Why this job matters

This is a unique opportunity to provide autonomous EA professional services to a BT senior leader.  It’s important to fully understand the priorities of the Leader and the business unit to be able to manage the administration of the office; optimise time; improve and manage workflow and productivity, utilising digital technology and applications to consistently achieve results. 

The EA will continually look to identify opportunities to improve services and processes, using knowledge, experience, and data to make decisions and implement changes.   Having an expert level in both written and verbal communications, as well as being fully proficient across Office365 and digital applications. 

Emotional intelligence is key for building strong relationships and networks internally and externally to influence and improve outcomes and decisions.

What you’ll be doing

Time Management and Meeting Planning  

• Owner of the MD diary, using initiative, to strategically co-ordinate and align the diary by exercising judgement and decision-making while filtering, prioritising and delegating requests and solving conflicts, with minimum instruction.
• Integrate and synchronise personal commitments and actively seeks these out for the full year  
• Schedules and leads regular office meetings to plan ahead, review commitments and requirements and discharges actions.
• Be creative in using the calendar to create reminders for completing tasks; team leave and attendance; apologies sent for meeting; storing meeting papers; adding travel time.
• Co-ordinate and manage every aspect of travel itinerary (including venue bookings) anticipating all needs, ensuring cost effectiveness and compliance. 

Meeting Preparation 

• Works with content owners on creating and producing meeting papers, briefings, and presentations.  
• Analyses simple data, edits and prepares reports on behalf of their MD
• Expert in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as necessary to create and edit agendas, slides, briefing papers
• Prompts when overrunning / late for next meeting.
• Email Management  
• Develops processes to manage email workflow, implementing ideas to improve and simplify MD workstack.  
• Ensures actionable emails are dealt with daily and open actions are tracked through to completion.
• Independently responds to emails, delegating and sharing as appropriate, seeking guidance where required.  

Stakeholder Management & Collaboration 

• Uses knowledge to negotiate or persuade stakeholders.  
• Navigates relationships openly and honestly leveraging stakeholder relationships, using experience and expertise with ability to implement new ideas and shape the best solutions to problems
• Takes responsibility to agree ways of working, service level requirements and continuous learning and development with MD.
• Develops and maintains a series of internal and external relationships to improve and maximise efficiencies and impact across the business.  
• Acts as a positive role model and develops a high performing culture across the PA community & develops PA network for social, wellbeing, collaboration and sharing best practice.
• Offers advice and recommendations based on expertise, both proactively and on request.  
• Uses knowledge of best practice to collaborate with peers across the business in different ways.
• Sets a high standard for quality of work, outlining clear expectations  
• Actively uses and seeks out resources to enable and influence stakeholder decision making 

What you will be doing continued

Communications / Engagement  

• Co-ordinates all people calls/webcasts/events working in partnership with content owners helping to shape the agenda for colleagues.  
• Co-ordinates engagement and visibility plans including virtual for MD. 

Technology 

• Develops and contributes to knowledge of new technologies, how they’re used in BT and externally
• Becomes the advocate and stays up to date on digital technology and applications making time for training and seeking out best practice to work smarter.
• An expert in IT applications and setting up Teams channels for chats, meetings, and collaboration.
• Expert on internal systems and processes, ie, room bookings, catering, finance, and travel
• Primary Point of Contact / Call Management - for the office and virtual office.  Screens and filters calls and visitors acting as a gatekeeper.  
• Safety, Security, Ethics & Compliance – ensure compliance to BT processes and policy demonstrating financial awareness for business requests.
• Special Projects & Ad hoc – delivers administration tasks by applying expertise to prioritise work and enhance business process or policy, this may be, but not limited to:-
• Able to prepare and analyse reports  
• Able to prepare and edit documents to a very high standard.
• Solves simple IT problems on behalf of the team.  
• Proactively reviews office processes and implements efficient ways of working.
• Act as liaison for the leadership team.
• Responsible for onboarding of any new members of the team, creating a reusable guide to ensure the process is efficient.  
• Attends meetings to take notes/actions, endeavouring to chase and close these. 

Skills and Experience

• Confidentiality: diplomacy and discretion in keeping sensitive strategic, commercial and personnel matters - confidentiality is paramount
• Time management and planning: strong skills in planning, organisation and time management, strong grasp of detail, working to deadlines.
• Autonomy: as a self-starter you respond quickly to challenges, working independently using your initiative and seeking guidance only when necessary.  
• Emotional intelligence and self-awareness: able to handle office politics or disagreements whilst maintaining personal integrity.  Awareness of how and when to communicate to help improve relationships our outcomes.
• Relationship building: able to present a strong professional front, build strong relationships and develop wide networks internally and externally to exert influence on outcomes, get work done through others, without direct authority
• IT proficiency: expert across Office365 and digital apps with a good level of IT skills to produce and edit PowerPoint and Word documents.  Able to set up and manage channels in Microsoft Teams and OneNote.
• Expert level written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate and persuade clearly across all levels of stakeholders and making complex technical information easy to understand.
• High level of flexibility to provide business support as and when required.  This may also include travel to other UK sites.
• Expert knowledge of internal systems
• Active learner: Quick to learn and readily applies new knowledge. Committed to continuous learning to attain skills, dedicating time to focus on development and acquiring knowledge.
• Governance and compliance: You evaluate and quantify the impact of standard legal and regulatory risks. You use your knowledge of internal and external regulatory standards, legal requirements, and principles. 

Experience we are looking for 

• Significant EA or PA experience.
• Significant experience of managing complex diary and travel itineraries  
• Experience of multi -tasking and delivering to a consistently high standard.
• Experience of delivering with trust and integrity to protect confidentiality 

Benefits

• 10% on target bonus 
• BT Pension scheme, minimum 5% Employee contribution, BT contribution 10%
• From January 2025, equal family leave:  receive 18 weeks at full pay, 8 weeks at half pay and 26 weeks at the statutory rate. It’s for all parents, no matter how your family is made up.
• Enhanced women’s health support: including help with menopause symptoms, cancer screenings, period care and more.
• 25 days annual leave (not including bank holidays), increasing with service
• 24/7 private virtual GP appointments for UK colleagues
• 2 weeks carer’s leave
• World-class training and development opportunities
• Option to join BT Shares Saving schemes.