PA to HR Leadership Team

CMS; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 25,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job description

We're looking for an experienced PA to join our Sheffield office as PA to HR Leadership Team.

About us

CMS is a Future Facing firm with more than 80 offices in over 45 countries and 5,800+ lawyers worldwide. We combine deep local market understanding with a global perspective. We are passionate about building strong relationships with our clients, our people, and the communities we work in.

We take a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to ensure our clients are able to face the future with confidence. We are driven by emerging technologies such as generative AI and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of working. Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximize their potential and thrive.

About the role

We have an opportunity for a PA within our HR Leadership team. You will be responsible to ensure the provision of a high-quality and efficient PA service to our HR Leadership team. You will take ownership and responsibility to ensure work is undertaken in the most appropriate way to maximise efficiency and make your stakeholders' lives easier.

In this role, you can expect to get involved in a variety of work including:

1. Pro-active ownership and management of diaries, making appointments and coordinating internal and external meetings and ensuring all work activities are scheduled effectively, including the identification and resolution of potential challenges and clashes.
2. Organising travel arrangements, booking and confirmation of reservations, flights, hotels, transfers, ordering currency and expense claims, producing detailed itineraries and travel packs including key trip documents, Visas, correspondence (including invitation letters).
3. Demonstrate flexibility with working practices in line with the business need, especially in times of pressure/high workload.
4. Comprehensive e-mail management – checking, prioritising, and summarising e-mails daily and dealing with correspondence where necessary; collation of any action points and making recommendations.
5. Support with the organisation of HR Leadership team meetings and initiatives.
6. Support with the planning and management of HR team days, including logistics, coordinating agendas and arranging external trainers etc.
7. Collating documentation for meetings and circulating agendas in advance.
8. Organising meetings, ensuring rooms and conference facilities, video conference facilities are booked, liaising with attendees if necessary both internal and external and making sure that hospitality is in place.
9. Booking attendance at conferences/seminars (including national and international travel) and organising trip itineraries and logistics.
10. Acting as first-Line IT support for any basic IT queries.
11. Organisation of any team socials and other events as may be required (cards, flowers etc).
12. Producing meeting summaries and follow up action point summaries (using available tech where possible for example Copilot).
13. Responding as appropriate to emails both internal and external on behalf of your key stakeholder during their absence.
14. Amending and re-formatting documents accurately and to a consistently high standard.
15. Organising agendas, presentations, meeting papers, including print production and timely distribution and ensuring that relevant documents are received with adequate preparation time.
16. Ad hoc drafting/typing of confidential matters, conducting PDF to Word conversions and vice versa and production of short, less complex PowerPoint presentations as may be required.
17. Liaising and working with business service teams as necessary.
18. Liaising and working with roles within the practice groups in relation to any initiatives or projects.

About you

We will invest in your ongoing training and development to support your professional goals and help you to thrive in your role from day one. Our opportunities are open to all suitably qualified applicants, so to be considered for this role, you must meet the following skills and experience:

1. Previous experience of working within a busy corporate environment is essential.
2. Able to maintain absolute confidentiality and discretion at all times.
3. Excellent organisational skills – the ability to take responsibility for own tasks and prioritise work in a calm and efficient manner.
4. Advanced time management skills – the ability to work to very tight deadlines while maintaining a high standard of accuracy.
5. Advanced communication skills – the ability to communicate in a confident and professional manner with people at all levels within the business.
6. Demonstrate flexibility/adaptability in meeting internal and external clients’ demands – in both the nature of the work undertaken and working additional hours as required to complete the task(s).
7. Demonstrate proactivity and the ability to work on own initiative.
8. Able to juggle priorities and multitask.
9. Reliable with a strong work ethic and a ‘can-do’ approach.
10. Always acting as a positive role model.
11. High levels of IT literacy in Microsoft Teams, Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.
12. Interest and willingness to learn new technologies and innovative ways of working for example CoPilot.
13. A fast and accurate typist with excellent attention to detail, use of language and grammar.

What’s in it for you?

We want to reward you today and help you plan for tomorrow. We appreciate that everyone is different, therefore we have designed a benefits system that offers choice and flexibility based on individual needs and lifestyles. To name a few, these include:

1. Competitive basic salary (reviewed annually).
2. Flexible, hybrid working policy.
3. Generous bonus scheme.
4. Up to 25 days holiday (rising to 28 days with service).
5. Holiday exchange scheme.
6. Private medical insurance.
7. Enhanced parental leave.
8. Reasonable adjustments and accommodation for disabled talent in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

If you would like to read more information regarding our range of benefits, please visit our Rewards & Benefits page on our website.

Equal opportunities

At CMS, we place diversity and inclusion at the centre of our culture and the heart of our organisation. As a firm we recognise, celebrate, and embrace the diverse talent our society has to offer because we know that to solve big problems, we need the best and brightest minds available to us. In support of this goal, we commit to actively breaking down barriers which stand in the way of those from diverse backgrounds and play our part in levelling the playing field.

As a Future Facing Firm, we strongly believe that a career in law should be open to people from all walks of life, because not only does diversity of thought and experience make our firm a stronger and more sustainable business, but it also makes it a more rewarding place to work.

When recruiting, we prioritise attracting talented people and we actively promote a flexible working environment which enables all our team members to thrive. If you see a role you are interested in, but don’t feel you meet 100% of the criteria we encourage you to still consider making an application. We also welcome applications from those who may be looking to return to the workforce after a career break.

We are proud to say our leadership in creating an inclusive working culture has been celebrated and recognised externally, including being listed for a number of years in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and the Social Mobility Index.

We are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer, and we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities, whether visible or invisible. We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment process and in every element of the employee life cycle. If you require assistance, or if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements or adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please contact Becky Lowe at [e-mail] who will be happy to support you.

Ready to apply? Here are the next steps.

We look forward to receiving your application online via the CMS careers site. Please contact our Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions.

Please note that we have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

#LI-TBC