Receptionists and Information Clerks

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Job purpose

To operate the reception point and telephone switchboard, direct visitors and callers, answer enquiries about the organisation's departments, staff and services, and maintain appointments, records and receipts, so that callers reach the right person and front-of-house administration stays accurate.

Skills

• Working knowledge of customer service practice and of office procedures — message taking, filing, proofreading and the use of telephone systems, computers and office machines — with a current picture of the organisation's departments, services and staff. Secondary-level education is the norm, with a sizeable minority holding college courses or a post-secondary certificate, and a few days to a year of on-the-job training.
• Answers, screens and forwards calls and greets people entering the establishment, establishing the nature and purpose of a visit and directing or escorting the caller onward. Explains where departments and offices are and what services the organisation provides, settles complaints from customers and the public, and stays courteous with those who are discourteous or angry.
• Decides how to route each enquiry and how far to answer it, drawing on reference information to answer questions from the public and quoting published rates where these apply. Decisions are frequent but bounded by established procedure, and matters outside it are passed on.
• Maintains appointment calendars, books space and equipment for events, keeps a current record of staff availability, and enrols individuals in programmes. Exercises some latitude over the order of tasks, but volume and pace are set by callers and visitors arriving.
• Work is carried out seated at a reception workstation, operating a switchboard, keyboard and office machines, with repetitive hand movements in typing, filing and sorting mail. Light tidying of the lobby is part of the role.

Responsibilities

• No supervisory responsibility. Acts as the organisation's first point of contact for the public, and passes messages, requests and unresolved matters to colleagues across departments.
• Receives payment for services and records the receipts, and may quote published rates for products such as tours or insurance policies and prepare travel vouchers. Holds no budget and has no discretion over amounts charged.
• Ordinary care of a reception workstation, switchboard, computer and office machines, and of the appearance of the lobby. Collects, sorts and distributes mail and courier deliveries, and books rooms and equipment for others' use.
• Keeps appointment calendars, staff availability records and general files current, transmits documents to customers, and prepares memos and correspondence. Also works with pay records, invoices and balance sheets and proofreads or transcribes material for others, where accuracy has direct effects on colleagues. The content and structure of the records are set by others.

Effort required

• Steady attention across a high volume of telephone, face-to-face and written contact, with frequent small decisions about who an enquiry belongs to and accuracy needed in messages, appointments and transcribed figures. Tasks repeat, and the demand lies in holding attention rather than in the difficulty of any item.
• Regular direct dealings with the public, including people who are dissatisfied, discourteous or angry and situations of open disagreement, requiring composure and a consistent manner towards people whose needs are pressing to them.
• Extended periods seated at a workstation, with repetitive hand and keyboard movement and handling of documents and mail.

Working conditions

• An indoor, environmentally controlled reception area with no material physical hazards, worked in close proximity to visitors and colleagues at a fixed public-facing position. The exposure is psychosocial: contact with the public throughout the working day, some of it complaint-driven or confrontational.
• Most incumbents work a full working week and a substantial proportion shorter hours; no shift or unsocial-hours pattern is evidenced. Decisions are frequent and there is some freedom in setting the order of work, but activity is governed by established reception procedure and the sequence follows the arrival of calls and visitors.