Job description

team administrator and training assistant

Job description and person specification

1. Job details

Job Title: Team Administrator and Training Assistant

Responsible to: Lead Consultant, NCVO Charities Evaluation Services

Team: Charities Evaluation Services

Department: Enterprise and Development Department

2. Job purpose

To provide full administrative support to the NCVO Charities Evaluation Services (NCVO CES) team members so they can continue to deliver high quality, effective work, and meet and exceed income targets.

To act as first point of contact for NCVO training enquiries and monitor the training inbox. Where appropriate, the role will pass on enquiries to team members to progress opportunities or decline the work. The role will follow up enquiries where the need is not clear.

To improve the consistency and coherence of the work through efficient and effective organisation and administrative support to the staff team and associates, including assisting with project management, communications, financial administration, maintaining accurate customer and evaluation data, and co-ordinating events and meetings.

3. Dimensions

The post holder will sit within the NCVO CES team. Under guidance from the Lead Consultant (training lead), the postholder will provide support to the team, in order to further the aims of the team (making charities more effective and generating income for NCVO). The key dimensions of this post are:

  1. Administer training courses and other events, including booking venues, ordering catering, preparing materials
  2. Deal with training enquiries
  3. Invoicing and income/expenditure monitoring for both training and consultancy work, including monitoring and following up bad debt
  4. Market and coordinate NCVO CES training programmes and events
  5. Manage training contracts
  6. Regular maintenance and updating of our database
  7. Discreet projects as necessary, including cover for consultancy enquiries if needed.

The postholder manages no staff but may be asked to task manage temporary staff.

4. Organisation chart

5. Main accountabilities of the post

Full range of administrative support to the NCVO CES team, with support and guidance from Head of Team and our Lead Consultant (training lead), in the areas outlined below.

Enquiry management:

  • Act as main point of contact for NCVO CES training enquiries
  • Provide cover to the Assistant Consultant, where needed, for consultancy-related enquiries
  • Ensure a high-quality customer experience for all enquirers

NCVO CES training and events organisation and administration based at NCVO offices including:

  • Agree training dates (via the Lead Consultant – training lead), and ensure they are uploaded onto the NCVO website and CRM
  • Update and maintain training pages on our website
  • Market our training and other events, including specific targeted marketing for funders and commissioners
  • Lead on practical arrangements such as selecting and agreeing dates, arranging venue, making up and couriering packs, housekeeping issues
  • Manage training bookings, including invoicing and making sure courses are viable in terms of numbers of participants and financial targets
  • Prepare all materials for training courses eg delegate packs
  • Input training data, including all feedback forms
  • Prepare reports on feedback data gathered through paper and online forms

Administer NCVO CES training contracts held externally including:

  • Liaise with our team of associates including booking them for training
  • Allocate staff to training – in consultation with the Lead Consultant (training lead)
  • Book trainers’ travel and hotels
  • Liaise with clients and external stakeholders
  • Manage a small number of grants and contracts ensuring that trainer/consultants are booked in to deliver the work, and the work gets done on time

Financial administration for NCVO CES training and consultancy services:

  • Raise invoices, send them to clients and ensure they are accurately recorded
  • Credit control – chase debtors
  • Create purchase orders
  • Monitor and report on training income and expenditure
  • Ensure monthly financial transactions are accurate
  • Work with the Assistant Consultant to ensure all financial administration is done accurately and on time, and provide cover where needed

CRM Super User Group member

As a member of the Super User Group (SUG), this role will be supported by the line manager, Business Intelligence Group (BIG) and Senior Management Team in dedicating time to the Contact and Relationship Management (CRM) system and supporting other users. The postholder will:

  • Train new users in the NCVO CES team or in teams where there is no current super user
  • Support team members on a daily basis, and staff across the organisation, through running drop in sessions
  • Attend and participate in the SUG
  • Share information through the CRM system across NCVO to create a more co-ordinated and holistic approach to external engagement
  • Make the commitment to undertake CRM work including championing of the CRM system and training staff and new users in their department and across NCVO
  • Establish a clear link of governance with the BIG through the CRM lead
  • Make decisions on what requests should be escalated to the BIG as per the change request process

General assistance to the team:

  • Develop and maintain administration systems, including use of NCVO’s CRM system
  • Book team meetings, take notes and remind team members of their action points
  • The post holder has no staff management responsibility
  • Where time permits, provide admin support to consultants / assistant consultant on contract work eg, writing up interviews, survey set up and reports
  • Provide administration support on to HR matters in accordance with NCVO’s devolved approach to HR
  • All other duties reasonable to this post.

Manage all work related contacts and projects on NCVO’s CRM system

6. Work context

Each day, millions of people make a difference to the causes they believe in through voluntary organisations and volunteering. This thriving voluntary sector and volunteer movement are essential for a better society – especially in times of challenge and change. That’s why, inspired and empowered by our 13,000 members, NCVO champions the voluntary sector and volunteering. We do this by connecting, representing and supporting voluntary organisations, from the smallest community groups to the largest charities.

The Enterprise and Development Department is led by the Director of Enterprise and Development and is of one of three departments at NCVO. It comprises of the following:

•Marketing and Membership team

•NCVO Charities Evaluation Services team

•Volunteer Centre & Quality Standards unit

•Funding Central programme

The department’s objective is to help improve the performance, sustainability and contribution of voluntary organisations. It achieves this by generating sustainable income, maintaining and developing membership services and marketing. The department is also dedicated to providing high quality consultancy, support and advice, training, events, business development and collaborative ventures which meet customer needs and improve the effectiveness of both members and non-members.

NCVO Charities Evaluation Services contributes to these aims by:

•Delivering high quality direct face-to-face consulting support to organisations

•Delivering people development programmes including open and tailored training

The other NCVO departments are:

•Public Policy and Volunteering

•Planning and Resources.

NCVO is an Investor in People and Positive about Disabled People.

7. Autonomy and decision-making

  • Authorised to book rooms and venues
  • Authorised to process contracts and invoices including recommending expenditure and bad debt
  • Authorised to order office stationery
  • Authorised to supervise temporary staff
  • Authorised to book travel and accommodation for staff and associate trainers
  • Liaise with full range of internal and external partners, associates, colleagues.

8. Communications

This post needs good communication skills and can listen to and respond helpfully to colleagues internally, NCVO members, non-members, customers and potential customers. The post holder communicates with internal and external stakeholders as follows:

Internal

  • Communicates independently with the NCVO CES team and with staff across NCVO including senior staff as well as associates across England who work with NCVO.
  • Works across the organisation to raise awareness of NCVO CES training products and services and other relevant projects.
  • The post also communicates with Central Services for room and catering bookings

External

  • Primary contacts are with NCVO members, non-members, customers and potential customers on a frequent basis. These will often be senior people from a wide range of voluntary and community organisations, often with very high expectations of NCVO’s customer service.
  • The post holder will support the development of material for the team training programme and co-ordinate the training sales and marketing approach.
  • They will be responsible for ensuring a clear and consistent message is communicated and is aligned to the NCVO overall objectives and mission.

9. Main areas of difficulty

  • Unpredictable, time pressured and diverse workload. The post holder must balance a high number of competing tasks, many of them with very short notice and tight deadlines. The post holder needs to be particularly well organised, anticipating and mitigating upcoming deadlines. The post holder must also be skilled at liaising with colleagues to identify and negotiate the very top priorities, distinguishing important tasks from urgent ones, and fully achieving a challenging workload. The role will require early starts on days when training is running and may occasionally involve late finishes.
  • Supporting a busy team. The CES team membersare passionate about their work, but have a heavy workload. The post holder will need to have a cheerful and calm manner, able to balance a can-do approach with realism about what can be achieved and when.
  • Speed and accuracy. Almost all tasks undertaken by the role require very high levels of accuracy but need to be done rapidly. This requires high levels of sustained concentration, very high attention to detail, and highly developed systems for predicting and minimising errors.
  • Visibility and reputation. This post is often the first point of contact with NCVO for external members, non-members, customers and potential customers. As such, the post impacts upon NCVO’s reputation and its ability to deliver impact and financial viability. The post must consistently deliver very high quality customer service and help drive the uptake of services.

10. Essential knowledge and skills required

Knowledge

1.Educated to A level or equivalent level of writing and numeracy gained in a busy office environment
2.Knowledge of the voluntary and community sector

Skills

3.Can work and act on own initiative, prioritise tasks and manage deadlines while working in a busy team
4.Excellent communication skills, including proofreading and editing skills, attention to detail
5.High level of computer literacy – Microsoft Office and its component parts and using the web for information gathering
6.Numerate
7.Proven commitment to equal opportunities practice and behaviour
8.Excellent interpersonal skills to work with people at all levels within and external to the organisation
9.Can use social media and communicate digitally

Experience

  1. Managing/leading on training and/or event administration including logistics
  2. Invoicing and monitoring income and expenditure
  3. Communicating in a wide range of formats for a range of audiences
  4. Producing independent written work including correspondence and short draft papers and maintaining and writing content for websites
  5. Solid administrative experience
  6. Efficient use of databases like Salesforce and Dynamics

11. General information

To, at all times, adhere to NCVO’s policies on:

  • Equal Opportunities
  • Diversity and Dignity at Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Confidentiality
  • No Smoking
  • Environment and Sustainability