PA Manager

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JOB TITLE

PA Manager

DEPARTMENT

Secretarial Services

OFFICE LOCATION

London office

REPORTS TO

Head of EMEA Secretarial Services

WORKING HOURS

35 hours per week 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required. We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.

FIRM DESCRIPTION

Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms. Our distinctive market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice on deep industry knowledge and on our one team global approach. Formed through the combination of two top international law firms Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas Asia-Pacific Europe the Middle East and Africa. With a presence in the worlds major financial and commercial markets we are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally. Our people are the key to our success which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Responsible for the successful delivery of a high quality secretarial and administrative service through effective management of assigned PA teams and administrative roles. Working closely with the Head of Secretarial Services to support the development of support services in line with strategic objectives enabling delivery of highly efficient service delivery to our fee earners and clients.

Provide proactive support for Group Managers (Partner leads) on non-client office management related tasks. Typically covering three Practice Groups and managing multiple stakeholder relationships your role will be key in supporting Group Managers with a number of administration activities and processes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES/ACCOUNTABILITIES

Management of Secretarial Services

• Manage all allocated secretarial resources with a focus on service delivery and excellence. Develops a service that is responsive to client needs
• Identifying areas for improvement/development continually looking at ways to drive the service forward and improve client service
• Support Head of Secretarial Services on delivering strategic objectives for the function
• Ensure appropriate use of policies procedures and resources; including ensuring efficient and cost-effective use of centralised services
• Promotes the use of centralised services such as Admin Support Team and Global Document Production to ensure the most effective resource is being used for given tasks
• Manage capacity and resourcing within assigned groups finding resource solutions across groups to manage business needs
• Responsible for overall resource allocation regularly reviews workloads and workflow streams to include managing ratios in own group and supports ratio management across all groups including role secondments/transfers to effectively utilise resource across the business
• Manage headcount in line with business requirements; lead resourcing discussions and draft business cases for additional staff requirements
• Review ratio matrices and ensure headcount and fee earner allocation information is up to date and available
• Support other PA Managers to ensure cross-practice working for cover and service delivery remain adaptable to cover other practice areas as required
• Recruitment to include screening CVs developing job descriptions interviewing and giving feedback
• Responsible for producing management information as required
• Approval of monthly overtime
• Supporting the Secretarial Services management with the annual salary and bonus review and other annual processes as required
• Responsible for optimum use of all the firms resources in order to meet Secretarial Services aims and objectives
• Continuously reviews best practice and service delivery with a focus on innovative solutions to improve client service and efficiency
• Undertake ad hoc duties as required.

People Management

• Managing the development and performance of allocated secretarial resources including the annual review process ensuring required standards are met in line with the competency framework
• Hold one-to-one meetings to seek feedback set objectives and ensure service levels are being met
• Monitor and take ownership for managing PA performance to ensure that competency levels are met and new skills acquired
• Identify skills gaps and training needs including developing specific training programmes where required and ensure Team Assistants and Junior PAs have a development plan in place to support their ongoing development
• Managing secretarial team absence and holiday approvals. Ensure absence is managed effectively and monitor timekeeping
• Monitor sickness absence of secretarial resources holding return to work interviews as required
• Pastoral care and wellbeing for the secretarial team
• Ownership of decisions and communication; develop and maintain a structure to communicate effectively with the secretarial team/group including chairing secretarial meetings
• Keep up to date with firm policies and procedures liaising with HR for support as required
• Responsible for new joiners including introduction to the group
• Suggest and implement changes to working practices to improve efficiency within the firm
• Manages hybrid working for Secretarial Services roles in groups ensuring the policy is adhered to and there is sufficient cover in place onsite
• Ensure high standards of client service delivery are maintained at all times.

Office Management

• Work closely with each allocated Group Manager to support wider group management administration and processes
• Ensure a full understanding of the groups aims and objectives and develop good knowledge of the practice area in terms of better understanding how your role can add value and support Group Manager
• Takes ownership of office moves and space planning (to include discussions with partners and other stakeholders about space proposals) and other management processes and activities which support the efficient running of the practice area. Delegates tasks to Senior PAs where appropriate
• Support Graduate Recruitment in the co-ordination of trainee seat moves newly qualified lawyers and vacation students
• Understands each allocated practice groups billing cycle ensuring roles responsible for delivering client billing (PAs and Billing Assistants) are focusing on billing and prioritising workloads to deliver to client expectations in a timely manner. Develop skills in the team promoting practices that reduce fee earner time
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders in practice area and across the firm
• Co-ordinate all people moves relating to the group in line with firm policies and procedures
• Use strong project management skills to lead/support projects within Secretarial Services across groups including operational change initiatives and service development. Acts as a champion for change encouraging adoption of new solutions. Engages with key stakeholders and positively influences change management outcomes.

Development/Skills and experience

• Manage issues and knows when to escalate to Secretarial Services Management and/or HR for advice
• Demonstrate sound judgement and commerciality in decision making.
• Sound knowledge of GDPR

PERSON SPECIFICATION

The candidate

• At least five years experience in a demanding high performing professional services environment
• Proven team management experience (of at least ten people) including managing them through a wide range of HR processes such as annual reviews performance management and feedback discussions
• Experience of handling difficult conversations
• Sound knowledge of PA administration in the legal sector
• Proven ability to develop and build effective working relationships at all levels and demonstrate gravitas
• Strong influencing skills
• Understands and maintains the need for confidentiality

Skills and experience

• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Good planning and organisational skills
• Demonstrates excellent influencing and negotiating skills
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Able to prioritise and plan activities taking into account all relevant issues and factors
• Able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and re-prioritise
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to contribute to a seamless integrated team approach to service delivery
• Attention to detail and the highest quality standards
• Ability to identify areas of improvement
• Consistently delivers on agreed objectives and commitments
• Demonstrates strong leadership skills
• Act as a role model and mentor
• Good at encouraging teamwork
• Ability to build and maintain credible effective working relationships at all levels both internal and external
• Work in a proactive way to anticipate fee-earner requirements and ensure they are met
• Ability to manage difficult situations effectively and stay calm under pressure
• Ability to think analytically to solve technical problems using support service departments as necessary
• Strong project management skills
• Advanced MS Office skills.

Qualifications and training

• Minimum of 5 GCSE/O Levels (or equivalent) grades A-C including English and Mathematics
• Relevant higher education qualification.

General Attributes

• Resilience
• A willingness to use own initiative and drive to make a difference
• Enthusiastic
• A flexible approach
• Personable

AGILE WORKING STATEMENT

Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis and we will be happy to discuss this further.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES EMPLOYMENT STATEMENT

It is the policy of Hogan Lovells to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment training and promotion. Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin religion sex gender and gender identity age sexual orientation marital and civil partnership status pregnancy or disability.

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