Projects & Relationships Coordinator - Innovative Social Consultancy

Projects & Relationships Coordinator Job Description

About us

Collaborate CIC is an Innovative Social Consultancy building the thinking, culture and practice of collaboration to help us meet the challenges of today, together.  We work towards a vision of a collaborative society - one that is equitable, caring and sustainable.

To achieve this vision, we act as transformation partners to public and voluntary sector organisations. We do this by helping to put people at the centre of their work, create shared vision, develop collaborative and system leadership skills, engage with civil society, local people and service users, and understand the importance of learning in creating change.

To date, we have helped organisations including the Ministry of Justice, Save the Children UK and a wide range of public sector and NHS, local government and civil society organisations to do this work. Current clients include Wigan Council, London Councils, Essex County Council, SOLACE, The British Science Association, MOPAC, Client Earth, Sport England and Hertfordshire Health and Care Partnership.

Ultimately, we believe that people and organisations can create a better future together than they can alone, and we bring this conviction, blending it with cutting-edge thinking, to all our work.

Please see our website for more information about what we do.

About the role

Collaborate is looking for a Projects and Relationships Coordinator who will play a key role in managing our exciting work programme, with proven project management, event organisation, and people skills.

Through your organisational skills and communication internally and externally, you will be vital to the smooth-running and high-quality delivery of our projects, often requiring you to be responsive to different needs and adaptable to change. 

The role is varied - you will work on several projects at once, in different project teams, and come into contact with our diverse base of clients, partners, and other project participants, like residents and community members. You will have the opportunity to learn about and contribute to the different areas of focus across the spectrum of Collaborate’s work.

Challenges of this role – all roles have their challenges and we think it’s helpful to be open about these and set them out for you to consider if these are challenges you would embrace:

• being responsive to change and able to adapt project plans and activities while maintaining momentum of the work and staying focused on its wider purpose
• ‘managing up’ – to enable the success and progress of the work, you need to make requests of and send reminders to more experienced colleagues and stakeholders, but do this in a way that maintains positive working relationships, tasks which require communication and relationship-building skills
• working across different subject areas – we might work with clients relating to early years provision, loneliness and isolation, or the environment

Job responsibilities

Monitoring and adapting projects from start to finish, your day-to-day role will include, (but is not limited to):

Project coordination

• Coordinating several projects at the same time, supporting the team members to deliver quality work on time
• Helping develop and track progress towards project plans and budgets - whilst still responding to change and being proactive in identifying potential problems to timings or budget and working with the project team to find solutions
• Coordinating project meetings, internally and externally, capturing key decisions and actions for the team and giving reminders
• Working with our chosen platforms and tools to develop and hold, manage and share key project information
• Keeping the ops/finance team up to date on project progress, to support business development, finance and resourcing decisions

Relationship coordination

• Being a point of liaison for the project on behalf of Collaborate, ensuring that internal and external stakeholders are informed about project updates and timelines
• Being comfortable dealing with people more senior than yourself, internally and externally, and adapting your communication to your audience
• Interacting with clients, partners and networks to make connections and build relationships
• Liaising to organise events, workshops and interviews, being mindful of the different contexts of the individuals involved
• Enabling a cohesive relationship within the internal project team

Project delivery

• Supporting the design and delivery of workshops and events, particularly through coordination of logistics (venue, catering, IT, materials needed, etc.) and liaising with our team, client, speakers and participants to support the smooth running of the events
• Preparing appealing client presentations and project reports, ensuring high quality consistency of style and formatting.
• Contributing to research (desk research, interviews and focus groups), compiling and analysing findings

Organisational responsibilities

• Attending and contributing to team learning sessions and discussions
• Supporting business development where relevant, by contributing to bid writing by way of proof reading, budget development or creating project visuals

Your skills and experience

We don't expect that you will already have experience of doing all of the tasks above. We believe in appointing based on potential rather than simply on past performance. However, you should have some demonstrable experience in the skills below, which could come from a combination of work, voluntary and/or personal experiences.

Experience

Required: You will have some continuous prior work experience that demonstrates the key skills of organisation and communication with people from different levels of seniority needed for this role.

Desirable: some experience of understanding or working within a public sector or civil society organisation.

Skills

You could be the right person for this job if you’re:

• Highly organised, good at prioritising multiple (and sometimes complex) tasks and managing your time to complete them
• An excellent communicator (verbally and in writing), judging tone appropriate to the circumstance and being confident in dealing with people at all levels and from all backgrounds
• Keen to solve problems, proactive in identifying them and in making recommendations to deliver improvements
• Happy working in a strong team culture, building different relationships and being responsive to the dynamics of different teams
• Comfortable working with numbers
• Confident on different computer applications and platforms and quick to pick them up or to adapt to changes
• Passionate about improving outcomes and experiences of the public and curious about how to achieve that goal. You are likely to have interests in issues that affect society and perhaps already have some experience (be it personal/ professional/voluntary) in trying to achieve social change

Important to know:

• Salary range: £25-32,000
• Location: We’re a national organisation with an office in London. All of our team work in a hybrid way, which varies depending on role and location. This role requires at least 1 day per week in the office, with more as part of the initial onboarding
• Working hours: part-time (minimum of 30-hour week) or full-time, open to exploring flexible working requests that match organisational needs with personal needs/preferences
• Additional holiday over the winter holidays, on top of 25 days' holiday and bank holidays
• Pension contribution
• Options for multi-purpose loans, bike-to-work scheme, eye tests, enhanced parental leave pay and we're open to exploring more...
• Being part of an inclusive, team-led, learning environment!

Next steps

Firstly, we would like to invite you please join our Information and Question & Answer Webinar, (Meeting ID: 880 1004 1768, Passcode: 699567) on Friday 9th February 1-1.45, where you will be able to hear a bit about Collaborate, why we’re recruiting and more about the role and what sort of person we think would suit it, as well as answer your questions.

• Apply here before 5pm Monday 19th February. You’ll answer questions that are related to your interest in this role and your experiences and skills that would help you to do it. After the job closes, your answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers to ensure that every application is treated fairly and without bias.
• First interviews 6-7th March: you will meet 2 members of the team to discuss your experience and skills and to complete a short task.
• Second interviews 13-14th March: the opportunity to meet 2 more members of our team and to talk about you and the role with us further.
• We hope to make an offer by mid-end of March!

Also, we love giving and receiving feedback, so at the end of the application process you'll receive insights into how well you performed and be invited to give anonymous feedback to us, or feel free to reach out to us to give more personalised input.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Collaborate supports flexible working and enables the potential for growth within this role and the organisation.

We seek to be a genuinely collaborative organisation, sharing ideas across the team through weekly team meetings and regular learning sessions. We collectively consider our broader strategy, examine and share learning across our projects, and explore how we might develop our work and our thinking.

As a Living Wage employer, we believe in paying our team fairly and are committed to
promoting equity of opportunity for all.

Being equitable, inclusive and fair is not easy or simple and we are challenging ourselves, talking, working and learning about how we can continue to do this better. We aim to create an inclusive working environment in which all individuals are able to make the best use of their skills and are enabled to thrive.

We actively welcome applicants from those with identities and experiences who are underrepresented in our organisation, recognising that diversity of perspective supports innovation and develops fairness and equity in our society.

Please email Hannah if you have questions (htomlinson@collaboratecic.com).