Queen Mary’s College is seeking to appoint a Help Desk Co-ordinator. The site is set on a beautiful multi-use area in the heart of Basingstoke, covering approximately 23 acres. Its educational facilities range from excellent teaching facilities built in recent years to buildings that were original to the Shrubbery School first established in the 1950s. The College operates a commercial theatre, Central Studio and also a Sports Centre. We also attract room bookings/lettings from a vast range of users from the local community and further afield. Over the last few years through having attracted grants and additional funding, we have spent over £20 million in updating, improving and maintaining our site, therefore understandably we are extremely proud of Queen Mary’s College campus.

We serve approximately 2,000 students offering a wide range of courses suitable for all levels. This appointment will take responsibility for the Help Desk/Reception and will be supported by a term time, part-time team member. The Help Desk represents the welcoming, helpful and efficient face of the College. It can be an intense and highly pressured environment at peak times but offers an exceptionally rewarding role.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

You will need to be comfortable working with and helping young people as well as having excellent customer service for both internal and external customers. You need to be confident and ready to assimilate a range of tasks such as absence calls, directing students, bus pass allocation, management of the College enquiry inbox, managing outgoing post, support for key events in the College calendar and so forth. As well as the ability to prioritise tasks quickly and effectively. The ideal candidate is a natural team leader balancing the needs of both the organisation and the individual. This is a hands on role requiring compassion and empathy combined with professionalism when working with young people.

You need to have excellent diplomatic, effective communication skills both verbally and in writing. Working in this environment requires a friendly and approachable demeanour, support for other College administration teams, and good organisational and people skills. The ideal applicant is a person who has the reputation of the College at the forefront of everything they do. You need to understand how to apply your initiative and work well as part of the College team. In addition you need to have flexibility in meeting the challenges of the role where no two days are the same.

Purpose of Job:

To ensure the highest levels of customer service in seeking solutions for student enquiries. To represent the welcoming, helpful and efficient face of the College.

Key Outcomes:

• Protecting the brand and reputation of the College

• Excellent communication with students, staff, external contacts and site users.

Specific responsibilities:

• Managing the Help Desk function

• Telephone enquiries

• Monitoring of College inbox and responding to enquiries as appropriate

• Absence call processing

• Outgoing post/franking

• Bus/train pass allocation

• Providing the first point of contact for emergencies and first aid

• Admin tasks associated with the running of the Help Desk and other support functions

• To undertake such other duties as may reasonably be requested.

Person specification

The person appointed will be able to demonstrate the following:

Essential requirements & Qualifications:

• Good spoken and written English

• Good level of general education

• Smart appearance

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

• Punctuality

• Composure

• Flexibility

• IT skills

Experience/Skills:

• Ability to communicate effectively

• Ability to organise and retrieve information

• Ability to work as part of a team

• Ability to prioritise tasks

• Knowledge of the Basingstoke and Deane Area

• Experience of customer services

• Experience of switchboard operations

• Experience of working with young people

• Understanding of sixth form education

• Empathy and compassion

• Ability to support student needs

• Ability to negotiate effectively in challenging situations

• Ability to appropriately deescalate customer complaints

Desirable:

• First aid qualified or a qualified mental health first aider.

• Experience working with young people.

Salary: £21,296.00 Sixth Form support staff Scale point 9 for Full-time, full year.

Leave entitlement: Full time: 25 days plus additional bank holidays and Christmas closure days. Holidays should be taken outside business critical periods where possible.

Hours of work: Full-time: 37 hours per week usually worked between 8.30am and 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and between 8.30am and 4.30pm on Fridays.

Closing date: Wednesday 22 September at Noon

Interview: Tuesday 28th September 2021