Executive Assistant

Executive Assistant

Corporate Services Group

Location: Hybrid Working, with offices based in Edinburgh, Glasgow & Inverness

Type of Role: Permanent

Salary: (Band 1B) from £34,128 to £38,097 per annum, plus competitive benefits

Hours: 36.25 hours per week

Are you an experienced Executive Assistant who thrives on making a difference and ensuring those who you support meet all their objectives? If so, we can offer you the chance to support our Leadership Group.

We are Audit Scotland. We're Scotland’s public sector auditor, independent of government. Our vision is that public money is well spent to meet the needs of Scotland’s people. We support the Auditor General for Scotland and the Accounts Commission to provide clear, independent, and objective assurance on how effectively public money is being managed and spent. Our work covers about £59bn of public spending, almost 300 public sector accounts, and the services and projects that affect all people and communities in Scotland.

As well as what we do, how we do it is integral to delivering our vision and critical to our wellbeing and our organisational success. We put our organisational values of equality, independence, innovation, integrity, and respect at the heart of everything we do.

We employ around 340 staff in a wide variety of roles, working from our main offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and through a network of regional offices across Scotland.

There has never been a more interesting or important time to join us. We offer a rewarding place to work, a supportive and open culture and a wide range of professional development opportunities. Benefits include 42 days of annual leave including public holidays, an attractive local government pension scheme with 19.4% employer contributions, personal development allowances and flexible working hours. We’ve also been named one of the top 25 workplaces in Scotland and the UK’s tenth best accountancy workplace in the 2023 Best Companies awards.

Overall purpose of the role

This role will provide support to the Accounts Commission. The Commission holds councils and other local government bodies in Scotland to account and helps them improve by reporting to the public on their performance. You will be part of our multi-disciplinary Leadership Group Support team and will work closely with our wider Business Support team and our Accounts Commission support team to support the Secretary to the Accounts Commission, the Controller of Audit, and the Chair and members of the Accounts Commission. Providing full secretariat support for monthly Accounts Commission meetings held in our Audit Scotland offices is a key part of the role.

How you can help us

You will provide a professional, confidential, and proactive administrative and executive support service to the Accounts Commission (incl the Chair), the Secretary to the Accounts Commission and the Controller of Audit, enabling them to focus on organisational and strategic priorities. Key strengths and responsibilities include:

• Being proactive, organised, and resourceful – managing complex and demanding diaries, emails, organising meetings and events, preparing documents, and coordinating all travel and accommodation arrangements efficiently and accurately.
• You understand the strategic objectives of those you support and use this knowledge to help them make best use of their time. For example, you will ensure agendas are prepared, issued and actions are tracked in advance of key meetings.
• You will also be the first point of contact for internal and external contacts, successfully building strong relationships with all key stakeholders.
• Finding solutions to problems and situations by drawing on your excellent knowledge of the business and implementing change.
• You will be flexible and able to provide support both directly and remotely to senior leaders based at other locations.
• You are devoted to your own personal development.

Specific knowledge and experience

We are looking for people who are excited about this role, with proven PA/EA experience, and with the gravitas and diplomacy skills to provide executive support to senior stakeholders.

As well as being able to work independently, and being resourceful, and proactive, you will manage not only your own time but the time of those you support, to ensure they deliver on key priorities. Other key knowledge and experience required:

• Experience of managing multiple diaries of busy executives and working with 2 or 3 Executives at the same time.
• Great written and verbal communication, assertiveness, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Experience of engaging confidently with all internal and external stakeholders to form long-standing and credible relationships.
• Excellent organisational, administrative, strategic awareness and planning skills.
• Experience of delivering full secretariat support for forums: drafting agendas, taking minutes, supporting meetings, following up actions and ensuring meetings run smoothly and effectively.
• Planning in meticulous detail visualising the end outcome while always maintaining flexibility to deal with those last minute ‘urgent’ issues that come up all the time.
• Advanced use of Microsoft packages (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Teams) and working knowledge of SharePoint and up to date working knowledge of AV and smart technology.
• Able to work under pressure with strong resilience.

Interested? Next steps

Click the apply button to complete an application form. If you wish, you can also share your CV. We offer a range of benefits, please visit our careers page for more information at http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/careers.

Our application deadline is Sunday 13th October 2024 at midnight. We’ve reserved Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd October for interviews.

Diversity and Inclusion 

We value the unique perspective a diverse workforce brings to what we do. Therefore, we’re keen to increase representation in our workforce and support progression of minority ethnic groups. We are also a proud disability confident employer.

Reasonable Adjustments

Audit Scotland’s recruitment process may include various stages and activities including application forms, online assessments, and interviews, to assess whether you meet the requirements of the role.

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to providing inclusive and accessible recruitment where everyone is supported to perform at their best.

When applying for a job with Audit Scotland, you will be asked in the application form if you need an adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process. Please include the reason you require an adjustment and details of what adjustment/s might help.

Some examples of adjustments that have been given to candidates include changing the time, location or format of interviews and providing additional time in any assessments and interviews. This is not an exhaustive list, and we will consider any adjustments that you might need. As part of our commitment to equality and diversity, our equality network groups would be delighted to offer an insight into Audit Scotland’s culture of inclusivity. If you consider yourself to have a visible or hidden disability and wish to hear more about life at Audit Scotland or wish to speak with someone about the possibility of any adjustments, please contact Careers@audit-scotland.gov.uk or call 0131 625 1500 for further information and a member of the HR team will be in touch.

How we work 

We employ around 340 staff in a wide variety of roles. They work flexibly in the office and at home as well as from audit sites across Scotland. This isn’t your typical work from home or work from office type job. We’re flexible about working patterns and we’ve transformed how we deliver high-quality public audit. We support you to work in the ways that achieve the best results for you, your team and the business, including your physical location and how you manage your hours. Put simply, we trust you to do your job, and want you to have the ability to have a rewarding work-life balance and best support your individual circumstances, be that childcare, adult carer responsibilities or managing disabilities.

Other conditions

Audit Scotland is committed to ensuring that:

• We minimise our impact on the environment in accordance with Government policy affecting public sector organisations.
• We uphold the principles of equality, fairness & diversity.
• We all work within a safe environment and adhere to good standards of health & safety.
• All information is protected and managed appropriately.
• We maintain independence and political neutrality.