Our client, a leader in the banking industry is seeking a Senior Administrative Assistant for a 6-month contract. This is an onsite position at their New York office. In this role you will be responsible for providing backup administrative and professional support to various groups within the business on a rotational basis, ranging anywhere from half day coverage to leaves of absence. You will monitor and ensure all established administrative and operational processes and control standards are followed. In addition, the Senior Administrative Assistant performs basic analytical functions for purposes of contributing to the effective and efficient operation of the business group.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:
1. Professional Support (50%)
2. General Office Administration (45%)
3. Ad-hoc Projects (5%)
SPECIFIC ACCOUNTABILITIES:
1. Professional Support
- Develops basic knowledge of BMO policies and procedures and leverages relationships across-LOBs with Executive and Administrative Assistants, Senior Managers and professionals to provide effective backup support to the permanent administrative population.
- Manages meeting coordination and scheduling using Microsoft Outlook, arranges domestic and international travel and logistics, monitors multiple phone lines, assists with expense processing and receipt collection, and completes data entry requests as needed
- Interfaces with client executives (CEO, CFO, or senior managers of that client’s business) or their representative on behalf on business leaders in coordination of meetings, events, presentations, or pitches.
- Maintains a flexibility and is able to shift focus as assignments adjust based on the needs of the business
- As a member of the Administration team, participates in Administrative professional development sessions, town halls, committees and networking events. Teams with Administrative partners to foster an environment focused on career development
2. General Office Administration
- Acts as the gatekeeper at the Reception Desks on client-facing floors by greeting guests and assisting internal employees
- Monitors phones and reception inboxes, checking for requests using Microsoft Outlook
- Coordinates visitor passes
3. Ad-Hoc Projects
- Assisting with the expense governance process by scanning, tracking receipts, and offering backup assistance to Administrative staff
- Offer support for marketing functions, charity campaigns, and Operations initiative
- Temporary project work outside of Administration based on the needs of the business
JOB DIMENSIONS:
- Participates in a variety of administrative related projects
- On occasion, overtime work is required with little notice
- No direct financial accountability.
- Can be asked to monitor projects and operational expenses to ensure they are within budget.
AUTHORITIES:
- Auditing- Ensures that tracking meets established standards. Resolves low to moderate-complexity issues and escalates high-complexity to critical issues for resolution.
- Advisory- Provides advice or suggests how to follow standard processes. Provides resolution on all administrative of a non-controversial nature. Recommends process improvements, and recommends appropriate content for reports and presentations to senior managers.
- Autonomy- Works independently to accomplish tasks once reviewed with senior managers within scope of job that provide input to support decisions and lead to outputs of others. In many cases, relies on others output as input to fulfill accountabilities.
- Expend Resources-Has some authority/discretion on spending petty cash or some budget elements.
- Decision Making- Makes moderate-complexity decisions in fielding phone calls, coordinating meetings, managing calendars, and in responding to non-controversial inquiries. Makes moderately complex decisions in performing business/situational analysis, in preparing reports/presentations, and in developing and implementing process improvements. When relevant established processes or procedures do not exist, the incumbent is participates in determining and recommending the best process/procedure to achieve the desired outcome.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS:
- Interacts and collaborates regularly, with internal and external clients, their representatives, and senior managers, and with cross-functional business units to perform research and analysis, to develop and recommend alternatives, implement improvement opportunities, and to accomplish administrative or operational tasks.
- Interacts with colleagues, vendors and clients globally, dealing with multiple time-zones and cultural implications depending on unique requirements of the business unit.
- Acts as a primary interface with IT and works to resolve Executive’s IT issues.
- Exudes a confident, professional and confident demeanor
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:
- Requires 1-3 years of experience in an administrative / professional support function in a fast paced environment dealing with moderately complex issues and managing conflicting priorities, or relevant customer services focused experience.
- Undergraduate degree or post-secondary education preferred. Other professional related training and development to keep skills current, including office productivity software.
- Experienced in coordinating travel logistics
- Ability to organize moderate amounts of business information and develop it into cohesive, professional reports and presentations, with little guidance and ability to recognize and respond to business related issues within the scope of the material.
- Detail oriented, extremely well organized, and able to manage time and multi-task to accomplish a multitude of tasks, with conflicting priorities and timelines.
- Advanced level PC skills (MS Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook).
- Advanced communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Ability to deal with clients in a professional and courteous manner, and to develop and leverage professional working relationships.
- Ability to work both independently and as a team player.
- Ability to deal with confidential materials in an appropriate manner.