Senior Administrator and PA - Institute of Clinical Sciences - 58744 - Band 500

Position Details

Institute of Clinical Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £23,699 to £25,458, with potential progression once in post to £29,471  or As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade XXX, salary XX.

Band 500

Full Time and Permanent

Closing date - 2 November 2021

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

Job context

The post-holder is required to provide extensive and high level administrative organisational and secretarial support covering the full range duties of the Head of School of Nursing and the Professor of Child Protection.  This will involve working largely unsupervised on issues that require the exercise of judgement, initiative and confidentiality, and where it will be essential to be proactive in order to meet the tight deadlines that are a feature of the Institute’s environment.  The role requires excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing to facilitate the appropriate interaction with a wide range of people, many of whom will be operating at a senior level within the College, wider University and the external environment, including the NHS.

The role forms part of the senior administrative support team within the Institute of Clinical Sciences, with responsibility for ensuring appropriate support for all activities required of the Head of School and Professor of Child Protection, and is expected to work collaboratively with other staff across the team and beyond to ensure effective support for core activities. The role will involve liaising with the Head of Operations, Operations Managers, Senior Administrators, College/University Officers and internal and external agencies.  The working relationship between the post-holder and academic staff is of key importance to the success of the School and its efficient operation, at local and national level.

Job summary

As a senior administrator and personal assistant within a team/department you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex.  You may also be responsible for managing other staff or for supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge.  You will use your excellent organisational skills and attention to detail to ensure the people you support are well prepared, and that the tasks you carry out are completed to a high quality in a timely manner. 

Main duties

•    Undertake complex diary management and meeting planning, usually 6-12 months ahead, making decisions on the best use of time.  This will require you to understand the priorities and deadlines you and your manager(s) are working to and will involve developing relationships across the University and beyond. 
•    Proactive inbox management, with confidence to make decisions on behalf of others where appropriate.  
•    Dealing with a wide range of more complex enquiries and correspondence independently, or exercising judgement to redirect them to senior colleagues or other departments within the University.
•    If in a supervisory role, you will line manage all staff and take responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the work of others, normally as the head of a small team or sub-unit of a team.  If not in a supervisory role you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team.
•    Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
•    Proactive preparation and collation of meeting-related papers, working collaboratively to determine what information might be required in advance of a meeting, articulating clear deadlines for submission and proactively chasing where necessary.  This may include attending meetings to provide high-quality committee support, taking minutes and following up as appropriate.
•    Arranging complex UK and overseas travel, including booking flights, hotels, transfers, and organisation and planning of itineraries, ensuring best use of time and taking into account budgetary constraints.
•    Organisation of events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
•    Collate, analyse and interpret data.  This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data.
•    Will manage some smaller projects on own initiative, but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects. 
•    Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
•    Will be responsible for one or more of the following: 

•    monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget, 

•    procuring goods and services through the University system, 

•    updating and writing contents for the department’s communications eg intranet pages,

•    dealing with health and safety and facilities issues, 

•    HR-related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers

•    dealing with arrangements for international visitors

•    monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.

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

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, 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 level 2 qualification.
•    Previous administrative or PA experience.
•    Highly proficient IT skills, in particular the ability to handle complex electronic diaries and emails, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including excel and powerpoint, and some experience of using an enterprise resource planning package. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
•    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. 
•    Excellent interpersonal skills. The postholder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.
•    A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues. 
•    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.
•    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.

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.