Parmela Sondhi

Working closely with the Director of Research in the School of Chemistry to provide the support required to achieve the research income targets set by the University. This includes, preparing accurate and most recent reports for the monthly pipeline meetings, using Worktribe and BOXI as data sources, and manipulating the data in Excel to present it in easily readable format, in order for the DoR to assess how the School is progressing towards the research income target; supporting the Research Committee meetings; responding to a range of research related queries from academics, such as, reading through award letters on Worktribe to advise research academics whether virements between budget headings on grants are permitted or not; monitoring spend on projects closing within 6 months and advising on how remaining funds can be utilised depending on the funders conditions/limitations; proactively checking if awards have budgets for recruitment and supporting academics with the recruitment process (requesting finance approval from the Research Development Officer or post-award liaison depending on the stage of the project, sending cases for CPAG approval, working closely with HR to progress the campaign, ensuring all records are up to date and compliance), Directly Incurred facilities that will need to be charged to project, any large pieces of equipment that will require space; raising invoices on SIPS, and submitting expense claims; journalling transactions between projects and General Ledger accounts; working with internal and external colleagues.

As Senior School Administrator and PA to the Head of School (HoS), I develop a good understanding of working closely with academic staff to support activities in the School. I provided administrative support to the Head of School, by supporting diary management and internal processes, such as Study Leave, PDRs, School Promotions, and other activities as required, in a timely and accurate manner. Part of my role also involved dealing with confidential matters; thus, taking the initiative to use available tools, to keep confidential documents secure for the attention of the Head of School only. I also provided professional secretarial support to the School academic team, by servicing relevant committee meetings. As part of this, I was responsible for drafting and collating important documents for circulation; including minutes of the meeting and the action log. In addition, I supported the School with ad-hoc administrative tasks; organising events; liaising with staff on social media/communications/ promotional activities; and supporting departmental budget holders to keep track of their event budgets; liaising with other colleagues in the wider team and other Schools; and liaising with new staff on matters relating to visa, immigration and joining. I also regularly used internal systems, such as the HR portal and New Core.

During my time at Health Education England, I worked in the recruitment team and visa sponsorship team. I project managed the recruitment process for doctors and dentist into training programmes, from start to finish. This involved, inviting consultants to sit as part of the interview panel; booking venues and hospitality; shortlisting candidates for trainee positions by checking applications against set criteria; inviting applicants to book their interview slots online; devising the interview timetables; preparing all documents for each day; setting roles for administrators; managing and running the events on the day; collating and processing interview results after interview; and communicating offers to applicants. I also implemented a new process for visa sponsorship, that worked in line with the recruitment timeline.

I worked in both the International Student Team and the HR Immigration Team. Both roles have involved supporting international staff and students to progress their visa sponsorships. The day to day operational and administration tasks in the International Student Team involved, checking documents that international students intended to submit with their visa application against the UKVI guidance; advising students on how to submit the correct documents; liaising with Registry and Student Fees departments to process CAS requests; carrying out right to study checks; ensuring concise record keeping; organising and taking minutes of the Visa Assessment meetings; assessing immigration history checks to calculate and ensure that students did not exceed their maximum time allowed on a Student visa; making regular updates to internal web pages via Contensis; and using other internal systems such as Verint to communicate with students, Banner for Registry information, Ticket Taylor and Prezzi to run workshops. I regularly ran BREXIT, visa extension, and Graduate Route workshops, demonstrating the ability to present clear information using the slides available and respond to any queries from the audience. In the HR Immigration department, I was also responsible for liaising with Schools to assess eligibility for visa sponsorship and collate all sponsorship documents as mandated by immigration law, by working closely with the HR recruitment team. I used Outlook tasks as a tool to monitor each sponsored employee and track progress of their visa expiry dates and visa applications. I used the the UKVI Sponsorship Management System to process Certificates of Sponsorship.