Brightwater's Business Support Division

Emma Anglim, Associate Director with Brightwater’s Business Support division discusses Brightwater's Business Support Division.

What does Brightwater’s Business Support division do?

Brightwater’s Business Support division specialises in the recruitment of business support professionals at all levels from entry level up to senior management. The types of roles we recruit for include:
•Receptionists
•Administrators
•Data entry
•Legal PAs
•Legal Secretaries
•Personal Assistants (PAs)
•Executive Assistants
•Office Managers
•Operations Managers

We recruit for clients on a Temporary / Contract / Permanent Basis
•Permanent
•Contract
•Temporary
•Interim Management

We’re often asked about the nature of temporary assignments. These can last in duration from anything between 1 day to 1 year. Employers would need people in to cover sick leave or holiday leave. Contract roles are slightly different – they are generally required to cover for specific projects or a longer spell of leave such as maternity leave.

What industries does Business Support cover?
Our specialist Business Support division recruits across a broad variety of industries. Business Support professionals are the backbone of every organisation. We have recruited for clients across every industry including but not limited to:
•Public Sector
•IT
•Financial Services
•Legal
•Sales & Marketing
•Life Sciences & Pharmaceutical

Introducing Emma Anglim

Emma Anglim, Associate Director with Brightwater’s Business Support division. Emma has been with Brightwater since 2006 and personally specialises in Temporary & Contract assignments across Business Support. She is also responsible for recruiting for big volume projects.

Recruiting for large volume projects
Clients come to Brightwater for specific reasons whether it be help with project completion or assistance with bulk workload and timing is everything. Emma loves the speed of working on a temp desk and is able to help her clients within a short space of time. Generally large volume projects are for administration or customer service staff and timing is critical. Emma needs to get all her candidates interviewed, reference checked and ready to start within a short timeframe. Being able to successfully turn around a large scale recruitment project quickly is vital within business support.

What is the market like for business support?

Business Support is generally quite busy at the moment across all sectors. We are currently recruiting for a large number of roles at all levels, particularly on a temporary basis if organisations can’t get approval for permanent hires. There are a lot of new roles being created which is a really positive sign.

What are the main career paths for business support professionals?

There are numerous career paths and options for those working in business support and they vary depending on the industry.

In the legal sector, someone may start off as a receptionist in a legal firm, then progress to an administrative role. After that, there may be openings for them to progress to legal secretary or legal PA. For this, you would need some additional skills which you can gain through both experience and through qualifications.

In general administration roles, someone can begin their career as an administrative assistant and then progress to Office Manager or PA or Executive PA.

If you’re working in a temporary / contract role, there are plenty of opportunities to gain exposure and experience in different industries before you take on a permanent role in your chosen sector but the career paths for administrative and business support professionals are wide and varied.

What are the business support roles in demand right now?

There are plenty of opportunities for business support professionals in the market but right now, the biggest demand for business support professionals is in legal. Legal secretaries are in demand. Those with 3- 5 years’ experience working with mid and top tier firms are scarce in supply and are massively in demand. This is a key growth area.

What are the key soft skills for business support roles that employers are looking for?

Generally the softer skills that clients look for in business support / administrative professionals are the most obvious:
•Common sense
•Good work ethic
•Excellent communication skills
•Good organisational skills

These are all key soft skills needed when working as a business support professional.

What are the technical and critical skills required for business support professionals?

What is paramount for employers when hiring administrative / business support staff is usually the basic IT skills.
• IT skills
• ERP system experience
• Good typing skills
• Good grammatical / spelling skills
• Meticulous attention to detail

IT skills would generally cover Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a knowledge of MS Office Suite products. Dependent on the industry, other skills and experience would include exposure to ERP systems and excellent typing skills. In the legal sector, exposure and experience in a case management system such as Keyhouse would be vital.

When are temporary / contract workers in demand?

• Easter
• Summer
• Christmas season

The whole market is generally quite busy all year round but usually there would be seasonal peak demands such as around Easter and summer that would cover staff leave and non term-time leave and in certain sectors, the run-up to the Christmas would be very busy for customer service in particular from September onwards and demand would ramp up.

If you need career advice, help in preparing your cv or just a chat about what options are available to you now and in the future don't hesitate to contact us on [email protected] or 01 662 1000.