Administrative Assistant - West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center

Overview

Provides administrative and clerical support to faculty and staff located at the West Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center and UT Garden Jackson. This position supports departmental personnel and programs involved in research as well as the center director. Performs administrative duties that may require specialized knowledge, experience, and/or abilities.

• Calculate and enter biweekly and monthly payroll as well as verify leave taken as applicable for faculty, staff, and student employees. Route to off campus departments for verification of accounts to be charged and subsequently approved.
• Assist employees with payroll and HR functions in UT’s cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
• Enter pay funding changes and adjustments to payroll on an as needed basis. Maintain departmental payroll files according to policy.
• Schedule and complete hire paperwork for student and temp employees. Ensure all hire paperwork for new hires and updates are properly processed.
• Supervise part-time administrative support.
• Assist in any full-time employee HR document updates, terminations, and retirements on an as needed basis.
• Maintain Procurement Card receipts for some faculty and staff. Print monthly statements and verify all receipts are accounted for as charged and coded with account number and purchase explanation to comply with audit requirements. Prepare for signature by cardholders, create log, scan, email, and mail out originals to appropriate departments for reconciliation.
• Prepare travel requests and travel reimbursements in the system for director, faculty, staff, and graduate students, including making airline, hotel, and conference reservations as needed. Maintain documentation as set in policy. Utilize training available by UT and outside sources to increase knowledge and performance.
• Provide basic computer and software assistance, as well as guidance regarding certain policy and procedural matters to faculty and staff. Fed Ex shipping for faculty and staff. Ordering of office supplies for WTREC as well as departmental faculty and staff, and other miscellaneous tasks as assigned by the WTREC Director.
• Work with staff on field days and special events: setting up and printing labels, handouts, posters, laminate, make copies, etc. Data entry on an as needed basis. Printing and preparing posters for professional meetings.
• Sort and distribute mail, answer main phone line for WTREC and route calls and/or messages to faculty or staff. Receive and direct visitors for faculty and staff. Enter weather on network daily and WXCoder (NOAA) as needed.

• Required Qualifications
  • Education:
    
    High School Diploma or GED
  • Experience:
    
    Office and clerical experience
  • Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
    • General knowledge of operation and maintenance of office machines including copier, fax, and laminating maintenance
    • Computer and typing skills needed and the ability to use Internet, email, and network
    • Knowledge of Microsoft Office and enterprise management systems
    • Ability to multi-task and prioritize individual workload
    • Ability to work as a team player with other administrative support as well as faculty, staff and students
    • Professional phone mannerisms with the ability to exercise good public relations skills
    • Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience:
    
    Three (3) years of administrative support or CAP certificate
  • Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
    • Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite

• Location:
  
  Jackson, TN
• Onsite

• UT market range: MR04
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
• Find more information on UT Benefits here

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments.

• Resume
• Cover Letter

Known for its research on agronomic crops as well as ornamentals, turfgrasses, and horticultural crops, the West Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center, established in 1907, is the oldest Ag Research Center in the UT Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) System. Scientists from several departments, USDA-ARS researchers, and our capable support staff conduct more than one hundred investigations annually to evaluate new cultivars and develop technologies for more efficient crop production in a safer and aesthetically pleasing environment.