Personal Assistant (PA) and Research Administrator - College of Arts and Law - 51491 - Band 400

Position Details

College of Arts and Law

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £20,488 to £21,868, with potential progression once in post to £26,603, pro rata.

Band - 400

Part Time, Fixed Term Contract up to 31.12.2022. 18.75 hours per week.

Closing date: 24th November 2021

Interview date: 3rd December 2021

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 College of Arts and Law has a long tradition of producing cutting-edge research that has real-world impact and informs the challenging and exciting learning environment our students experience.  The College is now recruiting for a PA and Research Administrator, as part of a package of roles to ensure our resilient support over the coming year.

This is an exciting opportunity for an organised individual with an aptitude for administration to develop their career, within a busy and varied role.  A good standard of literacy and numeracy is required, along with knowledge of standard Microsoft Office software.

Job Summary

You will provide an effective PA and Administrative support service to a senior manager within an area of the University.  In order to flexibly use resource you may be given the opportunity to work in different areas of the department or wider University.

Main Duties

• You will undertake diary management and meeting planning, making best use of the manager’s time.

• Support meetings by providing all administrative activities such as taking minutes and following up on actions, chasing up on actions to ensure they are delivered, and flagging up to your manager where there are issues.

• Provide administrative and project support for the senior manager, which will typically include gathering information and updates on projects, and liaising with others extensively to ensure progress.

• Undertake analytical and research activities to inform and aid decision making.

• Support the administration of managerial duties, including recording staff absences, preparing induction packs and organising onboarding, and overseeing the leavers process.

• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.

• Administer and oversee certain budgets, including processing payments, authorising expenditure, preparing and circulating returns and creating accurate financial statements as required.

• Supports equality and values diversity, moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Some professional experience in a similar role. Awareness of the Arts and Law research environment will be helpful, but is not essential.

• A good standard of literacy and numeracy as may be evidenced by GCSE Maths and English grade C minimum .or equivalent level 2 qualification. 

• Experience in undertaking PA duties in a similar role to a senior member of staff.

• Good IT skills with working knowledge of standard Microsoft Office software.

• Ability to take responsibility for specific tasks, carrying out duties without needing to refer to others, with scope for some choice and using your own judgment.

• Ability to work on your own initiative.

• Ability to proactively contribute to improving processes and for proposing new ways of working.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively with others.

• Well organised with the ability to prioritise work proactively, independently and as part of a team.

• A good understanding of how to deliver excellent customer service.

• Experience of using and maintaining complex work systems, and an aptitude for learning new IT packages and systems.

• Experience of supporting committees in a secretarial capacity.

• The ability to cope with change in a fast moving, dynamic environment where change is often required immediately.

• An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.

• The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures and how to respond to issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Informal enquiries to Anna Griffiths via email [email protected].

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.