Student Enquiries Assistant Manager

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

About King's:

The King's community is dedicated to the service of society. King's Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us.

The Student Knowledge, Information and Enquiries department brings together colleagues who are focused on helping students to get the information they need quickly and easily and also to engage with their programme and university life more broadly, through management of inbound enquiries and service requests, static and dynamic digital content, and outbound communications. Our remit covers all King's students, from enrolment to graduation.

Student Services Frontline is King's central team for enquiry management. Supported by a comprehensive knowledge bank (Student Services Online), the team handle a wide array of enquiries from current students, alumni and third parties, received through online enquiry forms, over the phone, through webchat and in person at our help desks.

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King's students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King's faculties to do so.

About the role:

Student Enquiries Assistant Managers support the day-to-day operations of the Student Services Frontline team and manage a group of enquiry handlers. They promote high performance and provide holistic support to their direct reports while acting as a point of escalation for complex enquiries.

Key responsibilities:

• Line manage a small group of Student Enquiries Officers, giving clear direction on desired outcomes and enabling professional development to help them meet performance targets and deliver excellent customer service to our students.

• Monitor and take action on qualitative feedback and complaints to enhance team performance and quality of service provision.

• Collaboratively manage day-to-day service delivery with other Student Enquiries Assistant Managers, prioritising and planning workflows and rotas to ensure effective staffing.

• Identify opportunities for continuous improvements and support the implementation of changes to enhance the service, in line with the student enquiry management strategy.

• Act as point of escalation for highly complex or urgent student cases, deferring to more senior colleagues as appropriate. Develop expert knowledge on all relevant processes and policies.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to gain experience in improvements to student success, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in customer services. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in both line management and resource management.

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

Relevant work experience and/or education

• We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences and training could support you to be successful in this role, alongside an understanding of the challenges students face in higher education.

Skills and Experience

• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate and distribute information clearly. Understanding of need for confidentiality and when and how to escalate / signpost sensitive cases. Ability to contribute to team discussions with confidence, but give others space to speak.
• Ability to manage others and give clear direction on desired outcomes, with the skills to empower direct reports and to take a proactive approach to own role.
• Experience of delivering excellent customer service in a pressurised, high-volume environment, with the ability to work both independently and in a team in a fast-changing setting.
• Ability to manage your own workload and that of the team in order to meet deadlines and service standards.
• Ability to take responsibility for own decision making, resolve any problems that arise, consulting with others and seeking specialist guidance where required.
• Experience of change management, with the ability to work with others to deliver departmental project aims and overcome challenges.

Knowledge

• Clear understanding of and commitment to the principles of customer care, including a sound knowledge of the sensitive nature of personal data, and the importance of compliance with Data Protection Legislation (GDPR).
• Sound knowledge of Microsoft Office suite including Outlook and Excel, understanding of customer relationship management (CRM) software and the ability to learn new systems quickly and competently.

Desirable criteria

• More than a years' experience of inspiring, motivating and managing a team alongside supervising and managing the workload of others.
• Experience using Microsoft Dynamics 365 customer relationship management (CRM) software for customer service.

Full details of the role and the skills and experience required can be found in the attached job description which is provided on the next page.

Further information:

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our 'How we Recruit' pages.