Personal Assistant at Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)

Key Responsibilities

Administrative Support

• Work with the Chief Economist to support the planning and execution of day-to-day work functions and key deliverables and ensure communication with all parties.
• Liaise with all levels of DBSA employees as well as external clients/ contacts, managing the diary including keeping all parties informed and updated on all diary changes.
• Draft and edit all communication (letters, routine correspondence) from the business unit to ensure quality control and seek approval.
• Provide inputs, review and quality assurance of all documents and reports.
• Prepare necessary meeting packs and support for engagements as requested by the Chief Economist.

Act as the point of contact between the manager and internal/external clients:

• Screen and direct phone calls and distribute correspondence.
• Receiving, reading, monitoring and responding to e-mails, as and when required.
• Attend general queries made to the office, answer calls and handle telephonic queries.
• Ensuring appropriate messages are taken and responded to.
• Responsible for document flow in and out of the office.

Organise and make arrangements for meetings:

• Send out meeting invites and provide details to invitees.
• Book meeting rooms, conference rooms and venues as required for each meeting.
• Ensure there are refreshments and catering where applicable.
• Arrange meetings, collect visitors from reception and organise logistics.
• Distribute agendas, meeting packs and documents before the meeting.
• Provide secretariat support in key meetings and interactions to ensure the recording of decisions and follow-up.
• Keep abreast with the Bank’s business conducted by the business unit, to provide broad responses and correspondence with stakeholders and maintain communication across several stakeholder groups.
• Administer leave requests and other processes to assist with administrative processes.
• Organise and document travel itineraries including confirmation of all relevant bookings both nationally and/or internationally.
• Process all claims upon return from trips in terms of the prevailing subsistence and travel procedures/policy.
• Act as a backup and/or support to the administrative team.
• Manage and review filing and other office systems to ensure optimal documentation retrieval and storage.
• Monitor that the business unit is appropriately resourced with daily consumables and ensure an adequate level of stationery is always maintained (utilisation of the SAP procurement system).
• Perform quick desktop research as and when required.
• Undertake other tasks as assigned from time to time.

Minimum Requirements

• An Executive Secretarial Diploma / Secretarial Diploma or an equivalent qualification.
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience as a Personal Assistant or similar working experience of which 5 years must be supporting a senior management position.
• Experience in successfully working with Senior Management (essential).
• Proficient with Microsoft Office (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, and MS Outlook).
• Microsoft Teams and/or any online conference tools.
• Online board pack platforms.

Desirable Requirements

• Knowledge of efficient and effective office procedures.
• Extensive knowledge of standard secretarial practices and procedures.