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Professional Services Support Officers

What we do

The Professional Services Support Officer (PSSO) service provides flexible, short-term capacity to support general administrative requirements, continuous improvement, operational problem-solving, and targeted task-and-finish assignments across the University. Requests are triaged regularly by the SPO team based on institutional priorities and current capacity. 

We are are line managed by Timothy Andrew who will maintain line management responsibilities throughout all PSSO assignments. 

You can request support through our support request form.

Case studies

Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence

Core Focus:

Facilitating process reviews, embedding efficiency frameworks (Stop, Simplify, Standardise, Digitise), collaborating with specialist teams to eliminate manual work, and building institution-wide administrative communities.

Examples:

    • Agile Sprint Facilitation & Process Mapping: Supported cross-departmental administrative improvement initiatives by co-facilitating process mapping workshops and providing dedicated coordination across 4-week agile sprint sessions.
    • Centralised Knowledge Portals (Admin Hub): Enhanced administrative efficiency across central PSS by curating guidance, signposting existing institutional resources, and developing standardised best-practice templates.
    • Institutional Peer-Support Networks (#help-admin Slack Channel): Established and moderated a central digital community on Slack for University administrators. This platform provides a single point for real-time peer assistance, increases visibility of answers to common queries, and broadcasts operational updates directly to frontline staff.
    • Large-Scale Event Management (Admin Conference): Delivered end-to-end event planning, administrative logistics, stakeholder liaison, and on-the-day operational management for the university-wide Admin Conference.
    • AI-Assisted Meeting Servicing & Institutional Guidance: Re-engineered traditional meeting administration by developing and embedding an AI minuting process across central Professional Support Services. Co-facilitated upskilling workshops for staff and contributed to institutional guidance hosted on the Servicing Meetings Staff Portal, standardising how meeting agendas, automated transcripts, action tracking, and minutes are generated efficiently across teams.
Process Automation & Digital Solutions

Core Focus:

Modernising legacy administrative workflows, eliminating manual data entry, and integrating digital tools to build long-term operational resilience.

Examples:

    • Automated Claims & Financial Processing: Addressed critical processing bottlenecks in POVD bursary management by replacing manual procedures with automated custom Google Apps Scripts, significantly reducing processing turnaround times.
    • Data Wrangling & CRM Integration: Developed routine procedures to export, clean, deduplicate, and validate high-volume student engagement data from third-party platforms (such as Unibuddy) prior to importing clean datasets into central CRM systems.
    • Emerging Technology Investigation (Power Automate): Conducted exploratory investigations into Microsoft Power Automate capabilities to identify potential integration points with CRM infrastructure and map opportunities for future workflow automation
    • Executive Workflow Optimisation (Leadership Support Hub): Collaborated with the Leadership Support Hub to streamline communication channels and administrative hand-offs. Designed and deployed automated Slack workflows to reduce email clutter, standardise incoming support requests, and improve turnaround times for executive support operations.
Business Operations & Capacity Support

Core Focus:

Delivering targeted operational support during high-volume peak periods, ensuring compliance, and managing complex administrative pipelines.

Examples:

    • Contract Administration & Cross-Department Liaison: Cleared significant contract backlogs by drafting international agent agreements, collaborating directly with the Digital Infrastructure & Systems Centre (DISC) team, and automating drafting steps using Google Apps Script.
    • High-Volume Application Assessment: Provided rigorous administrative support during peak admissions periods by evaluating and marking competitive scholarship applications against established selection criteria.
    • Institutional Event Coordination: Coordinated multi-stakeholder scheduling, logistics, and communications to support presentation sessions for key institutional surveys, such as the Student Barometer.
Student Experience & Project Delivery

Core Focus:

Managing end-to-end project deliverables, leading frontline student initiatives, and supporting student onboarding and wellbeing.

Examples:

    • Student Lifecycle & Admissions Processing: Delivered operational support during critical onboarding phases, utilising SITS to assess and process student applications for access initiatives such as Step Ahead.
    • Peer Support & Claim Resolution: Cleared administrative backlogs within the Student Buddying Scheme while refining matching processes based on shared student interests to enhance peer connections.
    • International Onboarding & Arrivals Logistics: Coordinated large-scale operational logistics for new international student arrivals, including the management of airport collection transport and welcome support.
    • End-to-End Digital & Physical Delivery (Quiet Spaces Project): Provided full project management support to launch the Quiet Spaces initiative, taking ownership of webpage and app development, stakeholder engagement, and the recruitment and line management of student project staff.

Meet the team

Alison O'Sullivan

I’ve been a PSSO since March 2023, working alongside a wide variety of professional service teams across the university. What I love most about the role is being handed a problem and figuring out a practical way to solve it.  Having a role that moves between departments gives me a unique insight into how the wider university works, which helps me bring useful ideas from one area to the next. 

Pronouns: She/Her

Meet the team

Claire Curran

I have been in the role of Professional Services Support Officer since March 2023. My favourite aspect of the role is getting to know how parts of the University function and contributing to the continuous improvement of processes. My favourite project has been Quiet Spaces due to the rewarding physical output - working alongside students to produce a webpage, while collating and defining physical spaces across campus that students feel they can go when overwhelmed. 

Pronouns: She/Her

Any Further Queries?

For further information, or support in filling in the form, contact cps-psso@york.ac.uk