Job Description
Job title Senior Workplace Officer Grade B
Department People and Operations
Team Workplace
Responsible to Workplace Manager
Revision Date January 2026
Purpose of the job
We are looking for someone to act as ‘the conductor’ of our rented office and meeting room spaces working with both internal and external stakeholders to provide a consistently positive, welcoming, and inclusive experience. They will be in control of our front of house and the day-to-day general soft building services like cleaning standards, stationery, stocking of kitchens, and guest management. They will be line managing a receptionist and an AV technician ensuring that cover is maintained. We are looking for someone who leads by example, with kindness, and inspiring challenges to help build individuals under their direction. Being a good mentor and coach for the Workplace Apprentice who will be supporting events in the morning, generally sitting at the reception for support, and covering the lunch break for the receptionist. They will be responsible for always complying with all health and safety regulations and best practice within the building. Working closely with our Health and Safety Adviser with the processes, checks, and training needs for those responsible for tasks. A good understanding of budgeting, including processing/approving invoices correctly, raising invoices, and approving costs to cover the out-of-pocket expenses. Our event spaces host a wide range of events including conferences, lectures, workshops, and community outreach programmes. The event hosts will vary from external and commercial customers, different IOP departments, and member-led events or conferences which at times will have competing priorities. Additionally, rooms will need to be taken out of service for maintenance, and this needs to be balanced between the urgency of the work and waiting for natural availability. On the rented spaces side, we have desks and small private offices for new physics start-up companies, a private lounge for our members, and we will be commercially renting out one floor of office space. We need someone who will ensure that we have thought of low costs touches to elevate the spaces and give the members, staff, and tenants added value. They will review the set numbers of agency staff for catering, security, and other services and book in the most cost-efficient manner while maintaining safety and standards. We are looking for a proactive and personable person who can deliver exceptional customer service experience for our users on our London premises. This role will take people from the original enquiry into the Workplace team through to executing a consistent
and high-quality experience. To achieve this, they will be responsible for the professional processes, excellent communication, and balancing competing demands. We are looking for someone who is a good leader and team player with exceptional communication and planning skills. In addition to direct line manager responsibilities, they will be supervising and overseeing the external resources such as security as required, AV cover, and catering staff. Being the point of contract for the event host or tenant, then working well with others to action all requests within our standards or resolve any issues. Regularly reviewing processes and proactively make improvements which add value with minimum resources required.
Context of the job
The Workplace Team is responsible for ensuring that the IOP has the most appropriate working environment for its employees to support them to perform to high levels and create a culture that promotes flexibility and innovation. This includes the general running of the building, wellbeing, health & safety, and environmental issues across the IOP. This teams’ wider responsibilities are across the UK and Ireland however this role will be focused on our London premises. We are also critical in the revenue generated through renting meeting rooms and office space at the London premises. We promote the efficient and effective use of resources in the pursuit of value for money and quality of delivery in all Workplace services. This role will require working directly with a range of groups use our rented spaces and meeting rooms. Additionally, this role requires the good working relationships with other teams to set clear expectations and agree processes to streamline the delivery of exceptional experiences. They will need to work closely with Workplace Service Technician on building maintenance issues and permits for work for cleaning or AV services. They will need to work with them to arrange support with room set-ups and make sure they are booked in advance. They will need to work closely with the H&S Adviser to ensure meetings spaces and visitor management meet H&S regulations. It is critical that our emergency processes and resourcing for the building are always maintained and this role will be accountable for this compliance and booking in of agency staff. They other close team interdependency is with the IT Manager who is responsible for the AV maintenance, system selection and more widely the IT team. There will be a dotted line manager for the AV technician to the IT Manager to ensure they have the technical support and that there are the correct service levels from the contractors used by the IT team. Being the main contact point with external partners, members who sit on our branches or committees, our tenants, and the commercial sales of our meeting room packages. Balancing being helpfully flexible and ensuring that we are not overpromising on what we can successfully deliver through good communication and clear expectation management.
Additionally working with other internal teams to bring their conference and events concepts to life and advising them on the possible within our resources. Clearly communicating the processes, gaining the information needed to resource correctly and moving rooms as needed to optimise usage. This role is based at our physics home in London and will need to be predominately on site as it is expected they will be available to greet hosts for all large or VIP events, and to trouble shoot prior to meeting start times. There will be a requirement for longer days on busy occasions and be present for any evening or Saturday events. It will be expected the individual will flex their hours to accommodate this time where possible or take TOIL with the Workplace Managers approval. Currently this is on average one evening a week and one Saturday every couple of months however this could increase in the future.
Key decision-making in the job
• Meeting room space might have situations where there are competing aims such as IOP delivery or commercial gain; in these situations, the role will be required to negotiate with all parties for the best practical solution and escalate to ultimate decision makers with options.
• Working with the Workplace Manager, and other team Managers to keep our terms & conditions relevant to all the processes, that logistics are in line with industry standards / expectations and ensuring our health and safety requirements are clearly stated.
• Line manager responsibilities and coordinating of external people resources ensuring they are properly onboarded.
• Be an alcohol license holder and maintain the decision to serve alcohol as per our premise license requirements.
Accountability of the job
This role will cover a range of different areas and will need to work closely a cross several teams as well as with external partners. This will include but not limited to:
• Oversee the reception team, the general building services, and creating a consistent positive experience for everyone using the building.
• Processing/approving invoices, recharging internal teams, invoicing external parties, and advising the Workplace manager of expected spends in the budget.
• Be responsible for the smooth running of all meetings and events within our London premises including ordering any consumables, provision of room setting up, and communicating well with all parties to deliver on expectations.
• Booking day desks in the accelerator space, coordinate the correct catering provisions for the day, and ensuring H&S inductions are completed as needed for rented space users.
• Being compliant with health and safety working in partnership with the Health and Safety adviser.
• Supervising and ensuring appropriate training of catering staff, any health and safety role cover.
• Line manager responsibilities for two team members. IOP are a strong believer in development and encouraging people to make positive changes within their areas.
Organisational chart
The Institute of Physics is an open and inclusive organisation that welcomes and celebrates diversity.
Main responsibilities of the role
•
Be the main point of contact with hosts, speakers, and tenants with professionalism and warmth. Conduct site visits both with the intention of selling the space, to confirm the desired outcome to prevent any misunderstandings with more complex bookings and to work with the host on the event day to make any adjustments or resolve any issues.
•
Line managing the reception team and the AV technician. Ensure that the reception desk is covered during open times and sufficient welcome for all events taking place. Ensuring that we have adequate AV support and be able to troubleshoot minor issues with the host.
• Process / approving where relevant meeting room and reception supplier invoices to ensure this match what is requested and what was provided. Recharging costs to budget codes and invoicing external parties.
• Producing the rota of the catering assistant role and booking in additional catering and security staff as required to meet our standards, ensuring appropriate training and accreditation (such as alcohol licences) are held where
Director of People and Operations
IT Team Workplace Manager
H&S Adviser (0.8 FTE)
Senior Workplace Officer
Receptionist AV Technican
Workplace Services Technician (0.6
FTE)
Workplace Apprentice
People Team Digital Team
appropriate. Providing training as needed for new individuals, review processes regularly to optimise operations, and maintaining good communication.
•
Liaise with both internal and external hosts to ensure meeting needs are met and run smoothly for team and attendees. To oversee all meeting room logistics from catering provision to booking in room setup with the Workplace Services Technician and/or ensuring the correct emergency personnel allocation to deliver on expectations.
• Ensure compliance and health and safety regulations, safeguarding requirements, security, alcohol licence requirements and any other relevant IOP policies.
•
Manage the reception and basic office requirements of deliveries, post/couriers, stationery, cleaning, TV licence, and catering stock. Being the day-to-day contact for our key relevant suppliers and escalating any issues to the Workplace Manager promptly.
•
Develop and promote the rented and event space provision both internally and externally. Analysis feedback to make improvements to the offering, processes, and overall experience.
Person Specification
We are looking for someone who...
• Has a drive for results, who can be counted on to meet or exceed goals successfully • Can manage and measure work effectively, taking responsibility for tasks and
decisions. • Is customer focused and dedicated to meeting requirements of internal and
external customers / partners while managing expectations. • Has great functional/technical knowledge and skills of all aspects of meeting rooms
such as catering, layouts, basic AV equipment knowledge, and H&S regulations. • Is committed to their personal learning, picking up on the need to change personal,
interpersonal, and where applicable managerial behaviour quickly. • Remains calm under pressure and is a problem solver.
Experience this person should have is…
• Significant experience with organising events and ideally within the rented meeting room space industry. Experience with room booking systems and catering ordering is required. Experience of line management and supplier management. Experience with invoices processing and raising.
• Experience of working with multiple internal and external stakeholders, ensuring expectation are met and communication is regular and clear.
• Working for charities to understand budget restrictions and be creative with solutions.
Skills this person requires are…
• Team player – the ability to work co-operatively with others to achieve common
goals. The capability to explore different positions and alternatives to reach
outcomes that gain acceptance of all parties.
• Proactive – to think ahead, plan collectively, and act to ensure the smooth completion of tasks to high standard and meet deadlines.
• Organisational skills – ability to work with minimum supervision, prioritise
workload, collaboratively delegate, and handle multiple tasks.
• Interpersonal skills – ability to positively communicate with others; the confidence
to listen and understand.
• Customer service skills – providing a high-quality experience for all interactions.
• Computer literate – good working knowledge of Microsoft Office
Line manager skills:
• Leadership – the capability to promote and generate co-operation, so to achieve collective outcomes; fosters the development of a common vision.
• Supervision – give feedback, listen to needs to problem solve together, and ensure correct training.
Qualifications required are…
• An IOSH Managing Safely certification or similar is essential.
• Be first aid and emergency marshal qualified is essential.
• Hold an alcohol licence would be beneficial and must be willing to hold one.