Senior Manager – Business Support Team

We are currently looking for a Business Support Team – Senior Manager who will provide oversight and support to the Business Support Team in the London office focusing on the provision of a high-quality and efficient support team to Partners and fee-earners in the London office.

The role

• Maintaining oversight of the Business Support Team, ensuring adequate resourcing requirements are in place at all times
• Day to day management of Executive, Personal and Transaction Support Assistants, focusing on service delivery and excellence
• Ensuring the firm’s policies and procedures are followed and adhered to
• Acting as the escalation point for any team issues arising within their groups
• Coordinating any agile working patterns in the future to provide adequate levels of resource
• Planning and forecasting yearly functional costs and budgets, managing and controlling day to day expenditure within agreed budgets.
• Communicating regularly with partners, seeking feedback from fee-earners and assistants to continually improve the service provision
• Planning and coordinating administrative and secretarial procedures to streamline processes
• Developing a consistent onboarding process for new members to the Business Support Team
• Creating mentoring and communication networks for each grade within the team
• Coordinating the Performance Review Process across the Business Support team
• Work closely with HR to recruit and retain the best assistants, to give them the appropriate training and to support their career development
• Manage more complex employee relations matters in conjunction with HR
• Closely working with the Learning & Development team to establish the training needs and development opportunities for the Business Support Team
• Developing a performance management framework specifically for the Business Support Team
• Provide coaching on both an individual and team level where appropriate
• Where necessary work with individual partners to build objectives and ensure these objectives are met
• Where appropriate write business cases for improvements to processes and procedures across the Business Support team and once approved, lead on their implementation
• Monitor the performance of the Business Support team, gathering feedback, managing team process and implementing best practice
• Establish appropriate training and development priorities to ensure that client and fee-earner needs are met
• Continually develop self and maintain own knowledge in technical and management skills at all times
• Determine the firm’s needs for delivery and user expectations of a quality service; adapting and delivering any change management programmes in line with changing requirements
• Review, implement and improve processes and systems where necessary to ensure that the Business Support team are working as efficiently as possible
• Liaise with counterparts in other organisations to benchmark practices and identify further areas for innovation
• Develop strategy, policy and procedures and manage the implementation of these
• Work with the business to recommend and develop an appropriate model for the regional offices

You

• Relevant secretarial services management experience in a professional services environment
• Excellent leadership skills and ability to empower and motivate team
• Excellent people management skills with experience in mentoring both experienced and junior employees to achieve their professional goals
• Ability to handle more complex people / employee relations issues in a sensitive manner
• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to multi-task
• A commercial approach to solving problems
• Ability to build and maintain excellent relationships at all levels with strong client service skills
• Anticipate problems and develop solutions
• Display discretion when dealing with sensitive information
• Proactive in making suggestions for working smarter
• Have a strategic focus
• Excellent project management skills
• Drive through change in a fast changing environment

Salary/benefits

• A 35-hour working week with flexibility around the core hours of 10am-4pm
• Working from home allowance of £25 a month.
• Annual salary reviews
• Car allowance of £5,000
• Eligibility for the firm’s Profit-Sharing Plan that runs from October to September each year. The scheme enables staff to share in the profits of the firm. Payment is usually c£1,000
• Eligibility for the discretionary bonus scheme at Assistant Manager and Manager level. This is based on both individual performance and firm performance. This is paid annually in August
• Salary review annually in October.
• Twenty-five days annual leave. This increases in line with length of service.
• In addition, under the flexible benefits programme, employees are entitled to buy or sell up to five days (35 hours) holiday a year, subject to staff partner approval.
• Six-month probationary period.
• Life assurance cover of four times salary,
• Private Medical – entitled to join on successful completion of probationary period
• Contributory pension scheme (The firm will contribute 5% of salary on a matched basis with employee from their date of joining
• Access to a number of additional benefits with preferential rates under the flexible benefit programme, which include; health cash plans, health screening/GP support, critical illness cover, dental and travel insurance, Techscheme, Cyclescheme, Gymflex and a Workplace ISA). More information will be provided on joining.