Executive Assistant

Birmingham, West Midlands (England), B1 2AX : Bristol, South West England, BS1 6EH : Longstanton, East of England, CB24 3EN : Liverpool, North West England, L3 1BP : Leeds, Yorkshire and the Humber, LS11 9AT : Manchester, North West England, M1 6EU : Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, NE4 5BZ

Job Summary

The position provides administrative support and general task management with a customer focussed Executive Assistant (EA) service to Leaders within Homes England. To enable the effectiveness of Senior leaders by providing a professional, proactive Executive Assistant service which drives us to work with impact and excellence every day.

The successful candidate will have frequent contact with Executive Leaders, Senior Leadership Team and the Wider Leadership Team as well as liaising with other teams within Homes England as required e.g. HR, finance, legal, risk, IT and any other corporate functions.

They will attend Directors Group, Board and Board sub committees and maintain positive ties with the Ministry for Homes, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Other Government Departments as well as industry contacts/suppliers and stakeholders.

Job Description

Key accountabilities and responsibilities

• Be the central point of contact and ‘gatekeeper’ for the Director’s schedule, managing diary appointments flexibly to accommodate changing priorities. Proactively monitoring the Director’s inbox, ensuring routine inquiries are addressed with relevant managers and keeping the Director informed of important matters needing timely attention.
• Handle incoming requests with speed, accuracy, and confidentiality, effectively managing priorities and deadlines to meet commitments. Identifying and offering support to quickly draw governance issues to resolution, escalating where appropriate to do so.
• Responsible for drafting and formatting reports, letters, and publications; preparing presentations; ensuring timely readiness of meeting paper packs with key decision points are highlighted for their attention.
• Collating and disseminating content to stakeholders; and reviewing meeting minutes to track future meeting dates and relevant conferences while organising necessary cover for meetings.
• Set up and/or co-ordinate business meetings both internally and externally, including preparation of agendas, distribution of minutes and papers, progressing actions and making the administrative arrangements such as travel, accommodation.
• Ensure travel arrangements are made to make the best use of time and are the most cost effective bookings with “value for money” as a consideration.
• Provide administrative support for; people related processes (recruitment/onboarding/ induction/121/performance reviews); visits and events;
• Working with the Engagement & Internal Comms teams to cascade and arrange key engagement touchpoints e.g., townhalls, all-staff briefings, Staff Surveys.
• Contributing ideas and suggestions to continuously improve the organisation and work of the Executive Assistants Team.
  
  

Key Accountabilities And Responsibilities

• Be the central point of contact and ‘gatekeeper’ for the Director’s schedule, managing diary appointments flexibly to accommodate changing priorities. Proactively monitoring the Director’s inbox, ensuring routine inquiries are addressed with relevant managers and keeping the Director informed of important matters needing timely attention.
• Handle incoming requests with speed, accuracy, and confidentiality, effectively managing priorities and deadlines to meet commitments. Identifying and offering support to quickly draw governance issues to resolution, escalating where appropriate to do so.
• Responsible for drafting and formatting reports, letters, and publications; preparing presentations; ensuring timely readiness of meeting paper packs with key decision points are highlighted for their attention.
• Collating and disseminating content to stakeholders; and reviewing meeting minutes to track future meeting dates and relevant conferences while organising necessary cover for meetings.
• Set up and/or co-ordinate business meetings both internally and externally, including preparation of agendas, distribution of minutes and papers, progressing actions and making the administrative arrangements such as travel, accommodation.
• Ensure travel arrangements are made to make the best use of time and are the most cost effective bookings with “value for money” as a consideration.
• Provide administrative support for; people related processes (recruitment/onboarding/ induction/121/performance reviews); visits and events;
• Working with the Engagement & Internal Comms teams to cascade and arrange key engagement touchpoints e.g., townhalls, all-staff briefings, Staff Surveys.
• Contributing ideas and suggestions to continuously improve the organisation and work of the Executive Assistants Team.
  
  

Person specification

We Are Looking For Someone Who Has

• a core qualification in Business Administration or equivalent demonstrable experience, including experience with Microsoft packages.
• experience of providing excellent executive administrative support at Director level or above.
• demonstrable experience and understanding of good communication and customer service, including with senior leaders and stakeholders.
• experience of working with numerous stakeholders and knowledge of how to work effectively with stakeholders.
• experience of working with limited supervision, proactive thinking taking high levels of initiative following tasks through to completion
• experience of working in large/complex organisation spread across multiple sites.
• excellent time management skills, with experience of effective planning and prioritisation.
• the ability to work effectively under pressure and at pace – supporting busy teams.
  
  

Benefits

Homes England is an executive non-departmental public body with its own terms and conditions, benefits and pension scheme. We are a government agency working in partnership with the private sector and want to employ and retain great people. In return we offer a range of excellent benefits, some of the key benefits include:

Holiday - Homes England offers all staff 33 days annual leave per year in addition to 8 statutory bank holidays.

Working Flexibly - At Homes England we have a strong culture of flexible working and encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance. We offer a wide range of potential working patterns, including part time, job share and compressed hours.

Health and Wellbeing - We offer health screening with Nuffield Proactive Health Clinics, a free Employee Assistance Programme which offers confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as access to Occupational Health.

Professional Development - At Homes England we are committed to your continued professional and personal development with learning as one of our core values. We pay for one job-related professional membership subscription per year for our employees.

We also offer an excellent range of family friendly benefits, for example, maternity, paternity, shared parental leave.

Selection process details

How to apply?

To apply please follow the links to our careers page.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Selection process details

For more information on the role, please see the attached Job Description.

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application and interviews held as soon as practical after the closing date. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this role and Homes England.

Please note – Homes England has a responsibility to ensure compliance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard to address the potential problems of identity fraud, illegal working and deception generally. To ensure compliance we will carry out a pre-employment Personal Identity and Vetting Report through Experian to meet the standard and you will therefore be asked to provide certain information in order that the verification check can be carried out if you are successful in your application.

Homes England are an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer that values and respects the people who work for us.  Our aim is to be an employer of choice, enabling everyone to reach their full potential.

Homes England Is Committed To Protecting The Privacy And Security Of Your Personal Data. For Further Information Please Refer To Our Privacy Notice Which Can Be Viewed Here

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england/about/personal-information-charter

Nationality Requirements

Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed disability confident interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Name:  Recruitment Team

Email:  [email protected]

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : [email protected]
• Email : [email protected]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]