Virtual Personal Assistant

Ideas | People | Trust We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world. We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them. We’ll broaden your horizons Our Shared Service Centre team (SSC) provides essential support to a number of teams across our firm. As well as assisting on large-scale operations, beyond the capacity of a core specialist team, they provide the unparalleled expertise we need to keep moving forward. As part of this friendly department, you’ll have the chance to work on exciting projects and develop your skillset. There’s real opportunity, making it a great chance to use industry knowledge and experience to solve problems in your next career step, or it can be a place to learn if you’re just starting out. If you want to work on important projects and explore your potential, we’ll give you the friendly, supportive working environment to go far. We’ll help you succeed Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships. You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with. We are recruiting Personal Assistants, reporting into our Business Support Hub in our Liverpool Shared Service Centre to offer ad hoc virtual PA cover to our National Business Support Stream. The Business Support Hub launched in November 2020 and with approximately 50 people, is able to flex easily to accommodate many different requests from across BDO nationally, not only from our external facing teams but also from those in our Practice Management Departments (PMDs). The Hub provides support services, performing various tasks on behalf of these teams and allowing our external facing teams to focus on delivering exceptional client service - our Virtual PA offering will be key to this continued success. The National Business Support Stream is a collaborative community of c230 business support professionals across the firm, working in our 17 hubs and infrastructure departments. Made up of PAs, Senior PAs, Executive Assistants, Operations Managers, Receptionists, and Administrators, we offer access to career development, learning opportunities, coaching and mentoring. Our aim is to ‘work smarter and creatively’ driving consistencies and ‘working better together’ by sharing best practice and knowledge. The Virtual PA role will be challenging and rewarding. You will work as part of a team of three Virtual PAs to offer ad hoc PA cover which will vary according to the area of the business. Core responsibilities will include:

• High quality PA cover to key stakeholders (partners and directors) and act as a trusted point of contact and support, capable of building relationships and making independent decisions within limits of authority.
  • Diary and inbox management - Monitor e-mails/meeting invitations of Partner(s)/Director(s) and reply on their behalf when needed
  • Co-ordinate events including liaising with delegates, booking meeting rooms and arranging refreshments/equipment as necessary
  • Co-ordinate business travel via our internal Travel Team
  • Liaison with meeting attendees regarding presentations and reports
  • Document production
  • Liaising with senior stakeholders, both internally and externally
  • Completion of expense reports
  • Provide an exceptional client experience
  • Be responsive and help to create a positive impression of the business support function
  • Deal with routine enquiries and taking appropriate messages
  • General administrative assistance
  • Taking on small ad-hoc projects
  • Minute taking

Technical Knowledge

• Intermediate to advanced level of MS office skills
• Fast accurate typing skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Basic project and event management experience
• To either have previous experience in, or ability to learn the following systems:
  • Workday
  • CMS
  • Microsoft Office products such as SharePoint, Teams, Yammer etc.

Person Specification

• Forward thinking and creative
• Ability to manage / prioritise tasks
• Has a flexible and adaptable attitude, able to adjust quickly when priorities change
• Ability to readily understand the Firm’s environment, structure and culture
• Works on own initiative, is discreet and highly organised
• Proactively identifies and evaluates problems and demonstrates the ability to approach and tackle problems effectively
• A strong communicator at all levels within the Firm – can produce detailed handover notes
• Work on own initiative and be self-motivated
• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Awareness of BDO Brand, layout of documents etc
• Ability to adhere to strict deadlines
• Proactive in driving things forward
• Ability to see things through from start to finish and staying on top of do to lists

Education/Professional Qualifications

• To have previous experience working in a PA role
• GCSE Maths and English grade C and above or equivalent
• Microsoft qualifications
• Professional practices experience or similar is an advantage

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer every colleague the opportunity to work in ways that suit you, your teams, and the task at hand. At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development. We’re in it together Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work. We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for the companies we work with and satisfying experiences for our colleagues, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO. We’re looking forward to the future At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.