We are looking for a very organised individual, with strong written and verbal communication skills, to support the CEO, team and Board of Trustees and ensure the smooth running of the Community Foundation. 

You will join a small, busy, friendly and capable team and have opportunities to work across a variety of projects and spheres, including contact with other community foundations nationally.

PLEASE NOTE THAT BECAUSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS WE ARE UNABLE TO PROGRESS RECRUITMENT FOR THIS ROLE. WE ARE LEAVING THE ADVERTISMENT UP AND WILL LOOK AT YOUR APPLICATION SHOULD YOU WISH TO SEND IT IN, BUT WE ARE UNABLE JUST AT PRESENT TO GIVE A TIMESCALE FOR A RESPONSE. AS THE SITUATION REMAINS SO UNCERTAIN, WE ARE NOT YET SURE WHEN AND IF WE WILL READVERTISE. 

WE ARE SORRY ABOUT THIS AND LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HOPE TO BE BACK TO NORMAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. TAKE CARE.

The United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) is looking for a General Manager to run its Office in Leicester (some Office work may, from time to time, take the form of home-working). The Association needs someone able to manage a small team of part-time members of staff. The Office staff team comprises: the General Manager (part-time, 28 hours on at least 4 days per week); a part-time Finance Administrator (23 hours on 3 days per week); a Membership Secretary (currently 10 hours on 2 days per week); an Admin and Awards Secretary (currently 10 hours on 2 days per week). It is the responsibility of the General Manager, in association with UKLA trustee line managers, to decide how and when to delegate tasks within the Office, and see that these are carried out effectively.

General Manager

Salary: Between point 20 and 27 (£25,217-30,942) pro rata

Contract, Part-time (28 hours on at least 4 days per week)

The General Manager should be a good communicator with excellent managerial skills and a keen interest in helping UKLA work effectively across the United Kingdom and beyond. The UKLA General Manager is expected to be reliable, systematic and proactive. She or he will have good interpersonal, administrative, communication and IT skills. The role requires someone who works well under pressure while also paying due attention to detail and upholding the values of the Association.

The UKLA General Manager has oversight of all communications and events from a UKLA Office perspective but is directly responsible to the trustees of UKLA for the efficient operation of the UKLA Office and its team of staff. On a day-to-day basis, however, the General Manager works independently and with minimum supervision, responding promptly and directly to the needs of trustees and committee conveners to ensure that UKLA’s programme of charitable activity and the implementation of delegated aspects of its strategy run as smoothly and effectively as possible.

The UKLA General Manager is expected to undertake other duties and responsibilities which the Association may from time to time reasonably require, and engage in any training which may be offered relevant to fulfilling the role more effectively.

Detail

1) Office management

Responsibility for the smooth operation of the UKLA office, including:

• acting as the UKLA’s Responsible Person for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ensuring UKLA’s compliance with GDPR
• ensuring office procedures support the secure storage and backup of electronic data
• ensuring administrative systems are efficient and fit for purpose
• ensuring office accommodation and equipment are fit for purpose and meet Health and Safety requirements
• liaising and negotiating with the management of the office premises (Voluntary Action Leicester – VAL), on behalf of the Association
• ensuring UKLA is covered by appropriate insurance policies (with relevant trustees including the Hon. Treasurer), including for external events such as conferences
• maintaining and updating the Office Handbook
• contributing to the annual review and revision of UKLA’s guidance on office procedures (with relevant trustees including the Hon. Secretary and/or Hon. Treasurer).

2) Office staff management

Accountability for staffing, including:

• advertising for and appointment of new staff, in collaboration with trustees, and agreeing their job descriptions
• induction and supervision of new staff members
• monitoring and reviewing performance of all staff in relation to their job descriptions and providing brief monthly reports to line managers (Hon. Secretary and/or Hon. Treasurer)
• supporting and supervising staff on a day to day basis 
• planning the efficient deployment of part-time staff to make best use of office space
• maintaining and updating the office staff critical date planner
• maintaining a calendar of annual leave for all office staff to ensure coverage and consistency of operation, and informing trustee line managers
• maintaining a record of staff hours and leave taken, ensuring these meet contractual requirements
• overall management of staff pension arrangements (in liaison with the Hon. Treasurer/Secretary).

3) Supporting UKLA’s charitable status

Acting as the key contact for the Charity Commission, in liaison with the President/Hon. Secretary/Hon. Treasurer, as appropriate:

• maintaining an ongoing database of trustee details and updating it annually
• updating the Charity Commission’s register of trustees, as necessary
• ensuring UKLA’s Annual Return is completed each summer on the Charity Commission website, including the upload of the Annual Report and Accounts
• keeping up to date with Charity Commission requirements.

4) Supporting trustees and sub-committees

Responsibility for managing office systems to support the smooth functioning of UKLA as an organisation, including:

• providing administrative support for the President, Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer, as required, prioritising efficiently
• providing administrative support for the conveners of sub-committees, Special Interest Groups and Task Groups, and the Regional Representatives co-ordinator, as required, prioritising efficiently
• ensuring papers for Executive Committee (EC) and National Council (NC) meetings are pre-circulated, filed and stored
• minuting EC and NC meetings (in conjunction with the Finance Administrator) and ensuring minutes are sent to the Hon. Secretary for checking within 5 working days of each meeting
• ensuring all minutes are filed and stored
• organising efficient filing systems for all other UKLA documentation, in digital or print form, to enable others to locate documents quickly and easily
• addressing action points relevant to the UKLA office which arise from committee minutes
• managing website updates in liaison with the website designer
• maintaining and regularly updating the UKLA Archive.

5) Finance

Overall responsibility for the efficient management of UKLA’s finances, including:

• maintaining a strategic overview of UKLA’s finances
• ensuring compliance with UKLA’s internal financial controls, as specified in the Charity Commission’s document (CC8) and contributing to the annual review
• supporting and advising the Finance Administrator as required
• acting as an authorised signatory and authorising expenditure
• liaising with UKLA’s accountants and payroll as necessary
• substituting for the Finance Administrator on urgent matters, where essential
• providing guidance to conference organisers about managing and budgeting for a conference, and ensuring they understand their responsibilities for covering costs
• ensuring that conference bookings are promptly processed.

6) UKLA International Conference

Contributing to the UKLA’s annual International Conference in liaison with the conference organiser and the convener of the Conferences sub-committee by:

• co-ordinating practical details, including – as appropriate – venue, catering, accommodation, social programme, timetable and budget
• updating website pages for submission of proposals, where appropriate
• providing office administrative support for the proposal submission process
• creating the final programme
• creating the conference brochure with the support of the conference director and overseeing its production and delivery
• maintaining excellent communication with delegates and speakers, ensuring information is delivered effectively in a timely manner
• maintaining an overview of conference budgets and finances, and seeking to achieve best value for money at all times
• attending all International conference ensuring their smooth running and overseeing staff/helpers.

[Please note that for the July 2021 International Conference (postponed from July 2020), much of the above has already been begun.]

Do you have the ambition to join an organisation with a remit to change the world, challenge yourself, and to make a real and positive difference to people’s lives?

This is not a normal role. We are looking for a confident, self-motivated problem solver who enjoys working with a huge range of people. You will be part of a small external engagement team, which is part of a wider, high performing marketing, communications and fund-raising team.

The engagement team has four key goals:

• Build our profile so our values and opinions are heard by more people more often
• Support our fundraising efforts to help us generate income to fund our work
• Create and manage relationships with key stakeholders engaged in and supporting our work
• Protect our reputation by providing crisis management support and ensuring consistent messages are heard by external audiences.

We have grown our reach both on and offline in recent years, and you will be rolling out a new PR strategy to enable the organisation to make real, lasting change for good through extending our network across the world.

The communication officer will play a key role in helping us achieve that ambition in a number of ways:

• By building on existing partnerships with key stakeholders and donors
• By unlocking new opportunities with donors, thought leaders and stakeholders
• By developing and managing excellent external events, both online and offline.
• By producing highly engaging content for use on digital channels.

You will have responsibility for developing and managing relationships with fundraising teams in the UK and communications teams in partner and donor organisations.

You will help develop communications plans for key international development projects and will also be responsible for overseeing content from these projects for our social channels by working closely with our international communications teams.

You will also be responsible for identifying, driving and leading high profile organisational events, such as our presence at bluedot Festival and New Scientist Live.

The role will also include supporting other areas of the communications team with excellent social and digital content, and through an ability to respond to media enquiries.

About you

This role offers an amazing opportunity to be part of a highly committed team dedicated to demonstrating that with the right approach and ingenuity, it is possible to create a better world for people and the planet. It can be highly demanding and requires flexibility and tenacity. If you like certainty and a normal 9-5 day, it probably isn’t for you.

A key focus of the role will be excellent relationship building and management, both with external partners and with many internal teams in the UK and around the world.

You will therefore be confident and enjoy working with a range of different people from a huge variety of backgrounds and in a variety of different ways.Critical to the success of the role will be the ability to prioritise multiple projects and demands and to be able to communicate sometimes complex material and ideas in an accessible way.

You will understand what motivates others and have a desire to solve problems and to lead, when required. However, we work in some of the world’s toughest places to live so you will also have the ability to be flexible when plans unexpectedly change or need a quick solution!

Experience or interest in the private sector, of international issues and current affairs and some experience in or with the media would be desirable. Experience of working in an external communications role is essential.

Why join us?

The opportunity to work for an organisation that is making a positive difference to the lives of people worldwide, a friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.

Our brand new open plan offices are located in the centre of Rugby and near to Rugby train station but we also offer free parking.

In addition, we offer the following benefits:

• Full time roles are contracted at 35 hours per week.
• Flexible working hours are encouraged and enabled – depending on the role, remote working is possible.
• 26 days holiday rising with continuous service, in addition to public holidays.
• A pension scheme that new employees can join from day one of employment - employer contributes 10.5% of salary and the employee contributes 5%.
• Enhanced family friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave.
• Life assurance (3 x annual salary).
• Bike to Work scheme.

About us

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Additional information

Please note that should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.

We treat all applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age, religion, gender, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.

• Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and, as such, candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks.
• Please note that, should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.
• The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in the UK.

This is a 12 months Maternity Cover Position

Closing date for applications: June 12 2020

Interview dates: Week commencing June 22