events and conferences  
• Communications, including managing the team inbox and responding to staff queries, sharing departmental news and events, active use of MS Teams for staff updates 
• Executive support, including diary management and project officer support for senior leadership team 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

This is a full-time post - 100% full time equivalent

General

• Act as a key point of contact for King’s Foundations Staff providing a friendly, efficient and professional service, including reception cover.
• Ensure all users are aware of, and abide by, appropriate College and Faculty policies including use of IT, copyright compliance, equal opportunity regulation, health and safety and fire evacuation regulations and local or department guidelines and procedures relating to acceptable use of the Centre’s facilities 
• Ensure that staff and visitors, have appropriate space and equipment, liaising with Estates and Facilities and IT as appropriate.
• Act as a Health and Safety Officer.
• Create and maintain Business Support reports and supervise data collection and analysis, including data on equality, diversity & inclusion, finance and workload modelling.
• Deputise for the Deputy Business Support Manager when required.
• Embrace the core values and responsibilities of the Business Support team to provide a service that is not only proactive but also personable and accessible.

Departmental business support

• Ensure smooth running of day-to-day departmental operations including responding to staff queries and room booking for departmental business  
• Undertake purchasing and procurement for the department in compliance with College policies, advising and reporting to senior colleagues, ensuring accuracy of budget code utilisation, identifying efficiencies and monitoring expenditure against planned activity.  
• Act as a local expert to service users on financial processes 
• To support the Deputy Business Support Manager to embed and promote updated college, EDI and Sustainability protocols and guidance in King’s Foundations Business Support processes. 
• Deliver efficient servicing of meetings, including note-taking or formal minuting and supporting Chairs with follow up activity.
• Provide administrative support for the King’s Foundations Senior Leadership Team including diary management and administrative officer support,  [A1] supporting Committee Chairs with actions 
• Maintain records and audits of IT/AV equipment, all learning resources and departmental inventory 
• Resolve issues with departmental resources by working closely with colleagues throughout the College such as IT or AV services, Facilities and Estates, HR, Finance and other academic departments 
• Work with the Business Support Officer to organise department events such as staff socials and Away days, including ground support on event days
• Act as primary administrative support for health and safety compliance, including acting as a display screen equipment (DSE) assessor

Staff Communications

• Deliver King’s Foundations all-staff communications and information areas, following the departmental comms plan with attention to accuracy, timeliness and tone
• Manage the team mailbox, triaging and responding to staff queries in a timely and professional manner
• Maintain and communicate information about the department on the notice boards, within staff handbooks, on departmental web pages, intranet, MS Teams and through staff newsletters 
• Set up, develop and maintain communication tools such as mailing lists and shared inboxes

Human Resources

• Lead on delivery of all recruitment activity in the department, including acting as primary liaison for chairs and interview panels, co-ordinating recruitment campaigns and all associated administrative procedures
• Lead on new starter induction for teaching and professional services staff, including GTAs, acting as a point of reference for queries and advising them on the College procedures and referring them to appropriate College services and contacts (e.g. Security, HR, IT) 
• Provide administrative support for various HR processes, such as probation, appraisals, promotion, working patterns, recognition pay, CPD, AEP applications 
• Develop and maintain electronic and manual filing systems in accordance with GDPR 
• Process pay and expense claim forms and manage local staff records

Communication and networking

• Develop excellent working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders 
• Participate in departmental, Centre, campus and college-wide fora and networks as appropriate, covering for colleagues as required
• Participate in Business Support Network meetings and business process review projects and share best practice and knowledge with other Business Support Teams across CIEL
• Communicate effectively following King’s Communications Guidance ensuring inclusive and accessibility styles are adopted.
• Regularly communicate with Business Support team, the King’s Foundations Executive team, all King’s Foundations staff, CIEL colleagues and other teams across King’s College as required.

Teamwork

• Contribute to the overall professional services team, to planning and delivering professional support to staff
• Provide training to support teaching and professional services staff in the use of College systems, providing written guidance notes or manuals
• Uphold and monitor the quality of service to staff, assisting the Deputy Business Support Manager, Business Support Manager and Head of Operations with performance management 
• Assist with any other duties as may be required from time to time, including providing cover for colleagues, both within KF and across the Centre and College

Other

• Undertake any other duties that might reasonably be required
• Contribute to ongoing projects related to all systems used within King’s Foundations, acting as the point of contact and technical lead where applicable.  
• Collect, interpret and analyse sets of data to inform decision making 

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Essential criteria

1.      Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills, able to interact with a wide variety of people in a professional and assured manner 

2.      Confident and competent IT skills, including the use of electronic resources, MS Office applications and databases 

3.      Excellent communication skills and attention to detail, including appropriate use of English in formal documents, professional emails and writing for the web 

4.      Competent in managing complex data and generating user friendly reports 

5.      Experience of office administration, Committee servicing, finance and HR processes. 

6.      Demonstrable ability to work independently and pro-actively, multi-task and to balance competing priorities in a busy, pressured work environment  

7.      Demonstrable ability to review processes and procedures, propose improvements and manage the implementation of changes  

8.      Demonstrable experience of effective and efficient business support administration, preferably in an academic environment  

9.      Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion 

Desirable criteria

1.      Demonstrable experience of training and/or supervising staff and/or students 

2.      Understanding of the Higher Education sector  

About King’s Centre for International Education and Languages  

 King’s Centre for International Education and Languages a new, cross-cutting Centre designed to widen the educational reach of King’s. It brings together three existing areas: King’s Foundations, Summer Programmes, and King’s Language Centre. This brings together international pathway provision, pre sessional programmes, pre-UG summer courses, UG summer modules, UG language modules, bespoke language programmes for the community and our partners and academic skills provision for all King’s students.  

Each of these areas are well established, respected and recognised within and beyond the King’s community. The Centre is focused on enabling collaboration between the three departments to further advance our work in promoting educational excellence and supporting and enhancing the student experience. The Centre has significant expertise in International Education and makes a significant contribution to the rich and diverse make-up of the King’s student body.

**About King’s Foundations **

King’s Foundations is a leading centre for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and pathway education across the HE sector, accredited by the British Council. As one of the largest providers of pathway education, we welcome over 2,500 students each year across our King’s International Foundation Programmes and our range of Pre-sessional Programmes, with programmes offered online, on campus and in a blended way. We also offer a range of short courses with partners and support all King’s students through contributing to a range of co-curricular academic skills and language development courses.  

Our mission is to support a diverse group of learners to achieve their potential at King’s, supporting students to become independent and inquisitive learners. King’s Foundations is home to approximately 80 permanent staff, growing to around 150 during our busy summer months.  We champion a forward-thinking approach to education and take a digitally-enabled approach across all aspects of education. Over the last 6 years, the department has seen significant planned growth in support of King’s Vision 2029, with annual income of over £20m.