Personal Assistant at the Institute for Government

This is a busy and varied role primarily focused on providing support to the Institute’s seven Programme Directors/Senior Fellows who lead our research projects. Your workload will vary from day to day and according to the requirements of different programme directors but will include diary management and managing communications with senior stakeholders, including senior politicians, civil servants and business people.

You will need to be able to juggle priorities, keeping a number of tasks going simultaneously and completing them in a timely fashion. The right candidate will be capable of taking the initiative when appropriate and will develop an understanding of our research projects, including the involvement of the various stakeholders.

Reporting to the Director of Finance & Resources, this role will also be responsible for the Institute’s recruitment process, including liaising with line managers, creating application packs, advertising, coordinating diaries for interviews, and facilitating candidates.

Additionally, this role will take ownership of the main phone line to answer and directing external phone calls to staff.

These are interesting times. This role offers the opportunity to make a contribution to the Institute’s mission of making government more effective. The key requirements are accuracy, reliability and good-natured flexibility.

Job Description

First point of contact for Programme Directors

• To act as an initial point of contact for Programme Directors in their absence, assessing priorities and re-directing calls, enquiries and requests as necessary.

Personal Assistance to Programme Directors

• To ensure efficient and effective use of Programme Directors’ time:

• Manage the diaries and appointments of the Programme Directors;

• Organise domestic travel and co-ordinate accommodation upon request;

• Prepare and/or draft correspondence for Programme Directors for their approval;

• Carry out a range of administrative tasks, including photocopying, filing, and compiling papers for meetings.

• To work co-operatively and collaboratively with colleagues in the Research, Communications, Events and Operations Teams.

Support for meetings

• To support the organisation of high level external meetings, both 1:1 and larger groups:

• Arrange invitations and monitor responses;

• Book venues, arrange accommodation, prepare papers and take minutes as required.

• To make arrangements for and prepare agendas for internal meetings, liaising with other staff.

Recruitment

• To help draft and publish recruitment advertisements.

• To coordinate the recruitment process from start to end, monitoring applications, responding to applicants, arranging interviews, facilitating candidates as necessary.

Person Specification

• Experience of providing administrative assistance in an office environment preferably within a senior management team

• Experience of diary management and scheduling

• Experience of taking and writing minutes, summarising discussions and writing reports

• Experience of using Microsoft Office packages, particularly Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Sharepoint

• Ability to work on own initiative with minimal supervision

• An organised and thorough approach to work

• Ability to see projects through from start to finish, managing time and tasks effectively

• Ability to manage at times conflicting priorities as well as tracking progress on a wide range of tasks

• Excellent interpersonal skills

• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, and excellent telephone manner

• Excellent writing skills with the ability to draft grammatical correspondence appropriate in style to the context and the recipient, using the correct forms of address

• A willingness to undertake varied responsibilities working alone or as part of a team and a team player approach to all the activities of the Institute

• A flexible approach to working and an interest in the aims of the Institute for Government