Business Support Officer

Cobseo is excited to be recruiting for a Business Support Officer to join our small, dynamic team. We are looking for a professional, energetic team player with a passion for customer service and a track record for delivering ambitious and varied objectives, who can help us achieve our plans for 2026 and beyond.

About Cobseo: Cobseo, as the Confederation of Service Charities, provides a single point of contact for interaction between our Members and Government, including local and devolved governments, the Royal Household, the Private Sector and members of the Armed Forces Community. Underpinned by our values and driven by our objectives, the Confederation exists to facilitate engagement across the sector, act as a representative and advocate for the Membership, promote collaboration and cooperation across the Membership and wider sector, influence policy, present an informed and measured view from across the Membership, and enable the Membership to build networks and share best practices. Members enjoy a range of benefits, including information, guidance, training, and support on key topics such as governance, fundraising, and safeguarding, access to the Cobseo Clusters, representation on key government groups and committees through the Cobseo Chair and Executive Committee, promotion of news, events and job vacancies, access to the Weekly News newsletter, and the opportunity to contribute to key Government policy areas.

Job description: Reporting to the Director of Operations and working closely alongside the rest of the team, the Business Support Officer is a vital member of the small Cobseo office team, providing administrative support across all of the team’s business functions with a particular focus on Membership, Finance, and Communications & Engagement to enable other colleagues within the team to focus on strategic projects and decision making, knowing that routine administration is in hand. The Business Support Officer ensures the smooth running of key meetings and events throughout the year, including quarterly Executive Committee (EC) and Finance, Audit & Risk Committee (FARC) meetings, as well as the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and other member-facing events, both in-person and online.

The role is responsible for supporting the development and maintenance of sound working practices, including policies and procedures across the organisation, and will be the first point of contact for many enquiries as they monitor a number of outward-facing mailboxes and support the Head of Communications & Engagement with routine communications work. The Business Support Officer is required to interact on a daily basis with colleagues from across the team in verbal, written and face-to-face communications via their management of a number of key processes, including meeting preparation. They have direct contact with the Executive Committee members and Cluster Chairs, often being the single point-of-contact for Cobseo in the interval between formal meetings and events.

As a member of the small Cobseo office team, the Business Support Officer, along with the other members of the office team, is expected to lean into issues, opportunities, and workstreams that arise, sometimes at short notice and occasionally outside of their own portfolio. This role is full time (34.5 hours per week) and is office-based in London for at least 2 days per week in order to facilitate positive relationships with the rest of the team and with stakeholders. There is an option for hybrid/homeworking the rest of the week. Some UK travel is required and the post-holder will occasionally be required to work from external sites, such as events’ venues or in order to visit members’ premises. Normal working hours are maintained wherever possible noting that some events are outwith normal office hours. The salary for this role is £42,500 per annum.

Cobseo operates a contributory pension scheme with a 7.5% employer’s contribution and a 5% employee’s contribution. We provide access to a confidential Employee Assistance Programme and the Cycle To Work scheme, as well as membership of death-in-service and guaranteed income protection schemes. Cobseo’s standard leave is 30 days per year, plus Bank Holidays.

Key duties & responsibilities:

• Provide cross-functional administrative support to enable the smooth running of the organisation.
• Help to coordinate and deliver projects, workstreams, meetings and events.
• Maintain and develop Cobseo’s systems, processes and ways of working ensuring safe data storage and sharing.
• Support new staff and Directors throughout recruitment, onboarding and induction.
• Jointly own and implement the process for quarterly Executive Committee and Finance, Audit & Risk Committee meetings, the AGM, internal team meetings, and external meetings and events, including providing support to coordinate agendas and papers.
• Support in gathering and reporting on outputs associated with grant funding.
• Support the development of HR and data policies and procedures.
• Support with the collation and distribution of Members’ news and internal articles for the Newsletter and Jobs’ Board.
• Support with routine social media activity, including Cobseo’s own posts and the amplification of Members’ and stakeholders’ posts.
• Receive and respond to initial Membership enquiries, including applications to ensure excellent standards of customer service and help applicants on the journey to becoming Cobseo Members.
• Help maintain accurate and effective databases and systems.
• Lean into the Membership due diligence process when required to help gather and collate relevant information to inform application decisions.
• Provide routine secretariat support to Cobseo Clusters and other groups to enable focused, productive, high impact collaboration in line with Cobseo’s Objectives and in support of the groups’ Chairs and each group’s specific aims.
• Assist in the development of governance resources and support for members, including governance-related webinars.
• Contribute to, and provide secretariat support for, governance-related reports.
• Help with the design, publication, and analysis of customer feedback, including online surveys and focus groups to help inform the Membership and Engagement objectives and impact reporting.
• Manage routine updates to Member, potential Members, and other stakeholder records held.
• Manage various multiuser mailboxes and respond to enquiries as Cobseo’s first point of contact or distribute to relevant team members to respond as required.
• Provide online and virtual meeting and events administration including diary management, room bookings, webinar management and visitor hosting.
• Liaise with landlord, IT provider and facilities’ management.
• Given the nature of working within a small team, and the fast-paced, high-profile nature of the Armed Forces sector, the Business Support Officer may be required to fulfil other duties on occasion, this may be via working independently or in partnership with Cobseo team colleagues, in order to support the delivery of the business plan and strategic objectives or in response to unexpected events or issues.

Skills & Experience:

Essential:

• A track record for delivering tasks and objectives without close supervision.
• Experienced deliverer of high-quality customer service and support to a broad range of stakeholders with varying needs.
• Demonstrable experience of working across multiple projects, objectives and workstreams at any one time on a regular basis.
• Strong experience of organising administrative systems and processes for increased efficiency and risk mitigation.
• Experience of assisting in the delivery of meetings, events, and training.

Desirable:

• Previous work for or with a membership organisation.
• Experience of working within a small, ambitious team with dynamic individual and collective responsibilities.
• Experience of project management.
• Experience of integration of a new CRM system.

Approach to teamwork:

As a small team it is imperative that we work effectively and efficiently together towards our collective objectives. To do that, the post-holder will be expected to:

• Maintain effective, timely communication with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure coordinated workstreams and timely, high-quality outputs.
• Work to agreed standard operating procedures and ways of working in the support of effective outputs and to mitigate the risks of single points of failure.
• Actively contribute to the continuous improvement of internal processes.
• Commit to, prepare for, and actively attend team meetings.

Skills & aptitude:

• Strong attention to detail.
• Pro-active and able to juggle multiple tasks and work cross-organisationally.
• The ability to organise and plan effectively, often to tight deadlines.
• Good problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively in the spirit of continuous improvement.
• Approachable and confident.
• Competent, confident in the use of at least one CRM system.
• Strong office administrative skills and IT literacy, including confident use of Teams and Zoom, SharePoint, Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Strong and effective communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate with people at all levels and from all backgrounds, including colleagues, suppliers, members and senior external stakeholders, adapting style of communication appropriately.
• A self-starter and motivator with initiative to work alone and/or unsupervised when required.
• Motivated to achieve SMART objectives that contribute to the realisation of an annual business plan and strategic objectives.
• A strong team-work mentality with a willingness to adapt and flex as is often required within small teams.