Operations Administrator

Are you an experienced Administrator who enjoys interacting with people, being on reception and organising meetings? Are you interested in seeing how research to improve NHS patient health and care is funded?

Background

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR; www.nihr.ac.uk) is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research and is the largest funder of health and social care research in the UK. The NIHR Central Commissioning Facility is run by LGC (www.lgcgroup.com) and we manage many NIHR research funding schemes, with a total annual value in excess of £550 million.

Job purpose

We are looking for an Operations Administrator & Receptionist to join the Operations Team to support the running of research funding schemes (organising funding committee meetings in particular) and to cover reception. As such the role is primarily office based.

The role will involve interacting with a broad range of people at all levels of seniority, including LGC/NIHR colleagues, DHSC, funding committee members and the wider research community.

Key Responsibilities

1. Reception

• Being the primary person to cover reception when the main Receptionist is away, e.g. covering for lunch, leave, working from home day, meeting attendance, project work
• Providing a professional, welcoming presence in reception
• Greeting visitors to the building and ensuring they comply with health, safety and security requirements during their visit
• Helping visitors with their onward travel, e.g. giving directions and booking taxis
• Answering the reception telephone and CCF central inbox and handling queries as appropriate
• Managing post arriving at the building and preparing post for collection
• Working closing with Security and Facilities staff

2. Meeting organisation

• Identifying suitable dates and venues
• Booking rooms, equipment and refreshments
• Maintaining a record of invited attendees and their attendance
• Booking travel, accommodation and conferences
• Preparing and dispatching meeting documentation to attendees
• Preparing meeting materials e.g. populating presentation templates, creating name plates, badges and other signage
• Arranging disposal of confidential meeting papers
• Occasional support to off-site meetings
• Ensuring on-site meeting rooms are appropriately set up for committee meetings e.g. organising tables into the required format, laying out signage, water, glasses
• Greeting attendees to on-site meetings and ensuring the IT team is available should they need technical assistance
• Preparing and clearing up refreshments for on-site committee meetings e.g. making coffee, refilling water jugs, putting out cups and crockery, unwrapping food provided by caterers, loading/unloading dishwasher

3. Funding scheme administration

• Allocating helpdesk emails to relevant members of staff
• Answering a scheme helpline
• Using research management databases to find information, validate information, import, export or update information
• Creating folders and ensuring materials are saved in the right locations
• Populating documents and sheets e.g. data on who has applied for funding, drafting outcome letters to applicants, populating presentations for committee meetings
• Updating templates in line with any changes to branding
• HTML’ing PDFs for uploading to NIHR website
• Interacting with all the teams involved in running funding schemes

4. Supporting Operations team management, for example

• Organising training courses
• Maintaining team rotas
• Organising team meetings
• Supporting recruitment activity
• Updating instructions

5. Providing general administrative support as required

Experience required

• At least 12 months’ experience of working in an administrative role
• A minimum of 5 GCSEs (or equivalent) at grade C or above, including maths and English

Essential competencies and Behaviours

• An excellent command of written and spoken English
• Good computing skills including Microsoft Office and/or Google packages
• Commitment to excellent customer service
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills, including professional telephone manner
• Good planning and organising, i.e. able to plan activities and then carry them out effectively
• Good attention to detail and accurate record keeping
• Good team working, i.e. able to work confidently and effectively within a group
• Able to act on initiative, keep colleagues updated with progress on tasks, identify opportunities and be proactive in putting forward ideas and solutions
• A determination to get things done, make things happen and look for better ways of doing things
• Able to manage time effectively, including managing competing demands, prioritising tasks, adapting flexibly to changes and meeting deadlines
• Good verbal communication, i.e. able to express ideas clearly and confidently in speech, and vary delivery to match the specific audience
• Good written communication, i.e. able to express yourself and information clearly and concisely in writing

Please apply directly via our vacancy page with your CV along with a cover letter indicating your suitability for the role and your motivation to apply. Please note that the submission of a cover letter is essential for your application to be considered.

We are committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves. As such, we are happy to consider requests for part time/flexible working and welcome applications from all areas of our community.