Apprentice Receptionist

East London Foundation Trust has a strong commitment to providing high-quality care to those who need our services, as well as a strong culture of learning and of developing individuals and teams.
We are recruiting for a customer service apprentice (Receptionist/Administrator) to join the team on a fixed term basis. This is a level 2 apprenticeship post.
Based within a busy environment, the post holder will have responsibility for providing high quality confidential, professional, and responsive customer service to the patients and other customers at ELFT . This will mainly include all reception duties, such as greeting visitors, answering the phone, email communications as well as back filling for staff during leave periods. Service will be provided in the workplace, digitally or via the telephone. They may be one-off or routine contacts and include dealing with patient queries, escalating issues, taking messages, fixing problems, providing information, welcoming patients and being the first point of contact for all patients, staff and visitors.

Main duties of the job
The post holder will need to be professional, well-organised, team orientated and highly motivated to join our multi-disciplinary team.
As an apprenticeship role, the post holder will also be required to complete their assigned apprenticeship standard within the allotted fixed term period. The department will provide an average of six hours per week for the post holder to evidence their knowledge, skills and behaviour to the training provider, 1. To receive all incoming calls and all visitors to the service and deal with them appropriately in a courteous and helpful manner.
2. To be aware of the teams daily movements, where to contact them and to call them when required and appropriate.
3. To assist in providing a flexible administrative service and to undertake several office duties at the request of the line manager; across several locations in some instances.
4. To co-ordinate and oversee any room bookings and report any problems to the appropriate person
5. To deal with a range of queries from the public and other agencies in a polite and helpful manner, whilst working in reception also by telephone and face to face encounters, seeking advice and guidance from team members as appropriate.
6. Ensure all messages are correctly recorded and promptly passed to relevant team members/other personnel.
7. When appropriate, and with agreement with the line manager, be responsible for ad hoc and one off secretarial/admin duties for practitioners/directors/managers within the service
8. To maintain office filing systems and ensure information relating to users of the service is accessible to relevant staff maintaining confidentiality at all times.
9. When required, book couriers and ensure mail is franked and sent out in a timely manner.
10. To receive regular one to one and team supervision from the line manager.
11. To work flexibly in order that essential priority tasks are covered and dealt with.
12. To use information technology for a range of purposes.
13. To report to the line manager any issues that are of concern relating to health and safety of the building.
14. To have excellent verbal, written and communication skills
15. To assist with inducting new staff to reception administration systems
16. To have the ability to remain calm and sensitive in difficult and stressful situations.
17. When required be a point of contact for taxi drivers/managers and responsible ad hoc bookings for staff/service users.
18. Ensure all security guidelines are followed when receiving visitors, deliveries and maintenance personnel .
19. To understand reporting lines and who would be the best person to contact in a variety of situations.

Behaviours and personal qualities
1. Use a range of questioning skills, including listening and responding in a way that builds rapport, determines customer needs and expectations and achieves positive engagement and delivery
2. Use appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills, along with summarising language during face to face communications; and/or
3. Use appropriate communication skills, along with reinforcement techniques (to confirm understanding) during non-facing customer interactions.
4. Use an appropriate 'tone of voice' in all communications, including written and digital, that reflect the organisation's brand.
5. Provide clear explanations and offer options in order to help customers make choices that are mutually beneficial to both the customer and your organisation.
6. Be able to organise yourself, prioritise your own workload/activity and work to meet deadlines.
7. Demonstrate patience and calmness.
8. Show you understand the customer's point of view.
9. Use appropriate sign-posting or resolution to meet your customers needs and manage expectations.
10. Maintain informative communication during service recovery.
11. Treat customers as individuals to provide a personalised customer service experience.
12. Uphold the organisations core values and service culture through your actions.
13. Demonstrate personal pride in the job through appropriate dress and positive and confident language.
14. Use communication behaviours that establish clearly what each customer requires and manage their expectations.
15. Take ownership from the first contact and then take responsibility for fulfilling your promise.
16. Frequently and consistently communicate and work with others in the interest of helping customers efficiently.
Apprenticeship Standard and personal development
1. To undertake professional and personal development as agreed with line manager and participate in regular supervision and appraisal.
2. To attend staff, administration and team meetings
3. Adopt and implement agreed service developments in line with the Directorate and Trust objectives
4. Responsible for own personal development
5. Take ownership for keeping your service knowledge and skills up to date
6. Consider personal goals and propose development that would help achieve them.
7. Act on and seek feedback from others to develop or maintain personal service skills and knowledge
8. Share personal learning and case studies with others, presenting recommendations and improvement to support good practice.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.