Executive Assistant and Administrative Officer

Job description

Role: Executive Assistant and Administrative Officer

Location: Home-based, with regular attendance (at least monthly) of meetings in London

Salary: £28, ,000, depending on experience

Type: Permanent, full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Responsible to: CEO

About the role

Are you a proactive, energetic and highly effective individual with great attention to detail? We're looking for a new Executive Assistant (EA) for the CEO and the Chair of the Overcoming MS Board of Trustees as well as organisational administrative duties.

This role plays an essential role in the smooth running of the charity. With a small team and big ambitions, everyone plays an important part. Yours is to facilitate our team to work in the most effective and productive manner, using your organisational and planning skills so we can all deliver the greatest impact for people with MS.

At Overcoming MS, we are here for everyone with MS who wants to take control of their health and wellbeing. We provide clear, practical actions for people to take and a supportive community to help people living with MS. Knowing people with MS can reduce their risk of disease progression through lifestyle choices gives hope to us all. Our vision is a world in which living a full and healthy life with MS is possible for everyone.

Job summary:

You will support the organisation across a range of administrative, organisational and governance activities. You will be comfortable working in a busy environment juggling multiple projects, as is characteristic of a small but ambitious organisation.

You will be able to demonstrate discretion and commitment, along with excellent organisation, written and verbal communication skills and will bring experience of providing director level PA/EA support. You will be able to use your own initiative to prioritise workload according to the demands of the day and learn to anticipate changes, responding professionally, adeptly and positively.

You will be expected to provide a high standard and quality of support across a range of activities and projects, being fully aware of and upholding the charity's values, and taking responsibility for modelling these to others across the organisation and to the wider community.

Key responsibilities and duties:

The role comprises of the following key areas of responsibility:

• Executive Assistant to CEO

Provide full support to the CEO, including but not limited to:

o Overseeing the diary of the CEO, prioritising meetings and scheduling time for reading, thinking and preparing, ensuring meeting materials are to hand.

o Providing 'right-hand' support, undertaking research, ensuring CEO is up to date with all projects and pre-empting needs.

o Secretarial – supporting emails, creating presentations, keeping management files organised and up to date within SharePoint.

• Executive Assistant to Chair

Provide full support to the Chair in any administrative activities that relate to her role as Chair, including but not limited to:

o Overseeing calendar appointments, and ensuring the Chair is prepared for meetings.

o Providing 'right hand' support in communication with staff and Board, scheduling meetings and providing administrative support as required.

• Governance and administrative support to the Overcoming MS Board

Provide governance and administrative support to the Overcoming MS Board of trustees, including:

o Scheduling Board, committee and Strategy meetings and making the necessary arrangements (eg booking venues, setting up virtual meetings via Teams/ Zoom).

o Preparation of documentation for meetings including circulation of agendas, compiling Board packs for the Board of Trustees and committee meetings, taking accurate minutes and co-ordinating follow up actions.

o Supporting the Chair and CEO in the recruitment and induction of new Trustees.

o Providing administrative support for working groups, for example, making arrangements for meetings, circulating agendas and papers.

• Internal HR administrative lead

Fully supported with external expertise, to provide administrative support for the team, including:

o Advertising vacant roles, coordinating recruitment, sifting applicants, arranging interviews.

o Onboarding new starters, including references, contracts, setting up new starters on the systems, inducting starters in organisational processes.

o Supporting ongoing team development including coordinating training, staff surveys and appraisals.

o Coordinating leavers, including exit interviews, leavers forms and relevant administration.

• Internal IT administrative lead

Fully supported by our external IT agency, to provide administrative support for the team, including:

o Regular meetings with IT agency to ensure correct licenses, equipment and protections are in place.

o Coordination of hardware and software for new starters, equipment provided and returned for leavers.

• Management of Overcoming MS contact enquiries

o Regularly check the Overcoming MS contacts mailbox and manage its contents, responding or delegating to Overcoming MS team members where appropriate, and ensuring follow up is completed.

o Manage the Overcoming MS telephone number to ensure queries are dealt with efficiently.

o Draw themes from regularly occurring queries, to make sure any trends are picked up and addressed effectively.

• General organisational support

o Provide ad hoc project management support to organisational improvement projects, including supporting project team meetings, developing project plans and tracking progress.

o Travel/ meeting arrangements – arrange meetings, attendance at conferences and book rooms and making travel arrangements as necessary.

o Coordination with our outsourced storage facility.

o Policy support – maintenance of the policy tracker, coordinating the reviewing and updating of policies.

o Admin support for team meetings, oversight of the shared drive, central email lists.

o Lead relationship with our Employee Assistance Provider, including regular team reminders of services and other charity discounts.

o Proactively identify areas where improvements can help improve efficiencies, impact or wellbeing.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Experience (Essential (E)/ Desirable (D)

• At least 5 years' experience in a senior PA/EA role (E)

• At least 5 years' experience in writing Board minutes, supporting Boards and committees and other governance (E)

• Experience of effective engagement with senior leaders and stakeholders, both internal and external, at all levels (E)

• Experience of the charity sector (D)

• Working understanding of an organisation with a dispersed, remote team across a wide geography (D)

• Experience of supporting strategic and improvement projects (D)

• Experience of supporting HR or IT processes (D)

Education, Knowledge & Skills (Essential (E)/ Desirable (D)

• An excellent standard of written and spoken English and ability to communicate effectively with a range of people from diverse backgrounds (E)

• Excellent interpersonal skills (E)

• Excellent organisational, prioritisation and time management skills (E)

• Conscientious, with excellent accuracy and attention to detail, delivering high quality work (E)

• Proficiency in the full Microsoft Office suite, especially Teams, Outlook, SharePoint/OneDrive (E)

• Experience of using a variety of IT packages including databases and willingness to learn new IT systems (D)

• Awareness of charitable governance principles (D)

Personal attributes

• Calm and adaptable with an ability to work within a flexible and busy environment (E)

• Able to anticipate and problem solve with high levels of tact, diplomacy, discretion and ability to demonstrate absolute respect for the confidentiality of information (E)

• Comfortable working remotely and happy to travel, as needed, for meetings (E)

• Thrives as a team player but able to work on your own initiative, with minimal supervision (E)

• Reliable, resilient, committed and self-confident (E)

• A proactive approach to your work and are able to identify opportunities and solutions (E)

• Highly committed to safeguarding vulnerable people, equality, diversity and inclusion (E)

• Fully committed to Overcoming MS's values (E)

• Experience of working within a charity and understanding of the charity sector (D)