Commercial Support Officer (Gr H)

Job Description

Job Title : Commercial Support Officer (Gr H)
Job Category : Human Resources
Location : Guildhall, Royal Borough of Kingston
Hours Per Week : 36.00
Start Date : Immediate Start
Start Time : 09:00
End Time : 17:00
Salary: £18.54

The Council is focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for its communities. To do this the Council needs employees who thrive in an agile and networked organisation and who can support continuous improvement within a constructive organisational culture.

The Commercial Support Officer reports directly to the HR Commercial Partner and will be integral to the delivery of our HR & OD traded services. The shared service between Kingston and Sutton Councils provides HR & OD services to both Councils and trades services with 7 external customers and over 200 schools across 4 councils. This is a new role within a newly created team so the successful candidate will be able to hit the ground running and set up new systems and processes.

The Commercial Support Officer will work with the HR Commercial partner to provide end-to-end management of all the HR & OD traded services contracts, service level agreements and external providers. They will be the first point of contact for schools using the service and will have responsibility for Schools SLA management and updating and developing the Action HR website.

Key activities

Building effective relationships with all commercial Traded & Shared Service customers (internal and external).
Developing relationships with external service providers (third party contractors).
Working closely with HR Commercial Partner to ensure that traded services and external provider contractual management is well organised and maintained.
Maintain processes and systems with contractors and customers; and monitor contract review dates via reviews database.
Support the HR Commercial Partner to prepare for undertaking of contract and SLA reviews ensuring legal compliance and continue to develop standards for contracts.
Delivers a high standard of support to internal and external customers in line with service level agreements and other relevant performance standards.
Be the first point of contact for customer queries internal and external whether this be through the inbox or over telephone; working to resolve these in a timely and professional manner until there is a satisfactory resolution.
Arrange quarterly- annual meetings with customers to gather feedback to use to directly improve the service and assist with putting relevant measures in place.

Financial

Develop and maintain clear invoicing arrangements, ensuring income is costed to the correct cost centres, and paid against the correct product and VAT codes.
Carry out financial administration tasks such as raising purchase orders, processing invoices and journals for recharging internally in accordance with procedures.
Ensure all documentation is well maintained on a central electronic database.
Utilise, maintain and get the best out of relevant systems including data entry, reporting and automation.
Gather and present relevant financial and qualitative data as well as progress reports, updated costs and forecasts to relevant stakeholders.
Complete financial analysis producing year on year comparisons to inform future decisions.
Assist in creating project plans for priority service level agreements and customers with involvement in the end to end process, liaising with all relevant teams and stakeholders throughout.

SLA Management

Ensure the SLA inbox is manned and emails are responded to in a timely manner ensuring customers expectations are met and complex issues are escalated to the HR Commercial Partner in good time.
Ensuring service updates/changes throughout each SLA agreement are clearly communicated through the appropriate channels, so customers remain fully informed.
Upload all prices onto the SLA online portal for all customers ensuring accuracy and attention to detail.
Complete the chasing task to ensure all customers have confirmed their purchases within the designated buyback period, arranging calls with those who may not repurchase to establish the reasons and negotiate them continuing.
Run reports for relevant budget holders and stakeholders on progress throughout the SLA contract and be able to provide context around these.
Extract financial data from the SLA portal to assist in the invoicing process.
Attend workshops/ meetings held by our third party contractors to ensure knowledge of our systems is up to date to utilise these the best we can.
Ensure information on the SLA portal is easily accessible, working and engaging.

General

Prepare, edit, format, maintain and print documents using MS Office and Google applications.
Follow and maintain internal procedures, continually looking for opportunities to work more efficiently and flag where processes can be improved and where budget can be better utilised.
Input, update, extract and analyse data, information and records using relevant ICT systems.
General administrative duties and ad hoc project work not listed above.

Equality and Diversity

Embeds equity, equality, fairness and diversity into all aspects of team working and service delivery

The person

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to demonstrate :

Essential

Demonstrable ICT skills with experience of using Google Suite, Excel, Financial Systems and databases
Carry out financial administration tasks such as raising purchase orders and process invoices in accordance with procedures and service level agreements.
Ensure transactions are accurately recorded and entered into systems in a timely manner and in line with procedures.
Ability to work flexibly and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
Demonstrates successful partnership working with key stakeholders within and outside of the Council.
Demonstrates commitment to own personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the role.
Demonstrate innovation and creativity.
Actively engage in positive cross organisational communications and team working.
An ability to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences both within and outside the councils, including service users, using the best methods of communication for the task.

Desirable

Knowledge and experience of working within a commercial or traded services environment.
Ability to self motivate, prioritise and manage own workload.
Demonstrate a strong commitment to service excellence, customer care and continuous improvement.
Identify and understand the needs of both internal and external customers by providing excellent customer service in all areas of Council business.
An ability to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences both within and outside the councils, including service users.

Our Values

Becoming an enabling council is a key principle that runs through our organisational development and is embedded in everything we do. Underpinning these priorities are the following values:
Supportive of trying new ideas, with the courage to change direction.
Transparent and connected in all that we think, say and do.
Appreciative of each other, recognising and celebrating success.
Respectful of difference and valuing diversity.