Receptionist

Job overview

We are looking to recruit a friendly, organised and reliable Receptionist to join our Team at Colne House in Watford. This role is a key point of contact for service users, carers, visitors and professionals, supporting the smooth and safe running of the service.

You will provide a professional and welcoming reception service, manage telephone and face‑to‑face enquiries, book and amend room bookings and ensure patient information is handled accurately and confidentially. Working closely with clinical and administrative colleagues, you will contribute to a calm, supportive environment for people accessing mental health services.

The ideal candidate will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, good IT skills, and the ability to remain calm and professional in a busy and sometimes emotionally challenging environment. Previous reception or administrative experience, ideally within healthcare or a similar customer‑facing role, is desirable, although full training will be provided.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a supportive team and play a vital role in delivering high‑quality, person‑centered mental health care.

Main duties of the job

You will be able to offer  a comprehensive service within a busy and often demanding environment so candidates will need to be confident and adaptable to change.  You will have a proactive approach in ensuring that the reception area is fit for purpose.

Duties will include:  answering the telephone and transferring calls to various departments where appropriate. Welcoming Service Users, Carers, Professionals and Visitors to the Site and dealing with enquiries on the phone or face to face.

Support clinic flow and administrative processes.

Reporting maintenance and cleaning issues to the Help desk and keeping accurate and up to date maintenance logs.

You will also act as a Fire Warden and be responsible for keeping the Reception and clinical area clean, tidy and organised.

Other duties would include: Ordering and dealing with  deliveries of stationery etc., to the building.  Booking all Clinical and meeting rooms for  Staff working in the building for which training will be given.

You will work closely with other members of the Reception Team to ensure a smooth and effective Reception Service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To be the first point of contact for all visitors to Colne House and greet them in a manner aligned to the Trusts’ values of welcoming, kind, positive, professional and respectful.

To manage and keep updated the room booking system at Colne House. To report and keep logs of all maintenance issues, including IT and telephone issues. To assist the area site manager in the day to day running of services within the building. This will include keeping health and safety, security, fire and water regulation records up to date. To out-coming appointments and managing clinics where necessary. To manifest and manage the daily post. To ensure that stationery stocks are kept update and ordered in a timely fashion. Keeping the reception and  clinic rooms clean, tidy and organised. Dealing with deliveries. There may be a requirement to assist at other locations in the event of sickness/holidays.

The post holder will develop good working relationships with managers and colleagues within Colne House with other staff across the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and outside agencies.

The post holder will also communicate with service users/carers where the subject of the conversation may require the post holder to deal with sensitive and/or contentious information. To effectively make use of communication skills and to manage constructively any barriers to communication.

Using judgement and initiative to ensure that calls, messages and/or queries are dealt with efficiently and timely.

Chasing actions, outputs and outcomes.

Handling queries from colleagues and others connected with the services.

Keep data/information systems up to date and stores information correctly and safely.

To maintain filing systems including archive filing