Estates and Facilities - Helpdesk Assistant

Job overview

The Estates & Facilities Helpdesk Assistant is a vital role in the successful operational of the Estates & Facilities Service. Often the first point of call for our colleagues across the organisation, the E&F HD Assistant will work with our Estates Officers and Contractors to ensure that repairs, maintenance, and minor works are carried out as quickly as possible.

The Helpdesk is a small friendly team committed to developing the best possible service by ensuring robust streamlined process and procedures are in place which are continually reviewed for effectiveness.

We offer a supportive, friendly environment in which you can realise your potential with plenty of opportunities for learning and development.

The helpdesk is based at Hollins Park and supports all divisions across the trust, supporting estates officers and the wider estates team.

Main duties of the job

We are seeking a motivated and positive Helpdesk Assistant to join our Estates and Facilities Team, who will provide a comprehensive service to the Estates and Facilities department, and act as first point of contact for Estates queries and issues.

The role will involve working as part of a busy team based at and will provide an efficient and high quality service whilst assisting with operational management of the Estates portfolio of freehold, leasehold and community services-occupied premises.

The post requires a high degree of competency in administrative support and office communications, including help desk administration, log planned and re-active job requests from telephone calls, email or in person on the Estates & Facilities Management (EFM) helpdesk database, processing orders/invoices and diary management.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will be required to respond to all methods of communication to the help desk, record incidents following procedures, and resolve the majority of incidents at first point of contact.

Plan and coordinate meetings, including providing support to the wider team to schedule meetings, arrange venues and facilities , notify attendees, provide agendas and take minutes within a timely manner.

Provide full administrative support to the Head of Estates, Assets & Development Manager and Facilities Managers including but not limited to, co-ordinating meetings, taking messages, monitor/ screen all telephone calls, archiving documents, proactively managing diaries, post and e-mails; ensuring correspondence is dealt with efficiently whilst using initiative and negotiation skills.

Deal with all enquiries in a proactive manner, using judgement skills and solution proposing for complex enquiries.

Ensure housekeeping is kept up to date, manage and organise shared drives for emails and paper files. Ensuring that the Estates electronic records are managed, stored and retrieved efficiently when needed, retained for the appropriate period, and are disposed of in a timely appropriate manner. Ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act and Trust Records Retention Policy.

As directed, provide assistance to the Estates Team regarding estates related research such as finding cost effective suppliers etc.

Provide telephone cover within the office.

Receive incoming correspondence and deal with it in an appropriate manner. This will either be drafting a suitable response or appropriate referral to other members of the Estates and Facilities team.

Report any required maintenance and repair issues to the appropriate provider.

Produce presentation materials, spreadsheets and graphs as directed and to agreed time scales.

Work as part of the estates and facilities administration team providing support and cover for colleagues as required. It is therefore essential that the post holder is willing to be flexible and work as part of this team.

The post holder will be required to work under his/her own initiative within objectives agreed with the Facilities Manager. This includes prioritisation of his/her workload on a day to day basis, making decisions within their authority and exercising a high level of initiative to problem solve.

Support the Facilities Managers to ensure that the full range of facilities management activity is developed, implemented and monitored.

Setup and update a list of contacts for each site, including deputies or alternative contacts where required.

Liaise with the various Contractors in chasing- up uncompleted or unsatisfactory work and keeping staff informed at all times of activities and delays.

Ensure that access is provided to all areas required to undertake service visits or repairs and that relevant permits to work have been approved before work / repairs commence.

Assist in the collation, analysis and completion of Estates Reporting Information Collection (ERIC) and other NHS returns required. Respond accordingly to changes of priorities as required by the Head of Estates and Facilities Managers demonstrating a flexible approach to work patterns.

Create, Maintain and update the various spreadsheets, databases and any documentation used by the estates team; ensuring retrieval thereof, using a department filing protocol area for the team.

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.