PROFESSIONAL Grade 3
Knowledge, Skills, Experience
(work experience, qualifications, specialist training, key skills, disposition)
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RSA Typing Stage 2 or equivalent
Speedwriting or shorthand
Experience in secretarial or PA role
Experience or ordering, financial record keeping
Experience of databases
Experience of committee work
Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
Exercise judgement in decision-making
Ability to prioritise a varied workload and meet deadlines
Excellent (proven) written and verbal skills, attention to detail
Good organisational skills
Ability to manage correspondence and deal with complex travel
arrangements
Good interpersonal skills for interacting with diverse range of contacts from
multi-disciplinary backgrounds
Advanced IT skills, including spreadsheets, email, word processing and
databases (Microsoft Office)
Minute taking
Audio Typing
Experience as medical secretary, finance administrator or clinical research
assistant in academic or industry setting
Understand how a research team works
Excellent IT skills
Good report writing skills
Effective project management skills
Ability to prioritise workload and plan ahead
Budgetary management experience
Friendly, positive disposition
Able to work unsupervised and exercise initiative
Ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team
Flexible and co-operative
Able to deal with people on the telephone
Comprehensive secretarial/administrative experience
Accounts experience, including ordering, invoice payment and financial
record keeping
Experience of managing an office and supervising support staff
Experience of working in higher education or the NHS
Experience of committee work
Knowledge in use of Microsoft Office suite, especially Word and Excel
Knowledge of spreadsheets and databases
Familiarity with communication via email and use of the internet (eg,
database searches for information eg, Ovid and Medline)
Highly computer literate
Attention to detail
Ability to work unsupervised, to prioritise a varied workload, and to work
under pressure to meet deadlines
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Good organisational skills
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Basic understanding of HEFCE funding methodology, together with some
appreciation of the day to day and strategic issues involved in a HE
institution and how statistical reporting and operational data can support
this. Web languages such as Javascript, use of Dreamweaver or similar
packages.
Enjoy working with numbers, together with a creative approach to
displaying and effectively communicating with numerical data.
Willing to provide a service to internal and external users of data, seeking
to understand the purposes to which information will be put and confident
in recommending appropriate reporting or modifications to data requests.
At least one year working in a xxxx, or similar office in a higher or further
education setting
Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite, with advanced knowledge of Access
database system.
Ability to draft own correspondence
Attention to detail and high level of accuracy
Able to work under pressure
Ability to use own initiative and apply knowledge gained in a professional
manner
Ability to prioritise own workload
Flexible approach to work
Ability to meet deadlines without day-to-day supervision
Fast accurate keyboard skills.
Working Environment
(knowledge of special working practices, breadth of management skill required, customer impact, responsibility,
efficiency)
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To provide secretarial and administrative duties for assigned key
members; this will include handling telephone enquiries, dealing with
correspondence, filing, management of diaries, arranging meetings,
arranging
travel,
accommodation
and
registration
for
meetings/conferences. Exercise judgement on matters of importance and
taking appropriate action when required.
To ensure systems are in place to enable effective and efficient office
management (eg, filing systems, ordering of supplies etc).
Diverse range of secretarial and administrative duties requiring a high level
of proactivity, independent working and with minimal supervisory control.
Range of administrative and secretarial activities and duties,
encompassing a number of areas of responsibility – ability to prioritise and
to multi-task.
To observe safe practices in the handling, preparation, cooking, serving
and storage/handling of food and beverages in accordance with the Food
Safety Act and CCRS Catering Food Hygiene Policy.
Providing assistance with the collection of materials for the marketing of
events. Preparing promotional documents, invitations, events, marketing
leaflets and undertaking mailings of invitations.
Researching lists of potential guests from corporate, professional
organisations and HE institutions to enhance and supplement those
provided by academic departments.
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Dealing with telephone enquiries related to events attendance and other
events-related matters and collating information on the APT membership
system.
Checking and actioning emails delivered to the Events or Graduation
Ceremony e-mail boxes.
Researching appropriate suppliers and obtaining quotes for any services
or goods required, for example, photographers at events and flower
arrangements.
General clerical duties including stationery ordering, filing, photocopying,
maintaining the office diary, collecting and opening post as appropriate,
\and acting as first point of contact for the office.
Work directly and assist in study set up and design.
To contribute to the overall scientific endeavour of the Centre, and to take
responsibility for areas of several of the current trials, as demand requires.
To work as part of the Institute’s research team, being mutually supportive
and covering duties as necessary during colleagues’ absences and at
times of additional pressure, as directed.
To collage information ensuring that it complies with the data protection
and ethical guidelines, including the completion of case report files
pertinent to the clinical trials.
To prepare reports to disseminate results from the programme of
research.
Keep up to date with legislation related to clinical trials coordination and
administration.
To ensure that all research is undertaken according to Good Clinical
Practice (GCP), College and Trust protocols.
To ensure that they are fully aware of and comply with the
College’s/Trust’s policies and procedures in relation to confidentiality,
health and safety at work, and all local safety rules regarding fire,
chemical, radioisotope and gene manipulation hazards.
To assist the module convenors and teachers in the collection and
maintenance of proper records regarding to teaching progress and
assessments.
Manage the overall secretarial workload for the Centre and arranging as
necessary cover of duties when appropriate, and undertaking supervisory
responsibility of temporary secretarial staff as and when required.
Provide secretarial provision to members of staff in the Centre eg,
processing correspondence, filing, reminding about appointments, booking
travel, copying and distributing documents, assisting with queries about
specific items.
To undertake secretarial duties as necessary, including handling
telephone enquiries, dealing with correspondence, filing, management of
diaries, arranging meetings, arranging travel and registration for
meetings/conferences and organising events.
To assist with the development and production of reports, guidelines,
educational material, grant applications, preparations of returns for the
Institute, School, College etc using desktop publishing and other
appropriate software and to deadlines.
Servicing of committees, including preparation and circulation of minutes
and agendas, room and catering bookings etc.
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Responsible for the administrative support for designated programmes
including: booking rooms; arranging catering; participant booking (and
effective recording on web booking database); liaison with course
presenters; preparation of slides, handouts and other materials; ensuring
adequate AV provision for each course.
Responsible for providing administrative support for approximately 150
course per academic year.
Provide cover for the extending opening hours for the Help Desk.
To provide an effective and efficient service to the College in relation to the
handling of customer requests for work to be carried out.
To prepare reports of jobs undertaken, times to complete and such other
management information as may be required from time to time.
Support the preparation of research grant applications through: liaison with
grant-giving bodies and with QMUL Research Grant Administration
(providing relevant financial and staffing information; assistant in the
completion of the financial and staffing sections of the application.
Provide regular reports in standard format to various department meetings
as appropriate.
The identification of miscoding, accounting errors etc and processing
journals to correct the errors in order to maintain the veracity of accounts,
using Trust and QM general ledger systems.
Calculating central overheads and service charges and arranging journals
to transfer accrued values to the relevant accounts in a range of college
departments.
To assist the Team Leader in the preparation of project costing for
inclusion in all applications to external funding bodies.
Using DTP packages to produce promotional materials for the section.
Developing, administering and monitoring consistent systems across the
section eg, filing, ordering supplies and teaching materials. Periodically
reviewing such systems and recommending appropriate changes.
Production of regular statistical summaries as required by College
Management.
Designing the Registry’s internet/intranet sites and the pages.
Compilation of statistical and individualised student data for funding,
quality assurance and other statutory bodies; for example EPSRC, ESRC,
PPARC, PhD statistics and statistical data to support subject/institutional
self-assessment under the QAA.
Responsible for processing incoming new and revised course unit
examination marks files and for production of means reports for Subject
Examination Boards.
Providing advice and information to potential candidates on eligibility for
admission, in the light of the College’s entrance requirements and the
School’s admissions policy.
Arranging and supervising interview sessions.
Processing offer and reject decisions, updating the database.
Sending offer and reject letters to applicants, despatch of relevant
information (eg, ethnic monitoring) and pre-enrolment literature as
necessary.
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Checking of examination results and confirmation of conditional places
after the publication of results, operation of the Clearing procedure where
necessary to fill any remaining places.
Ensure that systems are in place to enable effective and efficient office
management (eg, filing systems, ordering of supplies etc).
Working within established College policies and procedures.
Freedom to Act & Decision Making
(depth of control, supervision received, use of judgement & initiative, analytical ability)
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Exercise considerable initiative, judgement in deciding importance and
urgency of mail, email and telephone calls for the Director and the
postholder.
To be able to decide, with minimal supervisory control, in identifying and
prioritising work according to urgency/importance, taking appropriate
action or referring this to relevant member of staff as appropriate.
To exercise independence in determining work priorities/workload and
scheduling tasks appropriately to meet deadlines.
To assist with the planning of duty rotas and the allocation of all work.
The postholder will be expected to be a self-starter with an ability to
assess a situation and make a fast and correct decision.
Be responsible for day-to-day running of the Clinical Trial Unit, determining
which
communications must
be referred to
the
Principal
Investigator/Clinical Trial Coordinator or other staff; provide responses
where appropriate. See work that enters the office through to completion
(mail, email, telephone, faxes, research documents). Develop and
maintain central and study site files for ongoing and completed clinical
trials.
Oversee the Clinical Trials Assistant in coordinating the AGCCG Network
MDT Database, involving meeting arrangements, annual meetings, all
paperwork associated with database including minutes of meetings for
general circulation and audit of data collated from meetings.
To be aware of own limitations and refer problems to the appropriate
person.
To use forward planning and goal-setting to assure that the project
proceeds to target.
To adopt flexible working practices where required.
Organisation of the administrative and secretarial workload of the Centre
using skill and judgement.
To prioritise workloads to ensure deadlines are met using skill and
judgement with reference to staff priorities, and through delegation to
support secretarial staff when required.
To deal with day-to-day office management in the absence of the Centre
Lead/Principal Tutor using skill and judgement.
To provide advice and guidance on College Policies in relating to sickness
and flexi-time, etc, using skill, judgement and reference to College
procedures.
Identify problems which effect service delivery and negotiate solutions with
the programme managers, such as the rescheduling of course dates.
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Plan and manage the work of two full time administrative assistants in the
absence of the ESD Administrator (Operations) in order to maintain a high
level of service provision to ESD and College staff.
Use judgement and initiative in anticipating problems, advising colleagues
and managing front of house staff.
Prioritising and project managing own workload to ensure deadlines for all
aspects of the different areas of the job role are met using skill and
judgement.
Creating new working procedures.
To prioritise incoming work requests with relevant Manager.
In the absence of relevant Manager to prioritise and allocate emergency
requests.
In the absence of relevant Manager to prioritise and allocate day to day
work.
Daily decisions, based on prioritisation agreed with Departmental
Administrator, Chair of Research and Graduate Studies Committee, and
Director of Studies.
Decisions to contact central services based on established procedures.
Taking action to suspend expenditure on project accounts where an
overspend is forecast.
Making adjustments to project budgets where necessary.
Designing and constructing final reports for funders, management
committees etc.
Identifying breaches of financial regulations, Research Governance
Framework or the EU Directive of GCP and initiating corrective action to
resolve the breaches.
Managing a delegated workload, which includes seasonal work. This
workload will require the use of initiative and the ability to make decisions
within broad frameworks.
Assisting with decision-making and in the formulation of recommendations
in relation to the workload.
To prioritise own workload and to work with considerable autonomy in the
arrangement of work.
Required to exercise considerable initiative, judgement and adaptability to
decide on appropriate courses of action to react to changing
circumstances.
To prioritise own workload to ensure deadlines are met using skill and
judgement with reference to Admission Officer, General Manager or other
senior staff.
Participation in recruitment and selection processes for members of
clerical staff within the Institute (short listing, sitting on interview panel).
Communication & Networking
(liaison with others, type and level of communications)
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One of the main administrative points of contact, both internally
externally, for the Centre, dealing diplomatically, sympathetically
efficiently with a wide variety of telephone and personal callers,
liaising with other members of the Centre, Department of Law and
inter-College staff to ensure good communications.
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Liaising with departments and organisations, both internally and externally
to answer events-related queries or publicise the events programme
including co-operating with and informing the Alumni Relations team and
the Press and PR Office.
To work as part of a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, scientists, nurses
and support staff, developing good working relationships within the team,
and making use of discussions with the project supervisor9s), and other
team members as appropriate, to establish and maintain excellent
communication links.
Providing, receiving and presenting information to staff/student/peers
within the Research Centre, Institute, SMD and NHS Trust.
Act as the administrative point of contact for the Centre, liaising with other
members of the Centre, Institute, School, and College to ensure good
communications.
Ensure effective communications are maintained and information is
disseminated through the department.
Liaise with suppliers and service providers to respond to queries arising
from orders placed, including negotiating refunds or discounts where
appropriate.
Liaise with College finance staff relating to all finance matters and deal
with queries from staff, internal and external suppliers, concerning financial
transactions of the Directorate.
Liaise with external contractor to arrange access permits for out of hours
working.
Liaise with press and PR to publicise departmental events and research
findings to strengthen the departmental profile.
The dissemination to colleagues of information on R&D standing orders,
policies and procedures and ensuring that any changes are widely
publicised to the Office users before implementation.
To carry out close negotiation of project costs with external organisations
ensuring that all necessary regulations and financial standing instructions
are adhered to.
Contact with staff at all levels within other college departments, including
heads of academic departments and the Vice Principal’s Office.
Contact with individual students and prospective students, both home and
overseas from foundation to post-professional level.
Contact with other educational institutions and agencies including other
universities, further education services, private language schools and
overseas educational agents.
Communications: to use skill and judgement to determine which
communications must be referred to the General Manager or other staff; to
provide responses where appropriate.
Main administrative point of contact, both internally and externally for
Director’s Office and assigned centres, dealing diplomatically and
sympathetically with a wide variety of telephone and personal callers, and
liaising with other members of the Centres, Institute, School and College to
ensure good communications.
Finance/Resource Management
(budgeting, forecasting)
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Liaise with Centre accountant to ensure that travel costs are recovered
from meeting organisers within agreed timeline and credited to relevant
budget heads.
Keeping records of income and expenditure for the Events Office,
providing regular statements and assistance with annual accounts, in
conjunction with the Corporate Events Managers and the Finance Office;
receiving, processing and recording income from the sale of tickets;
processing and recording supplier invoices and event sponsorship income.
No budgetary responsibilities.
Providing and maintaining documentation of all financial transactions in the
Centre, including the issue of cheque requisitions, staff travel claim forms,
petty cash vouchers, interdepartmental orders and invoices for all forms of
general office consumables expenditure, and maintaining listings of all
such transactions for budget centre, grant accounts etc within the Centre.
Responsibility, on behalf of the General Manager, for the distribution and
monitoring of monthly financial reports to budget holders within the Centre.
Undertaking relevant purchasing through the Agresso financial system and
maintaining appropriate records.
Ordering and monitoring of various types of office and departmental
supplies and equipment including liaison with suppliers and College
Purchasing Office to ensure cost-effectiveness.
Liaison with the Institute General Manager regarding expenditure and
correcting errors.
To assist the Director and Directorate Manager in the management of ESD
finances and resources.
Maintain accurate spreadsheet records of financial activity and be
proactive in auditing and reconciling the data to support the Director and
Directorate Manager in achieving tight financial control of budgets.
To control purchases or other financial activity to ensure compliance with
College financial regulations; in the event of payment queries or failure to
meet agreed servicing, making decisions to defer payment or renegotiate
terms and conditions.
Reconcile records of income and expenditure against transaction reports
from management accounts and identify/correct budgetary allocation
errors while bringing other irregularities to the attention of the Directorate
Manager.
To process invoices, credit notes, travel and expense claims, internal
transfers and other financial paperwork in an effective and efficient manner
while keeping all related documents up to date.
Authorised signatory for Director’s Office non-pay expenditure on office
items/stationery, etc (£2k signing limit).
People Management
(supervisory responsibility, human relations skills)
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No direct line management of other staff but as a senior member of team,
would be involved in advisory role and support for junior staff members.
To be responsible for the efficient and effective use of personnel, through
close management and active team motivation
To assist with the training and supervision of junior staff, this will involve
induction of new staff and continually developing and appraising the team.
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No direct line management of staff.
To assist the Head of Centre/Principal Tutor in the management of staff
and resource allocation.
To manage day to day teaching staff issues which may arise including
unscheduled absences of staff due to illness and their cover in liaison with
the Head of Centre.
Supervising xx administrative staff to maintain a high level of service
provision in the absence of the xxxx
No direct line management of other secretarial staff – but participants in
recruitment and appraisal processes. Also responsible for maintaining
records of sickness, annual leave etc.