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Position Details

Estates

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,166 to £28,768, with potential progression once in post to £32,145

Grade: 4

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 19th May 2025

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The University of Birmingham has a large and diverse estate portfolio incorporating academic space and residential property. The Estate Office is part of the University’s Corporate Services and is committed to providing first class facilities and fit for purpose high quality buildings across the University’s physical environment. We are seeking to appoint a Service Desk Operative to join the Estates Operational Support Team.

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly motivated and organised individual to join our Estates Service Desk team as a Full Time Service Desk Operative. This role is integral to the smooth operation of the University, acting as the first point of contact for all maintenance related enquiries. The successful candidate will work Monday to Friday, from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, within a busy and fast paced environment. Key responsibilities include answering telephone calls, logging repair requests accurately, and escalating urgent issues to the appropriate in-house maintenance teams or external contractors.

Strong IT skills are essential, as the role involves the use of complex systems and requires an understanding of a wide range of processes. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with strong customer service skills and a proactive approach to contribute to the effective delivery of our Estates services.

Ensuring that the highest standard of customer service is consistently delivered, the post holder will be part of a team responsible for the operation of the University’s Maintenance Service Desk, assisting with a wide range of enquiries and requests from a variety of stakeholders, whilst providing essential clerical support for the Maintenance Trades Team section. The post holder will be responsible for receiving, processing, communicating and storing information relating to work to be undertaken by the section, ensuring all information is reported efficiently, accurately, adheres to strict timescales and is available for onward reporting. This role is a highly customer focused role and is pivotal in maintaining day to day public relations, committing to the maintenance of a pleasant and welcoming, but efficient and professional environment

Main Duties

• Dealing with a wide variety of maintenance related issues and repairs from University schools/departments, which will be received via telephone and electronic systems. The post holder will provide a high level of customer service, building strong relationships with Estates Stakeholders whilst maintaining a high level of professionalism and delivering service in line with the department’s strategic objectives.
• Engaging listening skills to maintain a high standard of service delivery by ensuring that vital details of issues received are recorded accurately; specifically focusing attention on the exact location, any related health and safety issues and relevant customer contact details. The post holder will be required to review the information provided in order to make an accurate first assessment and identify the relevant priority level and area of responsibility, allocating work to the relevant team and flagging any urgent issues with the relevant Trades Team Leader or Deputy.
• To ensure an effective and efficient level of customer care by investigating enquiries relating to outstanding/incomplete works; liaising with relevant parties and providing detailed feedback to the customer in order to effectively manage expectations and agree timescales for delivery.
• To accurately assess and identify queries that do not fall within the Maintenance remit (such as pest control) and provide assistance and guidance by either redirecting the call to the relevant department or providing the necessary information to guide the customer towards the correct channels in order to obtain a resolution to their queries.
• To deal with emergency situations in a calm and collected manner and in line with Estates Office and University practices and procedures, liaising with Emergency Services and/or Security where required, relaying detailed and accurate information to the relevant parties and adhering to the relevant escalation procedures.
• To play a key role in assisting University schools/colleges to adhere to statutory fire safety compliance by making relevant arrangements for scheduled fire alarm activations upon request of a pre-arranged drill.
• To play a key role in KPI reporting and customer communication by accurately and efficiently recording data onto the CAFM system from various sources, such as service report sheets, to ensure that the information held is verifiable and a current reflection of the present position.
• To play a key role in efficient service delivery by assisting with Maintenance enabling works by making relevant arrangements for fire alarm system isolations upon request.
• To ensure optimal efficiency and accuracy by performing a regular review and administration of the CAFM system to ensure data is accurate, relevant and current; carrying out cleansing exercises where necessary.
• To assist the Estates (Infrastructure) Support Services Manager in the identification of current trends via the analysis of data held within various systems, or provided via various reporting tools.
• To assist with contractor inductions, ensuring compliance with Contractor Management processes and procedures, assuming responsibility for maintaining the information on the Who’s on Location Management of contractors system.
• To work in collaboration with the BIM and Technical services teams to ensure that asset information, such as the Lift Numbers and Locations Referencing Guide, is regularly maintained and current, to ensure accurate and efficient fault location reporting.
• To be responsible for the monitoring of the team’s central repairs inbox; reviewing, identifying and allocating items to the relevant sub folders, prioritising and taking necessary action as appropriate.
• To be responsible for updating and maintaining filing systems for correspondence, reactive, planned and statutory maintenance work and work related documentation making sure that all information is cross referenced and stored in a logical and accessible manner.
• To review circulated documentation such as shutdown notices, and identify and pre-empt potential issues or queries which may arise from such circulations, storing information logically in order that it is easily accessible for reference purposes.
• To play a key role in Fire Safety Compliance by assuming responsibility for the Contractor Building Evacuation register ensuring that Contractors attending site are made aware of emergency situations within the Estates Office and are able to safely evacuate the building.
• To raise order requests, cross-referencing information given against job numbers and checking invoices, passing for payment if authorised and investigating any discrepancies with suppliers as necessary.
• To support Welcome Weekend annually, providing essential Service Desk support to our colleagues in Accommodation Services with the new student arrivals intake in September, enhancing the student experience and being an ambassador for the University.

General Clerical Tasks

• To attend Maintenance meetings and team briefings as required; assisting with the recording of minutes if required and contributing to discussions. Ensure any minutes produced comply with the departmental style guide, are legible and presented in an appropriate layout.
• To assist with administration tasks in other areas of the Estates Office as and when required e.g. to cover for staff absence/sickness and provide help and cover to other secretarial and administrative staff, particularly the reception areas during busy periods.
• Other reasonable duties as and when required to assist in the effective and efficient operation of the Estates Department.

Person Specification

Essential

• 3 GCSE's or equivalent (GCSE passes in English Language and Mathematics (or equivalent)).
• Professional and friendly telephone manner, able to deal with customers at all levels.
• The ability to make sensible decisions in response to queries and be able to work in a high pressure environment.
• A high level of competency and sufficient experience in IT skills, good knowledge of Microsoft Office especially Word, Excel and Outlook.
• Significant experience in a similar customer service role is essential.
• Excellent attention to detail and high accuracy levels in both numeracy and literacy.
• Flexible and able to adapt easily to new situations and evolving workloads.
• The ability to work autonomously on one’s own initiative as well as be able to work as part of a team.
• The ability to plan his/her workload around fluctuating call levels and customer demands.
• Experience of dealing calmly with customers under challenging conditions.
• The post requires a person of smart appearance, a high level of confidence and customer service delivery, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Desirable

• Proactive approach to the job, ability to evaluate tasks and suggest improvements.
• Familiarity/experience of working in a busy workshop/technical environment including confidence in the use of radios.
Minute writing skills

Informal enquiries to Rachel Parkes, email: r.parkes@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy . You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .