Leadership Group Support Assistant

Are you an enthusiastic self-starter with a passion for adding value through delivering outstanding support? If so, we have an exciting opportunity to join Audit Scotland as a Leadership Group Support Assistant. In this role, you will support the organisation to deliver strategic objectives in our aim to make Scotland a better place.

Overall purpose of the role

You will assist the Leadership Group Support Team of Audit Scotland to help support the senior leaders to make best use of their time so they can focus on delivery of their strategic objectives and priorities. You enjoy working on different priorities at the same time and pro-actively supporting the organisation to achieve its goals.

You put to good use your administration, prioritising and communication skills to fit in urgent business to pro-actively support the Leadership Group Support Team and the organisation to achieve its goals

What you will be doing

As one of our valued team members, you’ll be doing the following to provide a high standard of support to the organisation which will help meet the organisation’s objectives.

• Providing integral support to the Leadership Group Support team to help with the planning, scheduling and administration of group meetings, larger Leadership Group events and workshops, drawing on your event organisation skills
• Annual planning of meetings, events and business for the Leadership Group Support Team.
• Provide proactive holiday cover for the Leadership Group Support Team by supporting their Directors and the team mailbox for support requests .
• Ownership of the Leadership Group Support Team Sharepoint site and upkeep of team documents, working in collaboration with the other BSS Teams.
• Other tasks requested by the Leadership Group Support Team; including typing meeting notes, monitoring action trackers, meeting planning, booking conferences and organising travel for Leadership Group to maximise the time leaders have.
• Supporting the Executive Officer to deliver day to day tasks for the AGS and COO. Including diary management, inbox screening, meeting pack preparation, tracking corporate actions and project key milestones.
• Liaising with internal and external stakeholders, always a positive representative of the Leadership Group Support Team to develop effective working relationships and deliver your work.
• Support the weekly administration process for the Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee, including collating and submission of papers, tracking correspondence and outstanding business
• Support for the Forum Support Co-ordinator at periods where multiple committees fall in a short period of time, including: formatting papers, meeting logistics, paper issue and monitoring of mailboxes.
• Act as a secretariat for working groups and committees across all Audit Scotland as required. Supporting group planning, agenda and supporting information, meeting logistics, minutes and action tracking to ensure forums operate smoothly and effectively.
• Help to prepare/edit/format reports and documents ensuring materials meet quality standards.
• Ability to proactively identify opportunities to improve processes and resolve situations.
• Responsible for maintaining complete and accurate electronic files.
• Deal with a range of confidential information with GDPR.
• Participate in working groups or corporate projects to deliver outcomes for the organisation.
• You are devoted to your own personal development.
• You will work flexibly to ensure the support requirements of the organisation are met. This may mean providing ad hoc support for other teams or may require some work out with normal office hours on occasion if required.

Knowledge and experience

• You will be able to demonstrate experience of working within an administration, secretarial or personal assistant role and looking to develop your Executive Assistant skills.
• You have some experience and confident in the use of O365 Microsoft packages and a working knowledge of SharePoint, Teams and have an up to date working knowledge of AV and smart technology.
• You will have a good standard of education or some administration qualification.
• You may have worked in the public, private or ‘third’ sectors and you can share your knowledge and forward-thinking ideas on how you can make a difference in improving services and delivering excellent customer service.
• Some experience of diary management and planning.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, assertiveness, organisational, planning and administrative skills
• Ability to effectively prioritise a varied workload and balance priorities
• Able to work under pressure to deliver tight deadlines if required
• You plan in meticulous detail visualising the end outcome while always maintaining flexibility to deal with those last minute ‘urgent’ issues that arise.
• You have an awareness of corporate governance and follow guidance to ensure the business operates effectively.
• Some experience in supporting corporate forums or acting as team secretariat.
• Some experience of supporting team projects. Using your initiative to identify where improvements can be made and processes enhanced.
• You manage sensitive matters with a high level of confidentiality and discretion.

Person specification - specific knowledge and experience

Essential

• A good standard of organisation and planning skills to manage multiple and competing demands as well as prioritising your own workload. (S&I)
• A good standard of administration skills (S&I)
• A good standard of written and verbal skills with the ability to work with people at all levels, network and build strong working relationships internally and externally. (S&I)
• A high level of attention to detail. (S)
• A good standard of education, or some specific Administration qualification or other relevant area or previous work experience in these areas. (S)
• Ability to work independently and be resourceful, but equally excel working as part of a team. (S&I)
• Some experience of managing and planning diaries. (S&I)
• Experienced and confident in the use of O365 Microsoft packages and a working knowledge of SharePoint and Teams. (S&I)

Desirable

• Some experience in supporting corporate forums or acting as team secretariat. (S&I)
• Ability to work with organisational systems. (S&I)
• Ability to proactively identify opportunities to improve processes and resolve situations. (S)
• Corporate and strategic awareness with the ability to keep this up to date. (S)
• Some experience of supporting projects. (S)
• Some experience in supporting leaders with the ability to manage confidential information. (S&I)
• Ability to quickly and effectively identify solutions to problems. (S&I)

*S = Shortlisting criteria I = Interview criteria A = Assessment / Exercise

Interested? Next steps

Click the apply button to complete an application form. If you wish, you can also share your CV. We offer a range of benefits, please visit our careers page for more information at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/careers.

Our application deadline is Sunday 12 May 2024 at midnight.

Audit Scotland

Our vision is that public money is well spent to meet the needs of Scotland's people.

To achieve this, we support the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission to provide clear, independent and objective assurance on how effectively public money is being managed and spent. Our work covers about £59bn of public spending, almost 300 public sector accounts, and the services and projects that affect all people and communities in Scotland.

As well as what we do, how we do it is integral to delivering our vision and critical to our wellbeing and our organisational success. We put our organisational values of equality, independence, innovation, integrity and respect at the heart of everything we do.

We employ around 340 staff in a wide variety of roles, working from our main offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and through a network of regional offices across Scotland.

There has never been a more interesting or important time to join us. We offer a rewarding place to work, a supportive and open culture and a wide range of professional development opportunities. Benefits include 42 days of annual leave including public holidays, an attractive local government pension scheme with 19.4% employer contributions, personal development allowances and flexible working hours. We’ve also been named one of the top 25 workplaces in Scotland and the UK’s tenth best accountancy workplace in the 2023 Best Companies awards.

Diversity and Inclusion

We value the unique perspective a diverse workforce brings to what we do. Therefore, we’re keen to increase representation in our workforce and support progression of minority ethnic groups. We are also a proud disability confident employer.

Reasonable Adjustments

Audit Scotland’s recruitment process may include various stages and activities including application forms, online assessments, and interviews, to assess whether you meet the requirements of the role.

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to providing inclusive and accessible recruitment where everyone is supported to perform at their best.

When applying for a job with Audit Scotland, you will be asked in the application form if you need an adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process. Please include the reason you require an adjustment and details of what adjustment/s might help.

Some examples of adjustments that have been given to candidates include changing the time, location or format of interviews and providing additional time in any assessments and interviews. This is not an exhaustive list, and we will consider any adjustments that you might need.

As part of our commitment to equality and diversity, our equality network groups would be delighted to offer an insight into Audit Scotland’s culture of inclusivity. If you consider yourself to have a visible or hidden disability and wish to hear more about life at Audit Scotland or wish to speak with someone about the possibility of any adjustments, please contact Careers@audit-scotland.gov.uk or call 0131 625 1500 for further information and a member of the HR team will be in touch.

How we work

We employ around 340 staff in a wide variety of roles. They work flexibly at home and in the office as well as from audit sites across Scotland. This isn’t your typical work from home or work from office type job. We’re flexible about working patterns and we’ve transformed how we deliver high-quality public audit. We support you to work in the ways that achieve the best results for you, your team and the business, including your physical location and how you manage your hours. Put simply, we trust you to do your job, and want you to have the ability to have a rewarding work-life balance and best support your individual circumstances, be that childcare, adult carer responsibilities or managing disabilities.

We welcome applications from across the UK. Some travel to our offices or client sites will be necessary at times, but you don’t need to live in Scotland to work for us.

Other conditions

Audit Scotland is committed to ensuring that:

• We minimise our impact on the environment in accordance with Government policy affecting public sector organisations.
• We uphold the principles of equality, fairness & diversity.
• We all work within a safe environment and adhere to good standards of health & safety.
• All information is protected and managed appropriately.
• We maintain independence and political neutrality.