Sinead Mc Closkey

I manage a diverse section comprising over twenty-six members of staff that includes five operational units within Belfast City Council. In this role, I have honed my skills in effectively managing day-to-day team activities, navigating complex Human Resources matters, and influencing team dynamics. To ensure effective team management, I schedule a weekly team huddle with my Grade 5 Team Leaders to discuss ongoing issues, I set an agenda and solicit input regarding each team's progress. Additionally, I conduct monthly one-to-one meetings with each Team Leader to address specific challenges and concerns affecting their unit.

I produce the monthly Key Performance Indicators (KPI) dashboard for senior management. The KPI dashboard serves as crucial data used my management to measure the effectiveness of our service in achieving its key business objectives.
The dashboard is divided into three sections - residential, business, and neighbourhood - each presenting a colour-coded visual representation of trends in performance. Red indicates a decline in service, green indicates improvement and amber signifies stability. During the monthly Data Management Team (DMT) meetings with Senior Management, including our Director, these KPI trends are discussed in detail. City Protection Managers provide context and rationale behind the performance changes noted on the dashboard, enabling informed decision-making.
To generate these reports, I utilise our internal system, Flare (Civica), to extract the necessary data. This data is then exported into Microsoft Excel for further analysis and visualisation. Initially, this process involved running multiple reports for each service area, such as public health and housing, to gather relevant metrics. This iterative process proved to be cumbersome and time-consuming.

As the point of contact for several contracts within the property maintenance department, my primary duties included organising and maintaining records for fire extinguishers, kitchen extract, lightning protection and Disabled Refuge Systems in our Council Buildings. This included collating and uploading monthly worksheets from contractors onto our designated spreadsheets and compliance drive, facilitating the payment process by verifying invoices against purchase orders. Additionally, I would prepare quarterly reports for our Head of Service and line manager, providing detailed forecasts of the projected budget for the contracts under my management. This involved running reports on the SAP system and exporting the data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for further analysis.

These reports played a crucial role in monitoring and reviewing the budget of our team, enabling informed decision-making and effective resource allocation.. I was responsible for drafting new quotes for tender, incorporating updated amenities and pricing schedules as necessary. When a new contract was received, I work in conjunction with our Quantity Surveyors to review the tender, ensure the specified works aligned with the quotation provided, and competitively selected the vendor. Furthermore, regular communication was maintained with contractors, notifying them of any additional amenities opened during the maintenance year and requesting a detailed breakdown of costs for required works.

I was responsible for processing payroll summaries for Council employees, which involved several administrative and financial stages. The process started with approving and submitting BACS and cheque runs through the Council's internal software system, Web series. I generated three payroll summary spreadsheets on Microsoft Excel, which were reviewed and approved by the payroll department. Following authorisation, I obtained approvals from two-line managers before processing wages and salaries and producing a journal on SAP to confirm payment transactions for audit purposes. I was a main point of contact with both internal and external stakeholders within the team.