Office Manager (3279)

Chartered in 1895, Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a student-centered, regional public research institution with a diverse and international student body of approximately 17,000 students. Located 65 miles from downtown Chicago, in DeKalb, Illinois, NIU is a thriving community of dedicated faculty, staff, students, alumni, local residents and friends. Together, we support the goal of providing upward mobility to our students as well as the opportunity to make an enduring impact on our future.

NIU has a long, rich tradition of academic excellence with a breadth of programmatic offerings that support the academic aspirations of our students. Our nationally and internationally recognized faculty are not only dedicated to advancing their academic disciplines, but, in collaboration with NIU staff, are also focused on providing meaningful curricular and co-curricular experiences that prepare NIU students to be successful in achieving their future goals. NIU is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a Research University/High Research Activity and a Carnegie Engaged University. NIU offers baccalaureate, master's, doctoral and law degrees across more than 40 academic departments and seven colleges.

Position Summary

Reporting to the college business manager and the department chair, this position provides administrative support to the chair and department faculty; is responsible for department purchasing and monitoring of budget; provides grant and award support to faculty, and manages the undergraduate/graduate student office. The individual in this position will serve as a hiring manager and initiate hiring process for all department hiring; support committees and the accreditation process, as well as assist with financial management and compliance.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Administrative Support and Office Operations

• 30%

• Maintain chair's calendar related to faculty, student, and committee needs.

• Open and review incoming mail responding to correspondence on behalf of the Chair as appropriate. Send emails on behalf of the Chair, when appropriate.

• Draft memos and ensure documents are prepared correctly and needed signatures are gathered.

• Prepare forms for the Chair's approval and signature.

• Maintain confidential files for the department including Human Resource, student, and purchasing records, with confidentiality according to FERPA and NIU record retention policies.

• Draft agenda, attend meetings, take minutes, and provide draft minutes report for review and approval.

• Schedule meetings with faculty and staff as needed.

• Conducts the department's annual property control inventory verification.

• Creates and processes payroll for hourly and salaried personnel.

• Assist in developing semester course schedules.

• Submit course registration documents, review final documents for publication in MyNIU and notify faculty of course offerings.

• Provide past textbook usage to faculty to assist with quantity calculations and order textbooks for courses.

• Assist the Chair and faculty with data retrieval using queries.

Budget and Financial Administrative Support

• 20%

• Order supplies, equipment, and materials as needed following University Procurement policies including but not limited to check requests, journals, purchase requisitions, and travel vouchers.

• Hold a commercial card and allocate transactions and maintain records per commercial card policies.

• Monitor departmental cost centers budgets and expenditures, prepare and provide financial reports, report balances and variances to the Chair, and resolve discrepancies with the College business office.

• Assist the Chair with budget development as needed.

Personnel Hiring and Training

• 15%

• Monitor the positions within the department.

• Initiates and prepares all personnel paperwork and PeopleAdmin entry for tenured and tenure-track faculty members, full-time and part-time instructors, graduate assistant support staffing, hiring, and compensation of personnel serving department programs.

• Ensure paperwork complies with NIU HR and affirmative action policies.

• Prepare all required graduate assistant appointment forms: offer letter, acknowledgement of acceptance letter, employment forms, immigration control compliance form, etc.

• Maintain confidential personnel files of all faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and student workers with confidentiality and according to NIU record retention policies.

• Preparation of all PeopleSoft forms pertaining to requests for hiring, affirmative action, and personnel appointment forms.

• Enter Additional Pay forms as needed.

• Assist in search activities and related correspondence, and records. Serve as search committee member, as requested, or needed.

• Organize candidate interviews related to all aspects of the interview process.

• Assist new hires with moving reimbursement, insurance information, university and department orientation, explanation of office procedures and any other tasks to assure a smooth transition for the new faculty or staff member.

• Train student workers, graduate assistants, and extra help employees on policies and procedures.

• Supervise assigned student workers and/or graduate assistants to assist with data collection for program evaluation and accreditation, and other appropriate tasks, as assigned.

Manage Student Services Office

• 15%

• Direct students to central advising office or faculty for academic advisement, and to other available campus resources as needed.

• Assist students with registration of classes, completion of forms, remove advising holds, obtaining necessary permits, ensure prerequisites are met and override enrollment as needed.

• Assist faculty with evaluation of transfers and help students with paperwork to ensure a successful transfer process.

• Compile advising rosters and establish schedules in consultation with faculty and the Chair.

• Work closely with the Graduate School to review students' academic requirement reports and follow up with student inquiries to ensure students are on track for graduation.

• Maintain student academic records with confidentiality according to FERPA and NIU record retention policies.

• Prepare department teaching assistant evaluation program, gather results, disseminate results to students and maintain confidential files.

• Distribute job opportunities to department students.

• Create and post faculty office hours and course schedule tables and lab emergency contacts where appropriate.

Grants and Award Administration

• 10%

• Assist faculty with management of sponsored grants, startup funding, and intramural awards include Research and Artistry (R&A) funding.

• Communicate with Sponsored Programs Administration and the Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships on behalf of faculty to ensure grants and awards are within budget and reports are submitted timely.

• Manage grants and award expenditures.

• Make purchases and hire personnel in accordance with grant and awards budgets.

Accreditation and Committee Support

• 5%

• Notify the curriculum committee chair and department chair when curriculum problems are encountered.

• Oversee changes to the department's catalog entries and ensure accuracy when submitting changes.

• Prepare ballots and materials for committee elections.

• Prepare promotion and tenure documentation.

• Gather necessary materials needed for ABET files and accreditation process.

• Assist the Chair in creating and conducting course surveys as well as exit, graduate alumni, and employer survey, as needed.

• Assist the Chair in collecting and organizing course syllabi and accreditation data.

Other Duties as Assigned

• 5%

• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Required Qualifications (Civil Service)

• High school diploma or equivalent.

• Two (2) years (24 months) of work experience comparable to the third level of this series (Office Support Specialist).

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) (Civil Service)

Classification Specific KSAs:

• Knowledge of administrative and administrative procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, and other office procedures and terminology.

• Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

• Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.

• Knowledge of computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to enter data, or process information.

• Skill in material resources management through obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.

• Skill in communicating effectively, both verbally and in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.

• Skill in decision making by considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions and choosing the most appropriate one.

• Ability to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.

• Ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

• Ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.

• Ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

• Ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.

• Ability to provide guidance and direction to subordinates, including setting performance standards and monitoring performance.

Position Specific KSAs:

• Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, and personnel information systems.

• Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, leadership technique, and coordination of people and resources.

Specialty Factors (Civil Service)

None

Preferred Qualifications (Civil Service)

• Two (2) years of office experience in higher education

• Experience with MyNIU, PeopleAdmin, PeopleSoft, or OnBase

Minimum Required Qualifications (SPS)

N/A

Additional Requirements (SPS)

N/A

Preferred Qualifications (SPS)

N/A

Physical demands/requirements

• Regular office related duties

• Sitting for extended periods of time

• Using computer/electronic equipment for extended periods of time

• Occasional lifting and moving items weighing up to 25 lbs.