Senior Personal Assistant

At a glance

• Working Pattern/Flexible Working: This role is based in Bracknell and while there will be the opportunity to work from home for some of your week, you will be expected to be based in Bracknell or travel to other locations as per the needs of your Director (on average up to 3 days per week). There will also be a degree of flexibility required which can be discussed further during interview.

• Salary Range: The salary range for this role is £39,600 - £55,400

• Contract Type: This is initially a 6 month Secondment/Fixed Term Contract with the potential to be extended or made permanent.

• Depending on interest in this role, we may decide to close the vacancy early so please ensure you complete all steps of your application as early as possible.

• Once you've submitted an application the next steps of the process, if successful, will include a face-to-face interview at our Head Office in Bracknell with an Executive Assistant and Senior Personal Assistant. If successful at this stage, this will be followed by a conversation with the Senior Leaders and the opportunity to get a deeper insight into what this role will be like.

Key Responsibilities

• The ideal candidate will have the key skills to be able to plan and prioritise, both short (daily/weekly) and longer term (quarterly/annually) to ensure the internal and external commitments of your Director(s) are met. 

• Manage mail, calendar and other apps (e.g. G+ communities) on behalf of your Director(s). Filter, draft, compile and cascade timely information. 

• Coordinate complex meetings and UK and overseas business travel - organising itineraries, flights, transportation, hotels, passports and business visas. Represent your Director(s) in comms & correspondence where some judgement is applied.

• This may include preparing and editing presentations, speeches, letters and scripts, and drawing up key messages to help your Director(s) prepare for key internal and external engagements. 

• Support your Director(s) with meeting materials and preparation. 

• Work with Personal Assistants in other business areas to share best practice/consistency of approach across the profession. 

• Ensure that external/internal stakeholder relationships are well maintained and support you and your leaders business requirements. 

• Scope, curate, manage and execute successful events - ensuring all the logistics are managed with support from the Profession and/or teams. 

• Handle secret/confidential information in an appropriate way, always maintaining complete discretion. Provide miscellaneous business support to your Director(s) (e.g. 1 Partnership awards, team day support, team workday support). 

• Work collaboratively across the Profession and with the Executive Assistant to develop the effectiveness of your business area and the Profession as a whole.

Essential skills you’ll need

• Communication - Role requires strong communication skills (written and verbal).

• Task and Prioritising Skills - Ability to rapidly assess and prioritise workload of yourself and the leader(s) you are supporting. This includes complex meetings, diary and travel management.

• Stakeholder Management - Ability to build and maintain a wide range of internal and external stakeholder relationships, relative to the business area.

• Administration - Role requires strong administrative skills to ensure your leader is sufficiently prepared to complete their role effectively. 

• People Management - Although this role does not always require direct people management, it is possible in the future therefore an ability to effectively lead Partners, coach, mentor and support their development through the profession is a key element of the Senior PA role.

• Previous administration support roles in a commercial setting

• Proficient use of IT systems and confidence in adapting to new technologies 

Desirable skills you could bring

• Experience within either a commercial or grocery retail business.

• Experience of supporting multiple leaders at once 

• People management and/or leadership experience 

• Large scale event management  

Benefits of the Partnership and the role

- Hybrid Working

️ - Full - time working holiday entitlement 22 days holiday, plus public and bank holidays (this is prorated for part time hours).

⚖ - Excellent work life balance, including focus on well being and flexible working and our marketing leading equal parenthood leave Policy

- Defined Contribution pension scheme where your contributions will be matched by the Partnership (up to 8% of pay) and, after three years’ service, you’ll receive an additional Partnership contribution of 4% of pay, regardless of whether you pay in or not

- You’ll get Partnership discount in store and online once you complete your Earning Membership period. That’s 25% off in John Lewis (12% off electrical products, some exclusions apply) and 20% in Waitrose (some exclusions apply) You’ll also be able to nominate someone you live with to share your discount.

-  Simple cycle to work support scheme

- We’re really proud of our exclusive hotels based in some of Britain’s most beautiful areas and once you’ve been with us for three months, you’re welcome to explore them

-  Learn more about our extensive range of exciting benefits that you could enjoy when you join us, visit - ttps://www.jlpjobs.com/about/benefits/

For External Applicants: To view the job description please view the attachment below.