Business Support - Johannesburg at Microsoft

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years Administrative, Business Support, or customer service experience in an environment with an emphasis on scheduling meetings/events, travel management, and administration work for executive/upper level management.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant field (e.g., Business Administration, Human Resources [HR], Marketing, Communications, Psychology, Sociology)

OR equivalent experience.

• 2+ years experience serving as mentor to others.
• 3+ years experience reviewing and managing administrative budgets (e.g., for events, morale, travel, training).

Responsibilities

Calendar Management

• Provides strategic calendar management and time planning support for manager(s) (e.g., Corporate Vice President [CVP]). Aligns calendar based on knowledge of manager's preferences and operating styles (e.g., personal needs, allocation to business priorities). Ensures preparation of meeting setting and participant attendance, involving team members in tactical logistic support as appropriate (e.g., booking rooms, troubleshooting audio-video [AV] and technical issues). Gathers, prepares, and provides meeting materials (e.g., agendas, briefings, pre-reads). Uses judgment and knowledge of business context to identify and provide delegates for meeting conflicts as needed, makes decisions around prioritization and keeps manager informed. Collaborates with peers (e.g., Chiefs of Staff, Business Managers, Human Resources) to enable decision making processes. Engages with leader and stakeholders/business partners (e.g., Communications Team, Chiefs of Staff, Business Managers, Human Resources [HR]) to cascade information as needed. May attend meetings and/or ensure follow-up as needed. Manages ambiguous situations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Communication

• Continues to build and leverage network across organizations to enable their team and leader's work. Serves as a liaison between executives and teams. Gathers information from partners across organizations (e.g., business managers, finance partners, peers) to prepare key stakeholders to distribute information to their teams. Communicates with external partners/audiences and third parties. Represents their leader(s) and Microsoft.

Discipline Growth and Development

• Begins to provide leadership within the discipline and participates in the Business Support community. Actively seeks to mentors less experienced Business Support colleagues. Onboards and trains new Business Support staff. Contributes to their organization's culture by participating across the team and division. Engages in career development and trainings. Identifies and aligns growth opportunities for self and team. Develops and shares best practices and insights. May participate in interviews for Business Support roles. Supports team building.
• Team Management Support (Headcount Management, Recruitment, Onboarding/ Offboarding)
• Facilitates team experience activities. Collaborates with Global Talent Acquisition (GTA) to facilitate internal and external recruitment efforts, and partners with hiring managers to ensure a smooth process. Provides additional support for intern and university recruitment for the broader organization (e.g., planning, placement). Lands onboarding activities (e.g., ordering new-hire equipment, setting up workstations, distribution lists, security groups) and provides support to new employees, vendors, and interns as an essential contact for questions and company information. Connects new hires with the right stakeholders. Provides additional support for executive onboarding. Lands and manages headcount management activities in collaboration with Business Manager(s) and/or Chiefs of Staff including transfers/departures, reporting, offboarding, and transactions within headcount management tools. Identifies areas of improvements and updates for relevant headcount management systems. Works in partnership with Finance and team members to provide up-to-date headcount figures.

Event Coordination and Logistics

• Owns the coordination, logistics, and direction for events. Delegates as necessary. Proactively drives actions needed to ensure event outcomes (e.g., developing workback schedule, checkpoints leading up to an event).  Acts as a point of contact for events (e.g., changes). Resolves preparatory setbacks and escalates to senior Business Support staff as needed. Collaborates and coordinates with stakeholders to set up events, as needed, and manages supplier and business relationships end to end. Engages in post event close out (e.g., tracking event results/attendance. Distributing post-meeting materials) in partnership with team members. Identifies learnings and suggests best practices for future events. Supports development of workback schedule, promotion, and necessary checkpoints.

Leadership

• Leads by example and serves as a role model to Business Support colleagues by maintaining a professional attitude, demonstrating executive presence, influencing others, and encouraging self reflection during challenging situations.

Project Ownership

• Balances multiple projects end to end with varying deadlines, while maintaining executional and operational excellence within the business and across business groups as applicable. Takes accountability for project outcomes and drives stakeholder accountability through consistent communication. Identifies impacts and risks across the organization and communicates these to partners and key stakeholders. Streamlines processes, provides process improvements, and adjusts as needed. May delegate project tasks to Business Support team members and drives accountability of others. Leads efforts to determine measurable success of projects at their conclusion.

Resource Management (Hardware/Supply Management, Purchase/Expense Management Financial Management)

• Participates in discretionary budget tracking (e.g., morale, hardware, supplies) and reporting (may include software licenses. Partners with Finance to own expense management including documentation (e.g., purchase orders [POs], receipts, tax award spreadsheets, statements of work, reclassifications), expense tracking, and policy compliance. Identifies and resolves expense and supply related issues (e.g., missing purchase orders, account imbalances) by communicating with senior leaders and Finance as applicable. May serve as interim approver for finance approvals. Contributes to and oversees planning, tracking, maintenance, and adjustment of equipment and inventory. May perform vendor and supplier management, including ensuring they are set up for financial processing. May contribute to complex budget management in partnership with peers (e.g., Finance, Controller, Business Managers, Chiefs of Staff) by reviewing, forecasting, and providing recommendations to ensure efficiency/quality.

Rhythm of Business (ROB)

• Understands and helps to implement rhythm of business (ROB) in line with recognized patterns, and proactively takes action on business cadence. Creates, builds, and adjusts plans within areas of responsibility in partnership with Business Manager and/or Chiefs of Staff. Executes meeting cadence around the ROB of the leader. Uses discretion to determine a distribution plan for confidential internal and external communications and brings awareness to patterns. Supports continual implementation and flexibility of the ROB by partnering with peers (e.g., Chiefs of Staff) and gathering feedback.

Space Management and Planning

• Maintains and manages up-to-date space-management processes and team spaces (e.g., office locations/desk assignments, private conference rooms, seasonally transitional spaces, remote/location status). Coordinates large-scale space requests (e.g., annual office restacks, space build outs), liaising between admins and space planner and advocating for appropriate space for their team. Collaborates with others to design and plan room layouts, including furniture, technology, and equipment needs/assembly. Maintains detailed space utilization data to recommend changes in space assignments and identify future space requirements. Escalates and shares with senior team members. Resolves escalations and postmortem issues.

Travel Management

• Manages travel arrangements (e.g., accommodations, transportation, security, group codes) for manager(s) and/or group. Creates detailed itineraries/agendas for daily activities by building agenda and setting and managing travel expectations to maximize trip productivity. Executes on logistics of agenda (e.g., building agenda and expectations, briefing leader, sharing information with countries). Acts as a stand-by resource to address issues/escalations during business travel. Facilitates communication across stakeholders ahead of travel. Ensures required documents (e.g., immunization records, visas) are obtained for international travel. Guides less experienced colleagues, leveraging full knowledge of Microsoft travel policies. May accompany leaders on business trips (e.g., Inspire, Ready) to provide onsite support. Manages and ensures compliance with relevant US Travel Tax Tool.