Title : Personal Assistant - 6 months FTC
Reports To : Managing Director
Department : Chief Executive
Salary : Competitve
Benefits :

Competitive Benefits Package

Job Purpose:

Through strong planning and organisational skills the post holder will be responsible for providing extensive PA support to the Managing Director of the Company. This is a highly visible position and the post holder will be in constant verbal and written communication with Senior Director’s within the Fortis Group.

The post holder will be responsible for the effective and efficient daily management of the Managing Director’s calendar, ensuring that the MD’s time is focussed on key business activities and priorities.  It is the responsibility of the post holder to know where and how to contact the Managing Director throughout the day, as Senior Director’s and members of the Management Team rely upon the post holder to provide this focal point of contact.

In this prominent role, the post holder is frequently the first point of contact for customers, colleagues and business partners, and it is therefore imperative that the post holder effectively screens all communications for the Managing Director.

The post holder will be responsible for handling business sensitive and confidential information on a daily basis including drafting, editing, formatting documents, and be accountable for the dissemination of this information to the appropriate parties. 

Dimensions:

Personal Assistant to the Managing Director
Provide PA support to the EMG members and their  respective PA’s as appropriate
Co-ordination of Secretarial resources to:

• Support peak periods and holidays
• Seek efficiency improvements
• Share knowledge and support development

Budget authority for meetings/outside venues for meetings
Involvement in ad hoc projects as required

Accountabilities:

• Reach or exceed agreed individual targets.
• Accurately draft, edit and format a range for documents including reports, letters, presentations, spreadsheets, meeting agendas and minutes to a high standard using MS office packages.  
• Daily monitoring of emails, initiating and taking action and collating information where appropriate.  Alerting the Managing Director to key e-mails requiring action/her attention.  Sending out e-mails on Managing Director’s behalf.
  Create and maintain high volume, extensive filing and bring forward systems ensuring all documents are ready for MD when required.
• Extensive management of MD diary including scheduling, re-scheduling and prioritising appointments. Ensuring effective use of Managing Director’s time, and that appropriate preparation/travel time is incorporated into the daily schedule. Ability to forward plan and anticipate Managing Director’s requirements is a key aspect to this activity.
• Prepare draft agendas for RIAS Quarterly Board Meetings for Managing Director’s review.  Actively working with the Managing Director to request/ collate information from Senior Managers, sending out Board timeline information to EMG members.   Ensuring that preparation time is scheduled in Managing Director’s calendar, and that pre-Board review meetings have been set up.  Preparation of master Board Pack for Managing Director’s review.  Once contents have been agreed, it is the post holder’s responsibility to ensure packs are copied, collated and distributed to Company Directors.  This task also often includes proof reading of papers and ensuring the documents are formatted consistently so as to present a professional end document suitable for Board level.
• Extensive meeting organisation.  The post holder is responsible for liasing with internal/external/international contacts in a professional and courteous manner to ensure that diarised meetings are clearly detailed, have the appropriate people attending, preparation time is assigned in Managing Director’s diary, and that meeting documentation is collated/prepared in a timely manner.  It is the responsibility of the post holder to ensure that meeting agendas/itineraries are focused and efficient to maximise the time available to all attendees.  When co-ordinating business functions and conferences both internally and externally, the post holder is expected to research, carry out price negotiations, recommend and decide on suitable venues within budgetary constraints, ensuring that travel/hotel arrangements, room hire, and equipment charges are also budgeted for. 
• Preparation of Managing Director’s Expenses following offsite meetings or business trips in the UK and overseas, ensuring that expenses are signed off appropriately before being sent to the Fortis Accounts Department.
• Responsible for managing customer complaints on behalf of MD.   Presenting a professional and calm demeanour when dealing with customers either via the telephone or via written communication.  Ensuring that telephone conversations are documented for the customer’s file, and the Managing Director is briefed on actions taken.  The post holder acts as the main liaison point between the Managing Director and the Customer Satisfaction Team to ensure complaints are dealt with appropriately, and letters are proof read prior to Managing Director’s sign off.
• Independent customer complaint reviews – If a complaint is raised against a Customer Satisfaction Advisor, the post holder is called upon by the CST Manager to provide an independent overview on such items as; could the complaint have been avoided; was the customer treated fairly; was the Advisor at fault.  The post holder will be required to review correspondence and listen to calls if necessary before providing their independent observations on the case.  
• Co-ordination of travel arrangements for Managing Director and internal/ external/overseas visitors to RIAS.
• Ensure accurate reporting on the following in a timely manner and highlight any issues and conflicts with MD as necessary:
• EMG sickness on HR.net
• Annual leave spreadsheet
• Ensure EMG coverage at key periods / identify potential conflicts to the MD
• Hospitality spreadsheet
• Ensuring that all forms, invoices etc are reviewed, appropriately cost coded, signed off by the Managing Director and copied for the file prior to being sent to Fortis for payment. 
• Leading on behalf of the Managing Director in the setting, forecasting and monthly review of the A01 Budget.  Liaising with all parties concerned on any budget queries raised as part of the monthly review, and during the forecasting exercise.
• Maintaining an appropriate stock of key stationery items, and ensuring Board folders, dividers etc are ordered in time to prepare Board Packs.
• Responsible for managing any ad hoc projects where appropriate.
• Providing ad hoc support to Managing Director’s Direct Reports, co-ordinating Secretarial resources to support peak periods and holidays.
• As part of the Secretarial Team, the post holder is responsible for proactively seeking efficiency improvements in processes and procedures, sharing their knowledge, providing guidance, and mentoring members of the team to support the development of these improvements.

Essential Competencies:

• Strong planning and organisational skills with the ability to handle multiple priorities while remaining calm under pressure.
• Problem solving - ability to use own initiative and propose solutions.
• Proactive and capable of initiating various activities.
• Ability to build strong working relationships with all levels of personnel within the business.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to adapt the tone/style to match the audience/circumstances.
• Ability to produce high quality documentation within tight timescales.
• Teamwork – interacting with other PA’s within the Company to ensure appropriate dissemination of sensitive and confidential information.  Actively providing guidance and advice to members of the team.
• Excellent time management.
• Excellent tact and diplomacy skills, as position requires post holder to handle a wide range of situations and personalities.
• Strong influencing skills as post holder is often required to handle a number of conflicting priorities whilst managing the expectations of others.
• Experience of working at Senior Management level in a rapidly changing environment.
• Extensive PC package skills including MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and MS Outlook for e-mail management.
• Excellent layout and documentation presentation skills.

Performance Measures:

Feedback from Managing Director and EMG Members.
Personal behaviours in line with the RIAS people values process.
Review v Performance Management Workbook Objectives.