Personal Assistant/Office Manager

Job Introduction

Are you a proactive, highly organised professional with excellent influencing and relationship building skills? Do you have an experience in an Office Manager, Executive Assistant or Personal Assistant role? We are hiring!

We are looking for the new PA for the Managing Director in our Schools business and Office Manager for the Trigate office in Birmingham. If you have what it takes – apply today!

We offer a salary up to £36,000, a bonus, Sodexo employee benefits and excellent professional development and progression opportunities within Sodexo.

Role Responsibility

Personal Assistant

• Proactive organisation of the Managing Director’s (MD) diary.
• Drive senior leadership team delivery by monitoring MD e-mails and proactively action as agreed, ensuring deadlines are met by Directors and outstanding actions followed up.
• Organize meetings, ensuring that the Directors are prepared for all meetings with papers/packs.  Attend and support as requested.
• Support visiting Executives and ensure travel and meetings are managed effectively
• Arrange extensive domestic travel and occasional international travel and visas including accommodation, car hire etc. for the Directors. Understand and comply with UK and Group travel policy where appropriate and ensure cost-effective utilisation of the travel budget
• Act as the primary interface for the MD taking and screening calls/visits accordingly
• The provision of administrative expertise, managing all forms of correspondence and taking minutes and dictation in meetings for recording and communication purposes.
• Client PR and events (such as Showcases / ISBA / Chelsea Flower Show / Headmasters conferences) – invites and follow ups. Travel arrangements/meet up details. Purchase Orders (POs) for events to be raised/immediate payment forms for approval by FD and raise Ivanti ticket
• Produce and update Excel spreadsheets and Power Point presentations as required
• Accountable for organising all meetings on/off site in addition to client site visits & entertaining and all other associated events.
• Supporting financial/budgetary activity such as invoicing queries/raising PO’s/expense’s support
• Interface with other PA’s and admin teams to support in arranging travel and visas for visiting colleagues.  Manage travel requirements for external parties on request
• Responsible for the management of electronic and paper files
• Undertake other tasks as reasonably requested
• Annually set up, organise and manage any reviews for the MD

Office Management

• Understanding what our responsibilities are in the office (under terms of the lease)
• Business continuity – eg. Covid case in office
• IT – communications, owner and reviewer
• H&S of the office environment  - Ensuring general risk  assessments, safety walks, training for office team, DSE checks, office equipment, Management of Water risk assessment, fire risk assessment, PPM, general building maintenance requirements, Management of fire marshals / first aiders to ensure compliant
• General welfare/wellbeing of office
• Management of ISO – regular check in to ensure compliance
• Managing relationships with office suppliers
• Control/governance of issuing of door passes / printer passes (admin)
• General management and support of office IS&T
• Managing relationship with building reception / FM agent and in some cases the landlord
• Managing professional office environment, working flexibly, innovative way of working/continuous improvement
• Overseeing that maintenance in the office is reported / jobs completed in a timely manner.
• Line management of admin team from April 2022 – managing requests for business support for both Sodexo and AiP

The Ideal Candidate

Essential

• Previous Executive Administration experience
• Competent with Microsoft office applications (including Office 365, MS Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Word and PowerPoint)
• Excellent communication, organisational and administration skills
• Meticulous attention to detail in all matters, including working on reports, correspondence, management of complex travel/ meeting arrangements etc 
• High standard of literacy and ability to draft correspondence and minutes etc.  Ability to commission or under-take briefings for meetings and other engagements.
• Have worked in an environment where confidentiality is important.
• Resilient and adaptable
• Able to successfully influence and challenge at senior level with strong political and social skills
• Excellent relationship building and networking skills both internally and externally at all levels with an excellent telephone manner and interpersonal skills.
• Good standard of general education
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team

Desirable

• Experience of working in an organisation with significant Health and Safety focus

Sodexo and our clients are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults within a regulated activity. This role will require applicants to undergo screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and/ or Disclosure Scotland.

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs around 30,000 people, and partners with clients in many sectors across business and industry; schools and universities; sports and leisure; energy and resources; government and agencies; healthcare; justice and defence.

Sodexo’s connected; people-centric approach brings together a diverse range of expertise. The breadth of services it offers ranges from food and hospitality; cleaning; reception; concierge (Circles); security; property management and technical services through to data driven workplace strategy and design (Wx); employee engagement and recognition services (Sodexo Engage) and personal home services through Prestige Nursing + Care and the Good Care Group.  

Vital Spaces is Sodexo’s value proposition that puts people at the heart of everything we do, bringing together services and solutions and focusing on the productivity and wellbeing of people wherever they are.

Sodexo is committed to being an inclusive employer; we welcome and encourage applications from people with a diverse variety of experiences, backgrounds and identities.

We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations. 

We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to  support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process