Amanda Long

Marketing Assistant

During my time with Therm-O-Stor I was responsible for the

· Collation of the daily sales figures from all over the country and then inputting the information onto the computer system.

· Organise Corporate Sales and Marketing events which I also attended to help ensure the event ran smoothly.

· Office duties such a typing, filing and photocopying.

Peterborough City Council, Peterborough/Serco

Full Time

Administrative Assistant

22/02/1989 to 01/11/2011 – PCC

01/11/2011 – 31/12/2023 – Serco

01/01/2024- to Current – PCC

1989-1991 - Electoral Registration and Licensing, this involved helping to arrange:-

· Elections

· Preparing Ballot Boxes

· Updating the Register of Electors each year

· Carrying out polling duties

· I was also responsible for issuing licences for public entertainment

· Street Collection Licences

· House to House collections.

1991 – 2010 – Administration Assistant - Licensing:-

· Processing and issuing Public Entertainment Licences

· Processing and Issuing Late Night Refreshment House licences

· Processing and issuing Pet Shop Licences

· Processing and issuing Zoo Licences

during this time as well as issuing licences,

· I produced reports for committee,

· organised a door supervisor registration scheme and devised a training course for them to complete.

When the new Licensing Act was bought in I was asked to supervise a night shift of sometimes up to 12 members of temporary staff, this involved training them on the in-house system that was to be used and giving them an understanding of the new Act. This enabled all applications to be processed in time for the implementation.

After I had completed my work on the New Licensing Act, I was transferred to a more administrative based role joining the main administration team, during this time I gained experienced of working on a busy reception counter, helping to develop new systems for the Pest Control and Dog Warden service and also carried out training for the Customer Contact Centre when they took over the telephone enquiries for environment health.

Business Support Officer - 2010 - 2017 I moved to Housing Services to process Disabled Facilities Grants and Repairs Assistance Grants,

· this involved checking

· people’s personal information on application forms prior to submission,

· processing grant approvals

· processing payments to contractors.

· I was also responsible for carrying out a monthly reconciliation of all grant spend.

During my time in Strategic Housing/Neighbourhoods I have also been asked to cover for the secretary to the then Head of Neighbourhoods and now the Service Director for Adult Services and Communities, this has enabled me to improve my communication and organisation skills. My current position is providing business support for 1 interim Assistant Director and 1 Head of Service.

The Business Support I provided on a day to day basis for the Interim Assistant Director was

· diary management,

· ensure that complaints and FOI’s are responded to by the deadline dates

· collation and editing of Highlight and Cabinet Members reports

· Dealing with responses to complaints received and also Councillor and MP enquiries

· I also provide minute taking for Communities Senior Leadership Meeting and Safer Peterborough Delivery Board

· Room Bookings

· Agenda Setting

· Collation of all papers and circulation prior to the meeting

· Management of bought forward items to ensure paperwork is available for all meetings and responses are chased to ensure deadlines are met.

I also provided Business Support to the Head of Housing, Prevention and Wellbeing, tasks included:-

· Diary Management,

· Ensure that complaints and FOI’s are responded to by the deadline dates,

· Collation and editing of Highlight and Cabinet Members reports,

· I also provide minute taking at high level meetings this will involve arranging the setting of the Agenda, collation of all papers and circulation prior to the meeting,

· Preparation of 1-2-1 notes and typing them up after the meeting as well as management of bought forward items to ensure paperwork is available for all meetings.

· Absence monitoring

· Collation of compliments for the department

Acting Team Leader - October 2013 to January 2014 - During this period I managed a team of 7 people but this number rose to 17 when a colleague secured another position.

During this period I gained experience in the following:-

· Dealing with absence monitoring, this included some long term absences which involved quite complex cases and needed close contact with the members of team concerned, regular communication with HR and Occupational Health and managing the members of the team back to work.

· Carrying out return to work interviews with teams members who have been absent from work and to offer any further assistance and ensuring these are submitted to HR and Payroll and any referrals are made to Occupational Health.

· Completing monthly absence returns and ensuring these are submitted correctly to HR and Payroll at the end of each month,

· Approving annual leave for team members whilst ensuring that the service provisions are met during this time.

· I performed regular 1-2-1’s with each member of the team and weekly huddles, this enabled me to gage whether any team members were requiring any extra support and where the pressures were within the service area, I also offered praise for a job well done and words of encouragement.

· I allocated work to team members using the Work Order Management System on a daily basis, also ensuring that none had missed the ‘Required By’ date and chasing staff members if necessary.  I continue to do this task today if my Team Manager is on leave of absent from the office.

· Part of my position was to update on a monthly basis the demand planning figures for the services areas that we provided support for, I would obtain this information from the team ensuring that any new processes were looked at, and then upload the details onto the demand planning spreadsheets on the Work Order Management System.

· I also have experience in regard to updating Process Maps

· worked very closely with the client due to absence within the team to discuss how their support would be covered during that time, this involved sourcing members of staff through Manor Drive Solutions and also absorbing work within the team.

· I have held both formal and informal interviews for staff provided by Manor Drive Solutions.

Business Support Co-Ordinator - November 2016 to February 2017

During this period my duties were:-

· Production of Structure Charts

· Arranging any Stage meetings with members of staff (following consultation)

· Producing confidential documentation

· Dealing with day to day queries from all members of the Prevention and Enforcement team.

· Diary management

· Ensure that complaints and FOI’s are responded to by the deadline dates

· Collation and editing of Highlight and Cabinet Members reports

· Dealing with responses to complaints received and also Councillor and MP enquiries

· Minute taking for Communities/Adults Senior Leadership Meeting and Safer Peterborough Delivery Group this will involve, room bookings, arranging the setting of the Agenda

· Collation of all papers and circulation prior to the meeting, and also Management of bought forward items to ensure paperwork is available for all meetings and responses are chased to ensure deadlines are met.

· In the Assistant Directors absence I would manage their email Inbox this involved making a decision to forward emails to members of their management team to answer in their absence and follow up to ensure a response had been completed, I have set up a system to make it clear which emails needed to be dealt with on their return to the office, which ones I have dealt with and which were purely for information.

Business Support Team Manager - June 2017 to Current Date - I secured the position of Business Support Co-Ordinator to assist the Account Manager with the day to day running of the team whose Manager was long term absent. In December 2017 I secured a permanent position of Business Support Team Manager.

During this period I gained experience in the following:-

Managing and leading a team of 28 staff members across Children's Social Care

· Motivate and develop the team through appraisals, coaching, one to ones and personal development plans, setting appropriate objectives in line with service objectives

· Holding regular team meetings and briefings to disseminate information and provide team members with effective means of feeding back to management

· Conducting and actively managing sickness levels and HR meetings where necessary including investigations, disciplinaries, health and well-being meetings, capability issues and grievances within the team

· Support, motivate, develop and guide business support team members to ensure highly motivated and effective teams

· Develop and enhance the service ensuring a consistent and professional approach is maintained

· Implement and manage process to deal effectively with all FOI, and data protection risks/issues

· Effectively manage workload of team, using IT systems to allocate work appropriately, including monitoring of workloads and assisting staff using specialist knowledge of the service, using demand management planning tools

· Recruit, plan and manage the deployment of resources within the team in order to maintain a skilled and effective workforce

· Responsible for all processes within teams, ensuring all are mapped with appropriate checks such as quality and data protection are in place and are updated on a regular basis and placed on the Document Control Register

· Participate in training, including mandatory training such as Health and Safety and personal development, using all learning opportunities to develop personal skills necessary to improve effectiveness, efficiency and delivery of service line

During my time with Therm-O-Stor I was responsible for the

· Collation of the daily sales figures from all over the country and then inputting the information onto the computer system.

· Organise Corporate Sales and Marketing events which I also attended to help ensure the event ran smoothly.

· Office duties such a typing, filing and photocopying.

As a YTS trainee I was supervised and trained by the Lead receptionist my duties included

· Typing letters and survey reports

· Reception duties meeting and greeting staff and members of the public

· Answering the main switch board

· Collection of rent payments.

To help me gain experience in all of the above I attended Peterborough Regional College 1 day a week to study office skills