Executive Assistant to the Board of Directors/CEO

Murray Hall Community Trust; Tipton; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A community-focused charity in Tipton is looking for an Executive Assistant to support the Board of Directors and CEO. This role involves providing comprehensive administrative support, managing communication across teams, and ensuring efficient operations. The ideal candidate will have experience in executive assistance and strong communication skills. This position offers a supportive environment and opportunities for development.

Benefits

28 days annual leave + 8 days bank holiday

Employee Assistance Programme

Free on-site parking

Comprehensive training opportunities

Exclusive deals and discounts

Qualifications

• Prior experience as a Personal / Executive Assistant is necessary.
• Experience in handling confidential information is required.
• Proven experience of working as a PA to senior management.

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support to the CEO and Board of Directors.
• Manage day-to-day operations of the business support team.
• Coordinate meetings and prepare meeting agendas and minutes.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Problem-solving

Organizational skills

Ability to work autonomously

Education

GCSE or equivalent English and Maths grade C or above

Private Secretaries Certificate or Diploma / NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Business Administration

Tools

MS Office Suite

Job description

Executive Assistant to the Board of Directors/CEO

Managing the business support team providing administrative support across the organisation, you will directly support the Board of Trustees and Executive Management Team by way of diary management, travel coordination, liaising with internal and external stakeholders, coordination of meetings, events and project assistance, taking notes and minutes / follow-up actions for the senior leadership team.You must be able to use your initiative, problem solve and have excellent communication skills to liaise with a wide range of stakeholders.

Prior experience as a Personal / Executive Assistant is a necessity for this position, supporting at a senior level within a charitable organisation would be highly beneficial.

Main duties of the job

To provide a professional and comprehensive administrativeand secretarial support to the Board of Directors (Trustees),Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive ManagementTeam (EMT).

Manage the day-to-day operations of the Business Supportteam, ensuring efficient processes, and contributing to overallbusiness planning and performance. Improvement of businessfunctions, managing resources, and acting as a liaison betweendifferent teams and departments across the organisation.

Ensure good quality information flows between Trustees,Executive Management Team and the wider charity, acting as apoint of contact for the Board of Directors, and ensuring that aformal schedule of matters for Directors decisions ismaintained.

Facilitate seamless and productive communication across keystakeholders, to support the effective delivery of theorganisations goals and objectives.

About us

About our Organisation

We are a charity that exists to transform lives through delivering impactful services across Sandwell and the surrounding areas. We work collaboratively with public, private and voluntary organisations, educational settings and other partners to design and deliver sustainable innovative solutions to improve the lives of children, families, young people and adults from early years to end of life care.

What we offer:

28 Days annual leave + 8 days bank holiday (pro rata for part time employees)

Employee Assistance Programme

Free on-site parking

Comprehensive training and development opportunities

Exclusive deals and discounts on products and services

Friendly and supportive working environment

Murray Hall Community Trust is an equal opportunities employer and will provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process and invite potential applicants to contact us to identify any additional support they may require to enable them to make an application.

Job responsibilities

Provide support to the CEO, EMT and Board of Directors fordiary management, arranging and co-ordinating meetings and events, organisingvenues and resources as required.

To advise on the annual calendar of the Trusts Boardmeetings and tasks and maintain appropriate records.

Responsible for the organisation and co-ordination of Boardand Sub-committee meetings in conjunction with the Chair of the Board and theChairs of the Committees.

Liaise with the Chair, Directors, CEO and EMT to scheduleany other meetings and events as required, some of which may be critical andurgent.

Work with the Chair to develop Board meeting agendas, andmake arrangements for presentations and internal/external speakers.

Liaise with the CEO and EMT regarding preparation formeetings, and conduct meeting follow up. This includes preparing meetingagendas, collating and distributing meeting minutes, reports and other papersin good time for Board and other meetings. Following up on any agreed actionpoints with those responsible and informing the Chair of progress. Send papers toDirectors by post and email if requested.

Provide efficient secretarial assistance for meetings, suchas sending meeting invites and virtual log-ins, managing room bookings andarranging refreshments. Assisting Directors with travel arrangements and thepayment of expenses when required.

Attend meetings as required (some of which may be out ofhours) and take accurate and professional minutes of Board meetings, sub-groupsand any ad-hoc meetings and maintain a record of attendance and apologies.

Support the EMT with tasks including system administration(including software and telephones), and provide training, guidance and updatesas required.

Responsible for monitoring and responding to incoming emailsfrom the MHCT info@ inbox, plus others that may be relevant, forwarding emailsto the appropriate recipient(s) within the Trust. General administration of theinfo@ account.

Using a customer centred approach, provide a comprehensiveadministrative support service to internal projects, staff members, externalstakeholders and service users.

Provide full telephone support within the wider officeensuring that anyone contacting the Trust are dealt with empathetically,professionally and with respect.

Preparation and issue of all written communications, emailsand letters on behalf of the CEO, Board of Directors and EMT, maintainingrecords of all correspondence as appropriate and filtering incomingcommunications/correspondence as necessary.

Ensure copies of statutory policies and other documentsapproved by the Board are recorded, reviewed and published as agreed and as pergovernance requirements and internal processes.

Take minutes and produce them accurately within specifieddeadlines, this will include attending Directors meetings, sub-committees andaccompanying the EMT to various meetings, some of which may be outside officehours.

To be fully conversant with the Memorandum and Articles ofAssociation for the Charity and the Terms of Reference of its Committees and toadvise the Directors on matters of governance and procedure in this respect.

Ensure the Trust Board is properly constituted, maintaincopies of current terms of reference and members of committees/working partiesand that meetings are quorate and all disclosure/conflict of interest.

Support the Executive Team to ensure official and legalrecords are up to date, for example Charity Commission and Company Houserecords.

Maintain a record of signed minutes of meetings and ensurecopies are sent to relevant parties upon direction from the CEO/Chair and arepublished as agreed at meetings.

Maintain membership records of each individual Directorsterm of office and attendance and alert the Chair in advance of any impendingDirector (Trustee) vacancies and non-attendance at meetings.

Support the Chair, CEO and HR, in the recruitment processfor Board Directors (Trustees) as required and to contribute to the inductionof newly appointed Directors.

Establish and monitor the appraisal and performance reviewcycle for the Directors Board.

Support to senior managers with production of reports,letters, emails and other communications and carrying out any otheradministrative tasks including photocopying, faxing, emailing, scanning,laminating and binding.

Ensure the Bid Register is kept updated and liaise withother team members and stakeholders as required, ensuring organisation filesand documents are kept updated.

Provide support with bids and tenders: such as setting upbid folders, this may include downloading documents, submitting clarificationquestions and checking on responses and communication via portal) completingthe due diligence sections, support with overseeing the contract &sub-contract document collections and overseeing completion of the information required.

Maintain governance documents, files, contact details,activity data as required throughout the organisation.

To set up, develop and maintain appropriate filling systems,both hard copy and electronically.

Work within boundaries of confidentiality appropriate tosensitive and confidential information and manage information effectively inaccordance with legal requirements.

Book, and prepare meeting rooms including ensuring requiredequipment and resources are available and set-up for use, for exampleprojectors/screens, flipcharts.

Provide meet and greet and hospitality to visitors attendingmeetings with the Directors and/or EMT.

Participate in own personal development by undertakingtraining specific to the job role.

Assist in any project work as required.

Maintain and support the ISMS information management systemfor information security, access and to co-ordinate and support with internalannual audits including preparation and resulting actions.

To carry out any other duties as reasonably required.

Person Specification

Communication

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to communicate at all levels, verbally, face to face, by telephone and in writing.
• Effective interpersonal skills and be able to communicate on a variety of levels with colleagues, Directors and professionals from other external organisations developing good working relationships.
• Demonstrate tact, diplomacy and an ability to operate with a high degree of flexibility and adaptability and in strict confidence.

Personal Qualities

• A pleasant approachable manner with a mature professional approach to working.
• A willingness to adopt a flexible approach to work, the post holder may occasionally be required to work outside of normal working hours.
• The quality to work on own initiative; prioritise a varied work programme whilst being under pressure.
• Complete confidentially and integrity for the material and information that exposed during the day-to-day role.

Qualifications

• GCSE or equivalent English and Maths grade C or above.
• Private Secretaries Certificate or Diploma / NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Business Administration or previous PA experience.

Knowledge and Skills

• A sound knowledge of confidentially and data protection, the post holder will be required to handle private and confidential and sensitive information and will be required to maintain confidentially with regard to all work and information, particularly that provided by EMT and Trustee Board.
• Ability to work unsupervised at times and autonomously using own initiative managing own time effectively and prioritising own workload.
• An innovative approach, utilising technology solutions to perform administrative tasks efficiently and effectively.
• Conversant in the use of the full MS Office suite including PowerPoint and Excel
• Good level of organisational skills.
• Knowledge of Trust Board procedures and legislative requirements

Other requirements

• Able to work at times convenient to the Trust Board, including evening meetings.
• Able to travel to meetings.
• Available to be contacted at mutually agreed times outside of normal working hours.
• This role is subject to an enhanced + barred list DBS check and the postholder is required to maintain a subscription to the DBS update service

Experience

• Proven experience of working as a PA to senior and executive managers/directors.
• Experience of diary management, organising meetings, conferences and events.
• Experience of attending and minuting meetings.
• Experience of using a range of IT applications such as Email, facilities, Microsoft Word,
• Access, Excel, PowerPoint including a laptop.
• Experience of supervising a team in a busy office environment and to deadlines.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.