Business Support Administrator

John Lewis Partnership; Lancashire; Hybrid; GBP 22,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

John Lewis Partnership’s Herbert Parkinson site is seeking a capable administrator to provide essential support to the Business Support Officer as part of a broad transformation journey. You will perform a range of administrative tasks to sustain continuity, support compliance, and strengthen Partner and community engagement.

This role focuses on sickness absence management, timely updates in Workday, travel bookings, and coordinating site events.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in an administrative role.
• Excellent time management & ability to multi-task; prioritising high-volume workloads, managing competing priorities, and meeting strict deadlines.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to build strong cross‑functional relationships, engaging with a variety of stakeholders.
• High attention to detail with a zero tolerance approach to errors.
• Strong technical proficiency across Google Workspace & MS Office applications.

Responsibilities

• Manage the sickness absence line, ensuring processes are adhered to and swift communication through to relevant Partners
• Update production timesheets in Workday in a timely manner
• Support the coordination of branch visits & agendas; ensuring the appropriate information, facilities, access and refreshments are available
• Book site wide business travel when required
• Work with a cross section of Partners to support the planning and coordination of site & team activities to support Partner wellbeing & engagement levels
• Provide support for careers events and involvement with schools and colleges.
• Provide administrative support for relevant accreditation frameworks - ISO, SMETA, CHAS, Constructionline for example
• Demonstrable experience in an administrative role
• We are committed to delivering excellence in support services and stakeholder engagement.

Skills

Administrative experience

Time management

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Tools

Google Workspace

MS Office

Job description

About the role

At Herbert Parkinson, a proud and historic part of the John Lewis Partnership, we are embarking on an exciting transformation journey to secure our long-term success. By investing in state‑of‑the‑art manufacturing capabilities, streamlining our operations, and creating broader, more fulfilling roles for our Partners, we are building a more sustainable and agile future. Join us as we continue to deliver exceptional quality and service for our customers while empowering our partners to thrive. In this role, you will provide essential, high-quality administrative support to the Business Support Officer. You will perform a range of administrative tasks to maintain business continuity, support compliance, and strengthen our Partner and community engagement.

Responsibilities

• Manage the sickness absence line, ensuring processes are adhered to and swift communication through to relevant Partners
• Update production timesheets in Workday in a timely manner
• Support the coordination of branch visits & agendas; ensuring the appropriate information, facilities, access and refreshments are available
• Book site wide business travel when required
• Work with a cross section of Partners to support the planning and coordination of site & team activities to support Partner wellbeing & engagement levels
• Provide support for careers events and involvement with schools and colleges.
• Provide administrative support for relevant accreditation frameworks - ISO, SMETA, CHAS, Constructionline for example
• Demonstrable experience in an administrative role
• Excellent time management & ability to multi-task; prioritising high-volume workloads, managing competing priorities, and meeting strict deadlines
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to build strong cross‑functional relationships, engaging with a variety of stakeholders
• High attention to detail with a zero tolerance approach to errors

Desirable skills/experience you may have

Strong technical proficiency across Google Workspace & MS Office applications

We're the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We're not just employees, we're Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there's never been a more exciting time to join us.

We're ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food‑lovers in Waitrose. As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we're free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work‑life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.