JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Business Support Officer

Base:Leeds

Reports To: Director – Employment Services

Date Prepared: July 2014

Grade:Administrator

PURPOSE

To provide effective businessand administrative support to the Director and Assistant Directors of Employment Services.

The post holder will work independently and as part of the team to provide specific support to the senior team to ensure delivery of core business and to develop new programmes of work, business opportunities for the team and support .

They will help with the co-ordination, administration and delivery of specific pieces of work that support the senior team in carrying out their roles and functions without direct supervision.

The post holder will work in collaboration with other programme officers to provide effective business and administrative support to the Employment Services team.

The NHS Employers Organisation

The NHS Employers organisation helps employers make sense of current and emerging healthcare issues.We are committed to ensuring that we are:

•The recognised representative body for employers in the NHS.

•The authoritative voice of workforce leaders.

•Experts in HR.

•Negotiating fairly to get the best deal for patients.

The NHS Employers organisation (NHSE) represents the whole range of views from across employing organisations in the NHS in England on workforce issues, and supports employers to put patients first. NHS Employers is the accountable and representative voice of employers and is part of the NHS Confederation.

Our role isto help employers understand and contribute to changes in the system to enable them to improve the quality of patient care. This includes providing general advice and guidance on good practice, as well as representing NHS organisations to policy makers. We work with the HR community and the whole range of Board level members to ensure we arrive at a position based on the views of employers.

Our work spans the whole remit of workforce issues and has both an overview and responsibility for the delivery of a number of workforce functions including pay, reward, employment practice, regulation, planning and supporting cultural and behaviour change.

Our work on organisational development, staff engagement, values-based recruitment and staff health and wellbeing has a specific focus on improving staff experience.

We keep employers up to date with the latest workforce thinking and expert opinion, provide practical advice and information, and generate opportunities to network, share knowledge and best practice. We regularly collectand analyse the views of employers to ensure we can represent them as policy is formulated.

We have a set of core values which sit at the heart of our business. They shape and drive how we do things at the NHS Employers organisation and how we expect our staff to behave:- we are assured, bold, leading and expert and we treat everyone with respect.

Our business objectives are set around four cornerstones: grow the core, being responsive, being the applied expert and generating business.

Employment Services team

The employment services team is a large team working across a number of diverse programmes within NHS Employers.

The Director and Assistant Directors work closely with senior colleagues and chief officers from across the national health organisations (including DH, NHS England, Health Education England, Public Health England and the Leadership Academy) as well as national leads in our key stakeholder organisations, Board level colleagues from within the NHS and senior representatives from commercial and partner organisations.

The team represents the views of NHS employers in England to national policy makers. It also provides coherent advice, support, materials, leading edge briefings and events for employers around recruitment, retention and all aspects of employment practice to help improve staff experience and the quality and efficiency of processes. We do this to ensure a high quality workforce is available to deliver quality and safe patient care.

Building on the core values of NHS Employers we have developed a set of expectations that we expect all team members to demonstrate in terms of managing yourself:

  • Take care of your own well being
  • Manage yourself and your emotions
  • Share your knowledge and experience
  • Use appropriate language when communicating to others to ensure they understand
  • Be decisive
  • Be positive – focus on what you can do and why something will/could work
  • Actively seek feedback and act on it (where appropriate)
  • Know when to step in and do it yourself and when to leave others to have a go
  • Be self aware: know your strengths and development needs and look for ways to develop
  • Be visible

ACTIVITIES:

The post holder will:

  • adopt a professional and values based approach to the delivery of the work.
  • be the first point of contact for internal and external requests for the Director and Assistant Directors, using own initiative to provide responses and information where appropriate.
  • build and maintain relationships with relevant colleagues both internally and externally to support a proactive and effective working relationship between NHS Employers teams (internally) and NHS Employers and key national organisations (externally)
  • plan and manage the organisation of internal and external meetings, seminars and events including organising cost effective travel and managing complex diary management for the Director and Assistant Directors (including the attendance of Director and Assistant Directors at externally organised meetings and events)
  • work effectively and collaboratively with colleagues in the team and across the organisation
  • working with HR and relevant team members, provide the administrative and logistical function for new recruitment to the Employment Services team, induction of new staff and leavers
  • help to ensure that the Employment Services team is seen as expert and responsive by having effective systems in place to be both proactive in supporting employers and to respond to requests in a timely and accurate manner
  • research information as required and prepare draft papers or reports for internal and external use
  • prepare presentations as required for the Director and Assistant Directors
  • use the corporate governance framework and processes to develop templates and systems for employment services to utilise when developing new programmes or business ideas
  • have responsibility for creating and updating project plans for new and potentialprogrammes of work and business
  • facilitate engagementand communication activities to ensure that new programme development has effective, ongoing engagement with employers – this could involve setting up and managing a reference groupor working with colleagues to identify existing suitable groups
  • produce written documents and summaries for internal and external use
  • regularly update relevant NHS Employers web pages and Oracle, drafting communication materials for internal and external use
  • use initiative to support colleagues in away which enables the team toperform effectively and to the highest standard - this could involve setting up systems or arrangements which will assist the successful development and running of a project or task
  • under the direction of the relevant senior team member, agree specific activities and areas of responsibility to support the delivery of the business plan
  • sometimes be required to travel to provide programme, administrative and logistical support at external events and meetings

To undertake the activities above, the post holder will need to be able to demonstrate a high level of capability in the following areas:

  • The ability to build and manage relationships with internal and external colleagues
  • Provide strong administrative and have organising skills to be able to support the Director and Assistant Directors deliver core and new business and fulfil their internal leadership/management roles
  • Planning and project management skills to work to meet challenging deadlines and track activity for self and the senior team
  • Managing complex diary co-ordination to enable the Director and Assistant Directors to fulfil their corporate roles
  • Good written and analytical skills to produce draft reports, papers and presentations for the Director and Assistant Directors
  • Ability to organise and co-ordinate communication and engagement activities with employers/stakeholders, maintaining networks and liaising with members
  • Ability to assess priorities and problem solve day to day issues
  • Able to research and analyse information and data to present to the Director/Assistant Director for further consideration/decision
  • Able to work on own initiative and with minimal supervision

Person Specification
BUSINESS SUPPORT OFFICER / Essential / Desirable / Application Form / Interview
Personal Qualities
Acts with integrity and respect for others / X / X
Positively engages with others in the planning and delivery of activities / X / X
Adopts a professional and conscientious approach to tasks / X / X
Has a can-do attitude and a practical focus to solutions / X / X
Knowledge
Competent in MS Office [particular Outlook, Word, Powerpoint & Excel] / X / X / X
An understanding of key issues facing NHS employers, staff and patients / X / X
Experience and ability
Producing an excellent standard of written documentation / X / X / X
Utilising project/programme management approaches to manage and deliver work / x / X / X
Prioritising and managing a large workload / X / X / X
Working to tight deadlines / X / X
Drafting website content and communication material / X / X
Representing a business or organisation to external contacts / x / X
Developing administrative systems which support the delivery of a project / X / X / X
Undertaking large and complex tasks using a logical and organised approach / X / X / X
Able to make occasional trips in the UK / X / X
Working in a busy office environment / X / X
Skills
Summarising, structuring and drafting written material to a high standard / X / X / X
Communicating with people at all levels, in different organisations, face to face, via telephone, email or social media / X / X / X
Strong organising skills / X / X / x
Accredited project/programme management skills / X / X