Business Support Assistant - Harlow

Business Support Assistant

Fixed Term Contract

Full Time, 37 hours per week

Location: Goodman House, Harlow

Salary from GBP15,200 to GBP16,000 per annum (progression available up to GBP23,200 via performance related pay)

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK and is undergoing significant transformational change to further enhance customer focus, service and delivery. As part of this, the Business Support team will work in specialised Business Centres to promote specialised knowledge and improved service and efficiencies.

The Role:

This role involves working as part of a business support team to deliver effective, routine administrative support within a business centre; learning and developing an understanding of existing processes and systems and have a good basic knowledge of their business centre and its' activities and processes.

Job Purpose:

• Providing routine clerical support within a business centre
• Dealing with day to day work as delegated from the Business Centre Manager or directly from the customer ensuring all work is in line with Corporate and other policies and procedures
• Providing high quality, efficient and effective Business Support services to internal
• Customers within agreed timescales and SLAs
• Responding to customer requests and queries in a timely and efficient way
• Acting as a professional representative of the Business Support service at a local level
• Delivering the required activities of the respective business centre(s)
• Providing high quality self-directed clerical support, checking own work and proactively looking to raise standards
• Maintaining confidential records according to Essex County Council guidance
• Dealing with correspondence for the team or service in a timely, consistent and professional manner.
• Sharing knowledge and good practice with colleagues and highlighting more efficient ways of doing tasks

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Previous minute taking experience is desirable for this role or a keen interest in learning this skill.
  
• Good Standard of basic education - 5 GCSEs grade C and above (including Maths and English) or comparable experience/qualifications.
• Demonstrable experience and competence of MS Office applications and their practical application.
• Ability to use computerised systems with a high level of speed and accuracy.
• Previous experience of managing electronic or hard copy filing systems
• Ability to communicate in a manner which is easily understood and tailored to meet the needs of the audience.
• As part of the role you may have access to sensitive and/or personal information.
• Ability to think about alternative ways of doing things and being open to new work practices and responsive to change.
• Ability to take ownership of work and fulfil agreed commitments, checking work for accuracy.

As part of employment with Essex County Council should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please visit:

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.

Essex County Council is proud to offer an excellent benefits package to all of its employees, including:

• A local government pension scheme (LGPS)
• Annual leave entitlement of up to 29 days per year (depending upon grade and length of service)
• Purchase of additional annual leave (up to agreed limits)
• Flexible working arrangements (for most roles but depending upon service requirements)
• Discounted shopping through a dedicated Reward Portal (including discounts at major supermarkets)
• Training and development
• Interest free travel loan
• Discounted health cash plans at employee cost
• Dental health plan at employee cost
• Employee assistance programme provided in-house (wellbeing and counselling provision)
• Eyecare vouchers
• Reward vouchers and e-cards (to recognise high achievement)
• Volunteering leave (up to 2 days per year)
• Childcare vouchers, through salary sacrifice
• Cycles to work, through salary sacrifice
• Charitable giving through payroll deduction
• Local shopping discounts

Please note ECC regularly reviews its reward and benefits

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.