HR & OD

Grade 2: - £17,901 - £18,212 per annum
Open-Ended/Permanent - Full Time
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
Closing Date: 01-Nov-2021, 7:59:00 AM

Job Family: Business Process and People Services

OUR CHARACTERISTICS: We are a globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a collegiate community of extraordinary people, in a unique and historic setting.

OUR VALUES: We are inspiring, challenging, innovative, responsible and enabling.

Durham University

Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Business, Sciences and Social Sciences. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

The University sits in a beautiful historic city where it shares ownership of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral, the greatest Romanesque building in Western Europe. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience.

Durham University seeks to promote and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment for work and study that assists all members of our University community to reach their full potential. Diversity brings strength and we welcome applications from across the international, national and regional communities that we work with and serve.

It is expected that all staff within the University:

• Contribute to our learning culture by engaging in mentoring, training and coaching.
• Positively contribute to fostering a collegial environment; as well as demonstrating commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Have due regard to Health and Safety requirements appropriate to grade and role.

Family key attributes

Roles in this family provide a comprehensive service and deliver the efficient administration and governance of the University.

Overall family purpose

• Deliver direct and indirect services to stakeholders.
• Provide advice and answer queries as part of an enquiry-desk/help-desk function.
• Respond to and manage requests for information and resources.
• Deliver services to meet regulatory requirements and procedures. 
• Plan and deliver a joined-up approach to University business and people services.
• Align business processes and services to meet operational and strategic policy objectives.  
• Deliver business processes to ensure effective management, governance and the economic viability of the University. 
• Encourage, collaborate and participate in the development of productive cross-institution relationships and working.
• Provide excellent professional services that meet strategic and operational goals and business needs.
• Carry out monitoring, analysis, development and planning to design new services and service updates for continuous improvement whilst meeting changes in regulations.
• Engage with specialist professionals, consultants, and suppliers to exchange knowledge and facilitate partnership working.
• Work collaboratively and network across the University with staff in other families to ensure a smooth, timely and high-quality delivery of service.
• Align and deliver programmes and activities to meet operational and strategic objectives to enhance the stakeholder experience.
• Engage and encourage participation with external professionals, schools, alumni and donors.

Link to key strategic plan

• An economically sustainable approach to delivering Professional Services across the University;
• A joined-up approach to University professional services, regardless of location or line management;
• A culture and practice of continuous improvement; 
• Design services that meet business need;
• A stakeholder-focused orientation, offering satisfying careers to all staff;
• Support and facilitate programmes that offer intellectual challenge, cohesiveness and a strong sense of progression;
• Ensure that an increasingly diverse workforce is treated equally, fairly and with respect, and that all staff are demonstrably valued and actively engaged.

The Department and role purpose

People are the most important asset of Durham University and our HR Department is pivotal in ensuring that we attract, recruit, develop, reward and retain the very best talent from across the world into our University community. Building on our bold and ambitious University Strategy, a key role of HR is to secure the University’s strategic aim, ‘to be a world leading employer’ by ensuring that our staff can reach their full potential. The HR Department plays a lead role in creating a working environment for our staff (and potential staff) which is supportive, stimulating and informative which provides for creative and innovative employment practices and opportunities. Our aim is to make sure that Durham University is a great place to work.

The HROD Department are introducing an administrative support team to both the HR Business Partnering team and the OD team to assist in providing a high level professional HR Service to the University.

OUR GOALS

We will:

• Oversee a workforce which can effectively and efficiently deliver the University Strategy;
• Attract, retain and reward the very best talent for every role in the University;
• Develop colleagues at every level to ensure that staff are supported to realise their potential and understand their contribution to the University’s goals;
• Make sure that the University has an increasingly diverse workforce and that all staff are demonstrably valued, engaged and treated equally and fairly; and
• Promote the well-being of all of our workforce.

The purposes of the role are to provide effective, efficient and timely administrative support to the training and organisational development team; helping to ensure that the right people are in the right place and the right time; providing the first point of contact for enquiries about development, learning and organisation development and triaging the enquiry to the appropriate person. The over-riding purpose is to provide focussed administrative support to enable the team to function at its highest level.

Core responsibilities:

• Contribute input within a service team to provide a responsive and proactive service to the Organisation Development team that supports the delivery of learning and organisation development initiatives, focussing on creating and checking arrangements and requirements to ensure the delivery of a high quality service and an excellent team members, other staff, students and visitors experience.
• Respond to straightforward requests for information from team members, other staff, students and visitors.
• Contribute to team effort with more straightforward tasks during peak work flows.
• Follow documented service procedures, referring to more experienced colleagues with less straightforward issues.
• Demonstrate some pre-employment familiarity with the techniques, and processes used in an administration environment. 
• Learn new skills and techniques on the job working alongside more experienced team members.
• Learn about the hazards and risks within own area of work and report incidents in accordance with recognised procedures and protocols. 
• Communicate with supervisor, team members, other staff, students and visitors in person or using electronic tools and applications.

Role responsibilities:

• Carry out tasks following strict procedures to log and record routine information and data for use by others.
• Follow guidelines and protocols to determine what to pass on and to whom where necessary.
• Use office-based software eg Microsft 365 applications and devices including the Oracle Learning System to deliver services.
• Assist team members to organise the work space and office-based equipment, tools and resources where necessary eg online shared drives, delegate course information.
• Respond to straightforward queries and requests for information relating to organisation development and training and development and escalate more specialist and complex queries or requests to more experienced team members.
• Liaise with staff in other areas of the organisation to ensure a seamless, smooth and efficient service
• Assist with making venue, catering, travel and/or equipment arrangements for events, meetings and activities
• Under the guidance of Organisation Development colleagues, provide web-based or hard-copy promotional and marketing material and promote events to appropriate audiences
• Under the guidance of Organisation Development colleagues maintain and update Organisation Development web pages using the relevant content management system.
• To provide support other areas of the department at peak times.
• Any other reasonable duties.

Specific role requirements:

In order to fulfil the terms and conditions of the apprenticeship, the post-holder will be required to complete training on a weekly basis towards the Advanced Apprentice Framework in Business Administration at Level 3.

Recruiting to this post 

In order to be considered for interview, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification above (including those listed in the section ‘Realising Your Potential Approach’).

In some cases, the recruiting panel may also consider the desirable criteria, so we recommend you evidence all criteria in your application.

Please note that some criteria will only be considered at interview stage.

How to apply

We prefer to receive applications online. Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.dur.ac.uk/ig/dp/privacy/pnjobapplicants/ which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

What you are required to submit

1. A CV; 
2. Examples of how you satisfy the essential criteria in the person specification, this will require completion of the 'Questionnaire' application section.

Please ensure that you submit all documentation listed above or your application cannot proceed to the next stage.

Contact details

For further information please contact;

Claire Hunter, Senior Organisation Development Manager, Human Resources and Organisation Development, Durham University

Email: claire.l.hunter@durham.ac.uk

To be completed as part of recruitment 

At Durham University, our aim is to create an open and inclusive environment where everyone can reach their full potential and believe our staff should reflect the diversity of the global community in which we work. We welcome and encourage applications from members of groups who are under-represented in our work force including people with disabilities, women and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails

Person specification - skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience required

Essential Criteria

• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Good IT skills including Microsoft Office.
• Five GCSE’s at least Grade C or level four (or equivalent) including English Language and Mathematics (or equivalent experience).
• Post-16 qualification (or equivalent experience).
• Evidence of personal development to maintain skills.
• Experience of working in a team.
• Experience of working in a customer focussed service.
• Experience of managing time in order to meet deadlines.
• Ability to follow instructions, written or oral, accurately.

Desirable Criteria

• Relevant work experience (paid or voluntary)

DBS Requirement: Not Applicable.