Project Secretary

REPORTS TO: Head of Administration and Facilities

LOCATION: County Durham

OVERALL OBJECTIVES:

Provide administrative support to the project teams and other designated staff.

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Prepare and edit documents, including key review reports and presentations, as well as prioritising workloads and correspondence.

• Act as Project Secretary on your allocated prospects and projects, providing seamless, efficient, and effective administrative support to the project team.

• Work with the Community Team to coordinate liaison meetings and other external facing events relating to operational sites.

• Work with the project team to coordinate external facing events, such as surgeries and exhibitions to gain positive support from the local area.

• Provide a professional and friendly service when attending events, including corporate networking, community liaisons and exhibitions.

• Undertake project / key review audits as designated to you by the Senior Project Secretary and highlight / complete remedial actions as appropriate.

• Record management for core documents, ensuring corporate guidelines on hard and soft copy filing procedures are maintained.

• Minute taking when required, ensuring that matters arising from meetings are dealt with by the appropriate person within the agreed timescales.

• Actively participate in the project programme and project secretarial meetings, by sharing workloads, lessons learnt and working practices to encourage best practice across the team.

• Monitoring of PPOD, project and operational report mailboxes.

• Act as PPOD (Planning Permission Online Database) Secretary, to support other admin staff, planners and project teams on the input of relevant information.

• Provide induction training to all new project secretaries and planners on PPOD, as well as reviewing working instructions.

• Working with the Planning Director, coordinate and actively participate in the PPOD Working Group to encourage high standards.

• Attending meetings, where project secretarial input is required and relay information back to the Senior Project Secretary, Senior PA and the team, where relevant.

• Update the Senior Project Secretary with project changes, including planning application timescales, deadlines and any other issues, which may affect your workload and to support them in keeping the programme up-to-date.

• Raise purchase orders and process invoices in a timely manner as required.

• Ensure a high standard of document production in accordance with corporate templates.

• Maintain any operational reporting spreadsheets in a timely manner, to allow for draft reports to be prepared and circulated prior to board meetings.

• Provide a professional and welcoming environment for external stakeholders when visiting the office.

• Field any generic telephone enquiries and direct messages to the relevant staff.

• The above list is not exhaustive, and there will be a reasonable requirement for you to assist your fellow admin team as well as other professionals, as and when required. This includes but is not limited to undertaking tasks to assist in the efficiency of other teams (eg the project and planning teams) as well as team cover during holidays and other absences.

KEY CONTACTS:

• Head of Administration and Facilities
• Project Teams
• Project Secretaries
• Allocated Staff

WORKING ENVIRONMENT:

The majority of your time will be based in County Durham. There may be a requirement for you to travel to other offices, attend external meetings including exhibitions and corporate networking events.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

PROJECT SECRETARY

QUALIFICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

ESSENTIAL:

• Wealth of admin experience supporting staff with various roles
• Experience of project secretarial work
• Proficient in Microsoft Office packages, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams

DESIRABLE:

• Business Admin Qualification
• Experience of auditing procedures
• Experience of working in a fast-paced and project-centric environment with multiple priorities
• Experience of effective note / minute taking

PERSONAL QUALITIES/COMPETENCIES:

• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with absolute discretion
• Professionalism and ability to interact effectively with a variety of internal and external stakeholders, being diplomatic and discreet in approach
• Well organised, efficient and meticulous
• Ability to handle conflicting priorities and work calmly under heavy workload pressure
• Be an active team player, supporting the team and providing encouragement
• Ability to manage own workload and your time effectively
• A proactive and positive can-do attitude
• A self-starter, with the willingness to continually develop professional skills
• Resilient to change
• Flexible & responsive
• Comfortable with regular travel, sometimes at short notice
• Excellent attention to detail