Administrative Assistant

REDRESS is recruiting an Administrative Assistant to support the work of the charity. We are seeking applications from candidates who are organized, motivated, and who have a commitment to human rights.

REDRESS has a diverse team from different backgrounds and with different experiences. Under our Equality Policy, we welcome applications from people of colour, LGBTQI+ people, and disabled people, who are currently under-represented. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these groups if two candidates are equally qualified.

Who we are

REDRESS is an international human rights organisation based in London and The Hague that pursues legal claims on behalf of survivors of torture in the UK and around the world to obtain justice and reparation for violations against their human rights. We empower survivors to access justice through human rights cases against governments, civil cases against individuals, and cases where we advocate for law enforcement bodies to prosecute perpetrators under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Our approach is strategic, so that as well as representing an individual we target the policy reasons that enabled the torture to take place, by building a campaign that uses advocacy, community engagement, and communications to influence change.

Our 2025 Strategy identifies torture related to dissent and discriminatory torture as our two thematic priorities. We also support the anti-torture movement through our solidarity programme.

REDRESS has undertaken a process of growth and modernization over the last few years. You can find information about the organization in the latest Trustees Annual Report. We currently have good reserves of nearly six months running costs, and a diverse funding base. We have grown to about 30 staff, and plan to remain at a similar size while we consolidate. We have upgraded our procedures and policies, and we are developing new commitments to improve staff development, further enhance our diversity, build our survivor-centred approach, and ensure people with lived experience are part of REDRESS.

The Team

The Admin and Networks Assistant will work with our operations and finance teams, and support the work of our Solidarity Programme delivered by REDRESS staff and our partners. We are looking for someone who can multi-task and work in a busy environment.

Position Profile

The main responsibilities of the role are:

  • Provide administrative support for the smooth running of the London office, including managing the office environment, managing suppliers, liaising with our IT support, and assisting with the website.
  • Assisting with the delivery of human resources functions, including the recruitment process.
  • Supporting the delivery of events under the Solidarity programme in support of partner NGOs around the world.

Supporting finance functions relating to the office and solidarity events, as needed.

General Responsibilities

The position will contribute to the work of REDRESS as follows:

  • Deal with inquiries by phone, email, and post, and engage with colleagues to respond to them.
  • Support the effective operation of the office, including liaising with our IT providers and supporting staff IT requests, maintaining office supplies, opening and closing the building, helping to keep the office tidy and welcoming, assisting with visitors, and preparing for meetings.
  • Engage with service providers (banks, insurers, utilities, cleaners, electrical testing, provider, etc).
  • Assist with health and safety assessments and any changes required as a result.
  • Assist with the recruitment, onboarding, and induction of new staff, fellows, and interns.
  • Assist with the staff peer support group, wellbeing portal and the social committee.
  • Assist with delivering internal and external events, including booking flights, hotels, catering, venues, checking VISA requirements, reviewing insurance, organising interpretation, preparing logistics, drafting forms.
  • Support financial operations, including day-to-day bookkeeping, transaction processing, reconciliation of accounts, responding to payment requests, assisting with financial reports, and processing expenses claims and expenditure requests.
  • Help maintain our databases, including mailing lists and casework files.
  • Help maintain the website by uploading content and creating mini-sites on our Office365 platform.
  • Support the Communications team with social media when necessary.
  • Providing general administrative assistance to staff, fellows and interns.

The position is also expected to carry out such further duties as may reasonably be required from time to time by REDRESS.

Person Specification

This is an entry level position, and so we will consider candidates at the beginning of their career, with some relevant experience.

Essential Competencies

The successful candidate will need to have the following essential competencies:

  • A university degree relevant to the role or a relevant qualification or at least two years’ relevant experience.
  • Other relevant experience through internships, volunteer roles, work experience, educational work placements, or other practical experience.
  • Demonstrated experience of delivering work on time and meeting deadlines, as well as attention to detail.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

Desirable Competencies

A strong candidate will also have other desirable competencies:

  • At least two years relevant work experience, preferably in the non-profit sector or in an international environment.
  • A qualification in business administration, or another relevant subject.
  • Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office 365.
  • Demonstrated experience working with an accounting database.
  • An understanding of UK employment law and administrative systems.
  • Skills in a language other than English, in particular Dutch, French, Arabic or Spanish.

Personal Attributes

To work for Redress, the candidate should have the following personal attributes:

  • Happy to work collaboratively as part of a small and energetic team with a wide range of personalities.
  • Highly efficient and organised, with an ability to multi-task, show initiative, solve problems, and take a hands-on role when necessary.
  • Able to think and work strategically, creatively, and under pressure.
  • Able to understand and support the aims, objectives and values of REDRESS and reflect them in all aspects of work.
  • Able to work with victims of human rights abuse with a range of specific needs.

Terms

Reporting. The position is part of the Operations team, and will report to the Operations Manager.

Hours. This is a full-time position at 35 hours a week. Evening and weekend work may be required from time to time.

Location. The position is based at the REDRESS office in London.

Flexible Working. REDRESS is an “in-person” organisation and we value team work, but we have a flexible working policy which allows for working from home. This role will need to be in the office at least three days a week.

Salary. REDRESS has fixed salary scales, with annual cost of living increases, and the possibility of step increases with strong performance. This is an entry level ‘assistant’ position, and the salary is at A1 or A2 on our salary scales, depending on experience, which is £30,172 or £32,434 a year.

Duration. The contract is for a fixed-term of 12 months, but is expected to be extended, subject to funding.

Start date. The position would start in January 2024.

Probation. There is a six-month probationary period.

Pension. REDRESS offers a pension contribution of 10% of salary.

Holiday.  There are 25 days of holiday per year, in addition to UK public holidays. The office is also closed between Christmas and New Year.

Status. The candidate must have the right to live and work in the UK. Unfortunately we cannot sponsor a UK immigration process for this role.

Interview process. We expect to do two rounds of interviews. We may ask candidates to make a short presentation as part of the process, but will provide information on that nearer the time.

  • First round Interviews will take place on Wednesday 15th November 2023 and will be on-line.
  • Final round interviews will take place on Wednesday 22th November 2023 and will be in-person at our office in London.

How to Apply

Please upload to our recruitment portal a single PDF file with:

  • A cover letter of no more than one page explaining (a) why you would like to work for REDRESS, (b) how you fulfil the personal specification for the role, and (c) how you will contribute to the diversity of REDRESS.
  • Your CV or resume.

Please also complete the anonymous Diversity Monitoring Form. We use the information from the form to tell us about the diversity of the applicant pool for each of the positions that we advertise. We keep the conclusions of the analysis for our records, and the underlying data is destroyed three months after the recruitment closes.

Deadline: Monday 6 November 2023