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About the Role

As a Business Services Assistant in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences professional services team, you will support the day-to-day delivery of Business Services by providing proactive, flexible, and professional operational administrative, and secretarial support that allows colleagues to do their jobs effectively.

Although you will predominantly support Business Services, you will be expected to work flexibly and collaboratively with colleagues across the Faculty. Typically, you will work within one of the following areas:

• School Operations – supporting day-to-day school operations and providing secretarial and administrative support to members of the School leadership team and wider academic community.
• Nations Support – supporting day-to-day operations and providing administrative support for the academic communities based in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. 
• Leadership Support – supporting the PAs in the provision of secretarial and administrative support to members of the School and Faculty leadership team.
• Facilities and Health and Safety Operations – supporting the Operations & Compliance Managers in all aspects of facilities and H&S management.

This role is for School Operations, and you will be based in the School of Social Sciences & Global Studies.

You will also support the identification, dissemination, and implementation of good practice as part of a commitment to continuous improvement and the development of operational capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Providing operational, administrative and secretarial support, working in conjunction with other members of the team and colleagues across the Faculty and wider University. Activities could include, but are not limited to: 

Core Responsibilities: 

• Acting as a first point of contact and handling general enquiries from academics, colleagues (within the Faculty and across Central Professional Services Departments), external organisations and partners using initiative to respond or refer on accordingly. 
• Supporting day-to-day School and Faculty operations linked to Health and Safety, HR, Finance, IT and facilities, and information compliance, research and teaching.   
• Assisting with the maintenance of systems and processes. 
• Supporting the organisation and delivery of meetings, events, and conferences. 
• Updating website, SharePoint, Teams sites content and email distribution lists. 
• Raising purchase requisitions, booking travel, maintaining records of expenditure, logging future commitments, and contributing to quarterly forecasts.

Specialist responsibilities:

• Providing secretarial and administrative support to members of the School and Faculty Leadership Teams including diary management, dealing with general correspondence, responding to telephone and e-mail enquiries, and maintaining and updating electronic filing systems. (School Operations, Leadership Support) 
• Providing core administrative support (including travel bookings) for the academic community (including PhD students). (School Operations) 
• Supporting Health and Safety, operations and compliance activity across the faculty including completing Level 1 DSE assessments and acting as a local Fire Warden; equipment procurement; management of new starter administration, including the online H&S induction. (Faculties and Health and Safety Operations) 
• Day-to-day administration that supports the allocation and reallocation of Associate Lecturer FTE in the Nations, including supporting the allocation of academic tutors to students and arrangements for local cover when required. (Nations Support) 
• Acting as a first point of contact and handling general enquiries from students, including VOICE queries. (Nations Support)
• Supporting specific compliance related to the devolved nations. (Nations Support)

Strategy, Planning, Policy and Governance

• Servicing committees/meetings, including arranging rooms (bookings and AV equipment, catering, drafting agendas, circulating papers and taking notes etc.).

About You

Essential

• The ability to communicate professionally both verbally and in writing which enable the successful candidate to build trust and positive working relationships, enabling effective collaboration with colleagues.
• Effective organisational skills with the ability to remain flexible, adaptable, and responsive and to use initiative, work independently, and solve problems in a pro-active manner. 
• The ability to deal with sensitive and confidential information, work accurately, and to manage and manipulate data appropriately. 
• Proficient in the use of IT and willing to develop existing skills and learning about relevant IT systems.
• The ability to prioritise own work, having an awareness of the workload of the team, and support colleagues when necessary. 
• An understanding of, and the ability to work in a manner, which aligns with the University’s mission and Values in Action. 

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Work Location

Next steps in the Recruitment process

It is anticipated online interviews will take place during the first week of December. Candidates may also be required to complete on-line ability tests. 

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role, please submit the following as separate documents;

• CV
• Supporting statement of up to 1,000 words. You should set out in your statement why you’re interested in this role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the required competencies for this role as detailed in the job and person specification.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.