Travelwise Administration Supervisor/Secretary

Job content

The recruitment team at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) are delighted to be able to offer a fantastic opportunity for a customer focussed, friendly and enthusiastic individual, as part of our expanding service.

UHS offers fantastic training and development giving you the best possible opportunities to achieve the career you want. We can offer opportunities to develop within a supportive environment, and our staff survey results reflect our commitment to facilitate your career progression.

The Travelwise department are responsible for managing staff, and patient visitor car parks at Southampton General Hospital, the Princess Anne Hospital and our newly opened site at Adanac Park - staff park & ride.

You’ll need to have experience of working in a busy office environment and will be supervising a team of administrators in all aspects of their roles, including providing guidance/support for difficult and emotive subjects.

You’ll need to be able to provide a comprehensive secretarial service and deputise the Office Manger in their absence.

Financial elements to the role include generating purchase orders, invoices and payment instructions for significant sums of money, so we need a real eye for detail and accuracy.

Project work and complex audits are frequently undertaken, so you’ll need to be able to understand large data-sets and also have a strong understanding of numbers.

Attached you will find the person specification document which provides more detail about the essential and desirable skills and experience needed for this role. We highly recommend you review this document and use it when completing your application as these criteria are used by hiring managers as guidance during shortlisting.

For an overview of the main duties of the role please see the ‘Job Description and Main Responsibilities’ section below. To understand the day-to-day responsibilities in more detail please read the full job description document attached.

As one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in England, we offer learning and development opportunities to help you achieve the career you aspire to. UHS is rated ‘Good’ by the CQC and in the latest national NHS Staff Survey, we were in the top 10 acute trusts for staff engagement and for staff recommending the hospital as a place to work or receive care.

All non-clinical roles may involve a mixture of on site and remote working, Specific details and flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process. UHS employees are able to access a range of NHS discounts, are entitled to a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata), and we offer a generous pension scheme.

Southampton is an attractive place to live and work situated on the south coast, with an international airport and direct trains to London. The New Forest National Park and beaches of the Jurassic coast are also right on our doorstep. The city offers living costs 20% lower than London and 14 schools rated outstanding by Ofsted.

What you will do:

• Provide a comprehensive administrative service within their team.
• Coordinate and streamline administrative processes to ensure consistent and effective administration service is always maintained.
• Participate in the recruitment, induction and training of new Administrators within the team, sharing knowledge and expertise of the administrative processes and functions.
• Deputise for the Team Leader as required on an ad-hoc basis, attending meetings on behalf of the Team Leader and fulfilling the main functions of the Team Leader role on a temporary basis e.g. day to day supervision of the team.
• When deputising for the Team Leader, undertake the day to day supervision of a team of Administrators.

To support these tasks, you’ll have:

• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft software packages, Word, outlook & Excel. Database usage.
• Previous administration experience, including customer facing environment.
• Understanding of financial systems & processes including cash handling.
• Ability to manage own workload and prioritise/delegate as required.
• Implement standard operating procedures for the team and propose changes to operational practices to demonstrate improvements in services.
• Ensure that staff adhere to the agreed operating procedures, highlighting to a Team Leader any situations where this is not achievable.
• Provide operational support to colleagues, and supervision of Band 2 administration staff within the team, if required, as directed by Line Manager.
• General administrative duties including filing, photocopying, diary management and distribution of mail
• Word processing of all forms of correspondence, reports and summaries that are required by the team.
• Ensure appropriate electronic systems are kept up to date; ensuring that information entered onto the system is in line with the Trust’s data quality standards.
• Utilise paper-light processes where appropriate.
• Ensure good customer service by providing a professional and effective telephone service, taking accurate messages and providing information and signposting as requested and appropriate.
• Ensure that personal ESR information including annual leave is kept up to date.
• Provide cross-cover for other staff across the trust to ensure a consistent and effective service is always maintained.
• Order stationary as required.
• Attend any meetings relevant to the role and take minutes or notes of meetings as required.
• Assist the Team Manager with any reporting required for the role.
• Be proficient in the use of all electronic systems in relation to the role and undertake training as required if new technology / systems are introduced, to ensure competencies are maintained and efficiencies of the administrative processes are maximised.