Personal Assistant - Consumer Markets

BDO; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading accountancy and business advisory firm in Greater London is seeking a dedicated Administrative Assistant. In this role, you will provide comprehensive support to Partners and Directors, manage calendars, organise meetings, and facilitate client communications. We're looking for someone with strong communication skills and proficiency in MS Office, who is proactive and able to thrive in a busy environment. The firm promotes agile working and values team collaboration.

Qualifications

• Ability to understand the Group’s and Firm’s environment and structure.
• Exercise initiative, discretion, and organisation effectively.
• Identify and tackle problems efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and co‑ordinate diaries of Partners and group members.
• Arrange internal/external meetings and events.
• Organise business travel and prepare itineraries.
• Act as the first point of contact for clients.
• Monitor e‑mails and reply on behalf of Partners.

Skills

Intermediate to advanced level of Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Fast accurate typing skills

Excellent communication skills

Ability to manage / prioritise tasks

Proactive team member

Tools

Outlook

Concur

Workday

CMS

InTapp

Job description

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams leading them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

Playing an important support role at BDO, our Secretarial and Administration team contributes to our success by taking responsibility for planning and organisation. Their proactive approach to what we do ensures our projects operate seamlessly and co-operation remains strong across our firm. Whatever the challenge, they provide the foundations on which we can excel. Joining this team, you’ll enjoy a friendly and supportive environment – and plenty of variety to keep you on your toes. Want to play your part in our international operation?

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long‑lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

This role will provide a full range of support for the Consumer Markets Sector of the London Audit Group for a mix of Partners and Directors as well as professional staff within the sector.

Providing administrative, business and personal assistance within the department and to become an integral member of the Business Support team.

In this busy role you will:

• Maintain and co‑ordinate diaries of Partner(s) and group members as required as well as providing an effective time‑management approach
• Arrange and co‑ordinate internal/external meetings and events. Liaising with delegates, booking boardrooms and arranging refreshments/equipment as necessary
• Organise extensive business travel, visas, hotel accommodation, preparation of itineraries, cars etc
• Significant liaison with clients for meetings, presentations and reports
• Acting as first point of contact for clients by proving phone coverage by receiving, screening and routing all incoming telephone calls, correspondence and mail
• Monitor e‑mails/meeting invitations of Partner(s) and reply on their behalf when needed.
• Monthly billing for the team on Workday
• Updating of the AMD on a quarterly basis
• Use of CMS to maintain accurate client/target information, as well as pipeline management
• Performing conflict checks and client take on
• Documentation creation and management, including typing as necessary
• Taking minutes at meetings when required
• To maintain confidentiality at all times
• Completion of expense reports in a timely manner
• Dealing with personal administration as and when required
• Liaising with high level Partners
• Liaison with the BS Hub in respect of secretarial cover within the group as well as providing support to other PAs as necessary, including holiday and sickness cover
• Acting as gatekeeper for Partners
• Visibility of high level confidential information and maintaining confidentiality
• Responsible to act on the Partner(s) and Director’s behalf on a range of issues and projects.
• To provide an exceptional client experience and support client initiatives within the firm, as well as being responsive and helping to create a positive impression at all touch points
• Provide secretarial cover within the group as well as providing cover to the group as a whole and assisting other secretaries when necessary
• Deal with routine enquiries and taking appropriate messages
• Industry research when required
• Provide cover for other team members of the support team (holiday/sickness etc)
• General administrative assistance to group as required.
• Ensuring appropriate handovers are completed to ensure tasks are passed over accordingly

You’ll be someone with:

• Intermediate to advanced level of Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Fast accurate typing skills
• Excellent communication skills
• To either have previous experience in, or ability to learn Outlook, Concur, Workday, CMS, InTapp.
• Ability to manage / prioritise tasks
• Be a proactive member of the team
• Ability to readily understand the Group’s and Firm’s environment, the Firm’s structure and culture
• Ability in exercising initiative, discretion and organisation
• Be able to identify and evaluate problems and demonstrate the ability to approach and tackle problems effectively

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to our business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer everyone the opportunity to work in ways that suit them, their teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people‑centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs.

Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value and satisfying experiences at work, so we’ve invested in state‑of‑the‑art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO.

We’re looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions.

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.