Personal Assistant/Group Support Officer
Exeter, United Kingdom
In these roles I was responsible for coordinating administrative and secretarial services to the Head of Capital Development & Waste Management, his direct reports and the engineering, waste and highways teams:• Interpersonal skills: Demonstrated diplomacy, persuasion and exceptional communication skills to build effective relationships with Heads of Service (HOS), PA’s, council officers, Councillors and private sector partners.• Ability to prioritise: managed a challenging workload with conflicting priorities using forward planning, careful diary management and excellent organisational skills to meet multiple deadlines. • Excellent oral and written communication: communicated messages on behalf of my Head of Service via telephone, e-mail, letter and face-to-face with colleagues and customers at all levels.• Proficient IT skills: Confidently used MS Office packages to support HOS in diary management, copywriting, filing and document storage, data collation, preparing agendas, papers and minutes and updating service webpages using web-editing software.• Discretion: Frequently processed and produced confidential documents including recording leave/sickness absence, Investigating Officer and performance reports and letters of a sensitive nature for the HOS. • Hospitality: Used Devon EBiz system to organise travel, car hire and accommodation for colleagues, audio-conferencing and meeting equipment, manage hospitality and assist with general events administration. • In April 2013, I returned to Devon County Council, following six months unpaid leave travelling and working in New Zealand. I subsequently moved to work as an Interim PA to the Head of Adult Care Management as well as providing business support to teams across Devon County Council's Place and People services within Central Business Support.