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Hours:                  26.25 hours a week - Monday to Friday 1.15pm – 6.30pm

                             Some flexibility is required to work extra hours, which will be determined by the Office and Service Manager when necessary.

Contract:             Permanent – Part time role.

Location:             The Green House, 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9DA.

The Ethical Property Company

Founded 20 years ago, the Ethical Property Company provides affordable workspace to charities, community groups, campaigns and social businesses working for a fairer and more sustainable society. From humble beginnings, the company has grown steadily and now owns or manages 23 centres across the UK providing affordable office, retail and conference space to over 1,000 social change organisations. Flexible leasing arrangements provide our tenants with long-term security and working alongside like-minded organisations offers them influence-enhancing networking opportunities.

The company has some 100 staff, based in our properties in London, Oxford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bath, Brighton and Manchester. Our centres are managed to minimise energy use, waste, car travel and the use of harmful materials while offering tenants modern, affordable and flexible space managed in a transparent and supportive way.

The Post

The part-time receptionist will work as part of a two-person reception team and will play an important role in our flagship building The Green House. The receptionist will be line managed by the Office and Service Manager for the South East cluster and will play an important role in welcoming visitors, supporting our tenants and assisting the O&S Manager in organising and promoting tenants networking and social events.

Your duties will include:

Access, Security and Deliveries

• Being the first point of contact for visitors to the centre; welcoming them and issuing name badges and ensuring that all of them sign in, announcing their arrival and directing them to the appropriate tenant organisation or meeting room
• Ensuring security procedures are followed in the centre, and that all building visitors/contractors sign in/out
• Taking deliveries of the Royal Mail post, sorting and distributing it to tenant organisations and ensuring that outgoing post is collected every evening
• Notifying tenants when deliveries arrive in the building

Communications

• Answering phones and directing calls to relevant staff or tenants
• Acting as a point of contact for tenant queries and communicating these effectively to the Office and Services Manager and/or any other members of the Property Management team
• Helping to establish and maintain excellent communication with tenant organisations
• Ensuring an effective handover is made between shifts
• Ensure contact information is kept up-to-date for each organisation in the cluster, including tenant representatives, Directors, first aid and fire Marshall Contacts, etc. and liaise with O&S manager to ensure that this information is updated.

Synergy Activities

• Assist the Office and Service Manager with organising synergy activities and events where tenants can work together, learn from each other, improve their well-being and network (e.g. gardening club, cyclist group, recycling campaigns, among other)
• Assist with the promotion of any synergy activities within the building, emailing tenants, designing posters and newsletters.
• Encouraging and support effective collaboration among the tenants and the community.
• Assist the O&S Manager in encouraging tenants to participate, organise, lead and attend synergy activities within the building
• Ensuring effective communications between both receptionists and to equally split tasks and services in consultation with the Office and Services manager;

Administration and Purchasing

• Assisting with administrative duties in the cluster as and when required;
• Ordering supplies for the cluster and keeping an accurate record in the purchase order / tenant recharge sheet;
• Monitor photocopier and franking machine usage for the centre and ensure re-charges are sent to the finance department on monthly basis in an accurate and good timely manner.

Other responsibilities

• Working within the company’s procedures and policies
• Working to improve the services we provide to tenants
• Working to improve the company's social and environmental objectives
• Covering for other members of the reception team when they are in training, on holiday, etc
• Attending company-wide events such as training events and the annual staff conference
• Additional Ad-hoc duties in accordance to the job role specified by the Office and Services Manager

Person Specification

You are a welcoming, proactive, friendly and organised person, who enjoys the challenges of being the first point of contact.

• Has excellent communication skills and experience of communication with different groups of people
• The ability to act quickly and effectively using their own initiative
• To be a team-player
• Have good IT skills, particularly Microsoft Office software
• Good organisational skills and the ability to prioritise his/her work, multi-task and remain flexible
• To be trustworthy, personable and reliable
• A commitment to provide a good service to our tenants
• To maintain a professional standard of presentation and communication with colleagues and tenants at all times
• We would also like applicants to be committed to social and environmental issues.

Contractual Details

This is a permanent contract with a three-month probationary period.  The salary is £10.55 per hour - £14,400 per annum (Full time equivalent £20,572). The working hours for the role are 26.25 hours a week, Monday to Friday from 1.15pm – 6.30pm. Some flexibility is required to work extra hours, which will be determined by the Office and Service Manager when necessary.

Benefits include 25 days holiday entitlement (pro-rata) in addition to statutory public bank holidays (pro rata). We offer a company pension contribution up to 7%, a free company bicycle scheme with bicycle maintenance costs, season ticket loans, interest free personal loans, as well as other benefits.

Please note, you must be eligible to work in the UK in order to apply for this role. No agencies please.

Full Job Description: Click Here

The Ethical Property Company

We are changing the way society benefits from property. We are one of the UK’s leading social businesses, managing a variety of workspaces including office, retail, meeting/event spaces as well as studios and educational spaces, that are used by some of the UK’s most influential and creative charities, not-for-profits, voluntary groups and small enterprises.

In our 21 Centres across England, Scotland and Wales, we support approximately 1,000 organisations per year. We are proving that business can have a social impact, care for the environment and be profitable.

Each Centre is managed to a high environmental standard and we encourage the use of public transport and the sharing of resources wherever possible. Tenant contracts are flexible and transparent and we ensure that our processes and procedures are simple and efficient, allowing tenants to focus on their individual objectives.

While we are driven by social and environmental values, making a profit is an essential element of our business model. We pay a regular dividend to our shareholders and manage our Centres to increase their long-term value, with a view to attracting additional investment that will enable us to grow, and support more organisations.

We have ambitious plans for growth, aiming to at least double the size of our portfolio and impact. In order to achieve this we must ensure that we have the right people to enable us to expand whilst continuing to deliver a high standard of services to our customers.

The Post

This is an opportunity for a capable and enthusiastic individual who shares our values to work for one of the UK’s leading social businesses.  Based in our Oxford head office, you will directly contribute to the successful operation of the company by providing reliable and efficient support to colleagues and customers in the key area of tenant administration. The role will give you the opportunity to gain an insight into many aspects of our fast-growing and innovative organisation and to see at first-hand how we put our commitment to society and the environment into practice whilst running a financially sound business.

You will share responsibility with the other Operations Assistant, for all tenant-related administration and record-keeping and will be one of the first points of contact for new tenants.  You will be line managed by the Operations Manager. You may occasionally be required to travel elsewhere within the UK.

As Property Operations Assistant, your responsibilities will include:

Tenant Administration – 70%

Assisting the Operations Manager with a range of tenant administration, including:

• Coordinating processes for tenants moving in and out, including liaison with tenants and with Sales, Property Management, Finance and IT teams, and issuing new leases and licences from standard templates
• Dealing with elements of sales and finance (not currently part of the role but likely to be introduced shortly subject to an ongoing review)
• Maintaining and updating templates of leases and licences and Netsuite
• Keeping tenants’ electronic and paper records up-to-date
• Dealing with  tenants’ administrative queries
• Maintenance of building plans
• Issuing consents to sub-letting
• Preparing and maintaining procedure documents for tenant administrative processes
• Drafting terms within leases and licences, which are outside of the standard templates
• Assisting with non-financial aspects of the rent review process
• Coordinating the process for annual lease and licence renewals

Business rates administration – 15%

• Becoming familiar with business rates rules and practices and supporting Operations Assistant with:
  • Calculating business rates liability for each of our buildings and ensuring that the correct business rates are charged
  • Identifying the most appropriate business rates treatment for new units/buildings
  • Approving business rates invoices
  • Notifying local authorities of changes of occupier and sorting out errors in billing
  • Liaising with the Valuation Office over valuations and splitting of properties, as required
  • Dealing with business rates queries from colleagues and tenants

Development of NETSUITE (Company CRM database) – 5%

• Assisting the Operations Manager with the development and implementation of the Netsuite system
• Designing reports
• Training staff in use of Netsuite
• Assisting staff with importing / exporting data, producing reports, setting up dashboard

Central purchasing contracts (e.g. sanitary bins, photocopiers) – 5%

• Dealing with annual contract renewals and obtaining best prices
• Liaising with Regional Managers on requirements
• Approving invoices
• Preparing and reviewing annual budgets
• Maintaining electronic and paper records of contracts

General duties – 5%

• General admin support to the department
• Drafting some communication materials
• Filing and any other administrative tasks as required
• Assist the Operations team in providing and delivering information to colleagues on roles and procedures
   

(Percentages are indicative of the time to be spent on each aspect of the role, but may well vary in practice.)

Person Specification

The successful candidate will:

• Be highly organised and efficient, with an ability to prioritise work within tight deadlines, to multi-task and to be flexible
• Have strong analytical skills
• Have a high level of attention to detail and precision, including having the aptitude and patience to sort out detailed problems from time to time
• Be able to act quickly and effectively and use initiative
• Have excellent oral and written communications skills in English, including the ability to communicate with customers on administrative details politely and effectively
• Have a logical and creative approach to problem solving
• Have some experience of numerical analysis and presenting numerical information in Excel
• Have a proven ability to be confidential
• Be skilled at using Microsoft software, especially Outlook, Word and Excel
• Have an aptitude for using databases
• Be committed to social and environmental issues
• Be considerate and comfortable working in a large, open-plan office.

Experience of any of the following would be an advantage:

• The social or environmental sector
• Property administration
• Familiarity with legal documentation
• Property law.
• Sales experience

Contractual Details

This is a permanent contract with a three-month probationary period. The post is full time position working 37.50 hours a week, from Monday and Friday, 9am – 5.30pm (though there is flexibility around this, with 25 days pro rata holiday entitlement as well as statutory bank holidays.

The salary is up to: £22,500 depending on skills and experience.

We offer a company contribution up to 7% to a pension dependent on scheme choice, 2 x salary life assurance, a free company bicycle scheme with bicycle maintenance costs, season ticket loans, as well as other benefits.

For Full Job Description: Click Here

For Application Form: Click Here