Administration Officer (Estates)

Job summary

You will provide an efficient financial and administrative support service for the busy Estates team based at Haldon Forest Park. Providing assistance to the wider locally based forestry and recreation teams and national colleagues whilst dealing with enquiries from tenants, contractors and external stakeholders. In addition you will be liaising regularly with colleagues in the wider District and beyond.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Providing general administrative support to the Area Land Agents and wider Estates Team e.g. handling external enquiries, filing, letter writing, preparation of agreements, data management, copying and general office administrative duties.
• Play an important part in supporting estates income generation and expenditure by managing the finance transaction processing, which will include extensive use of the in house eFin financial system and an understanding of the Collaborative Planning financial management system and widespread use and knowledge of spreadsheets.
• Understanding the basics of estate management terminology and the legal background to agreements and processes relating to estates documents to enable ability to liaise with colleagues and customers regarding queries relating to agreements and leases, tenant recharges general land enquiries, invoice processing and payments.
• Provide essential support and oversight to ensure that legal obligations are met, invoices are received and processed in a timely way, rents are received and paid on time.
• The post holder plays a key part in maintaining and updating the estates terrier system now hosted on the GIS Forester Web system and helping to ensure that rent reviews and lease renewals are dealt with in a timely manner and that property records are kept up to date. And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Effective administrative skills and excellent attention to detail.
• Processing financial transactions, paying and raising invoices • excellent spoken and written communication skills.
• Competent IT user with experience in MS Office suite of applications.
• Experienced in using databases, inputting, and updating records.
• Uses standard procedures and common sense to solve problems.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Proven working experience in an estates, property or legal environment
• Experience of using GIS

Qualifications

Essential
• A GCSE in Maths and English or functional skills equivalent.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,959, Forestry Commission contributes £7,810 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

How to apply…

We cannot accept applications via email. Please follow the steps outlined below. Any CVs and/or personal statements sent outside the system will not be considered for shortlisting.

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Managing a quality service
• Delivering at pace
• Working together

You may also be assessed on Experience, Strength based questions, and/or the Technical Success Profile at the interview. The technical element could include a presentation, practical or written task.

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [email removed].

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUS