Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties

• To operate the Group’s switchboard consoles in an efficient, courteous and friendly manner, answering calls within agreed timescales
• To answer incoming telephone calls and enquiries.
• To connect outgoing telephone calls made by users. To monitor and log, if necessary, information concerning all personal calls made by staff for re-charge purposes.
• Adapt communication style to the needs of others and ensure effective and compassionate communication. Communicate in instances where there are difficulties due to language barriers, distress, emotion, hearing difficulties etc.
• The efficient operation of the Group’s paging systems for both emergency and non-emergency calls. To be fully aware of the Group’s Emergency process and the Switchboards responsibilities upon activation. 
• Responsible for ensuring that all alarm and notification panels / screens are monitored, alerting the appropriate teams as quickly as possible.
• Responsible for ensuring that that Switchboard team prioritise emergency calls and take the appropriate actions as quickly as possible.
• To provide Out Of Hours reception cover as required dealing with general enquiries.
• transactions ensuring relevant paperwork (receipts) are completed in line with the departmental procedures.
• Responsible for contributing to regular reviews of the Switchboard directory for mobile phones, extensions and pagers take place and any issues are escalated to the Switchboard Supervisor.
• Responsible for ensuring that all staffing and on-call rota changes reported to Switchboard are made available to all staff.
• Responsible for assisting in the training of new team members.
• Flexibility in the hours worked will include cover at weekends and nights to ensure 24-hour cover is maintained within Switchboard

Management and Leadership

• Contribute to the implementation of the Group Digital Strategy, in line with Group, National priorities and initiatives.
• Deputise for the Switchboard Supervisor as necessary and where appropriate.

Technical Service Delivery

• Will have an awareness of the Group’s two-way bleep system.
• Contribution to the management of the Switchboard team budgets and relevant project / capital budgets ensuring excellent financial control and forward planning
• Ensure that routine maintenance and remedial work is appropriately scheduled and undertaken so that it does not adversely impact the availability of business-critical systems. 

Performance

• Contribute to the delivery of performance standards for the Switchboard team, including KPIs, having high level awareness of achievement against these and contribute to improved ways of working where necessary to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of services delivered.
• Ensure systems are in place to routinely analyse and manage ICT resource utilisation in the Switchboard team to provide efficient and optimised digital services.

Advice, guidance, and partnerships

• Provide technical and professional assistance regarding the Group’s Switchboard function.

Policies and procedures

• Contribute to the Switchboard team’s appropriate and up to date policies, guidelines, standard operating procedures, and standards covering the use and management of all ICT services, resources, and assets (physical and data). Contribute to the adherence of policy.

Professional and Personal Development

• With support the post holder will need to develop and maintain an awareness of developments and legislation relevant to the service area and contribute to efforts to ensure that each function reflects current professional guidance and standards.
• The post holder will take responsibility for his or her own professional development, identifying training and educational needs and agreeing ways of addressing these with the Switchboard Supervisor.

Role Requirements

• We support distributed and flexible working arrangements, however, subject to business needs, there may be a requirement to travel between the Kettering and Northampton Hospital sites and other sites across the Group

• Frequent VDU use is required for this post.
• Frequent, occasionally prolonged concentration will be required on a wide variety of complex issues throughout the day. The post holder will regularly have to adapt to changing priorities and re-focus the work of self and others on new priority areas that may require urgent action.
• The post holder will participate in meetings, which require a good level of concentration on a wide range of topics, with a variety of audiences and mixtures of attendees.
• Exposure to unpleasant working conditions or hazards is rare for this role.

Office conditions, with an occasional requirement to travel between sites in this role (for example, to support go lives of projects; an unforeseen level of absence at one site; support training or onboarding of new starters; team workshops etc.).