This is what we’re looking for:
We are seeking a Studio Manager with administrative know-how, strong communication and writing skills, and a keen eye for detail to apply their multiple talents across our departments while living our values every day. The successful candidate will have a hand in keeping the studio organized, making sure our team and clients are comfortable and informed, and supporting us all in an administrative capacity. This is a part-time, in-person position that requires someone able to work four days per week, between 9am and 3pm.
This is what you’ll do:
Administration
- Answer the telephone, and take and relay messages
- Foster intra-office communication — this isn’t just about delivering memos; you are the heart of the team and in your own way, you will keep all staff feeling informed, organized, and celebrated by nurturing relationships between yourself and your colleagues and among the entire staff and broader ECHO family
- Coordinate and supervise studio improvements on an ongoing basis
- Keep studio supplies, including drinks and snacks, stocked and organized
- Monitor contents of and maintain organization within storage facility
- Manage the shipping and receipt of packages
- Liaise with maintenance companies and building management
Accounting/IT
- Maintain and organize the shared server, update computer hardware inventory, coordinate software subscriptions and platforms, and liaise with IT consultants as needed
- Receive and track invoices, track bill payments, mail cheques, make bank deposits, and coordinate wire transfers
- Support bookkeeper with data entry on QBO (QuickBooks Online), filing of hardcopy receipts and invoices, and other help as needed
- Update data reports on a monthly basis (using QBO, Google Sheets, and Monday.com)
Human Resources
- Coordinate staff events and special occasions
- Support new staff onboarding
- Set up workstations for new staff and contractors and assist with/troubleshoot any small-scale technical issues
- Maintain and update the employee handbook
- Track staff vacation schedules and sick days
- Maintain and update the contact information of all staff and contractors
- Identify, and execute with the support and direction of the Director of People & Projects, discrete projects around the studio that will improve operational functions and employee happiness
Client Communication
- Welcome clients and visitors to the studio
- Ensure all client contact information in our contacts database is up to date
- Maintain the database of all past clients’ milestone dates
- Assist with client communication and gift giving, including around holidays and milestone dates
- Work with Digital Content Lead to ensure automated emails go out to clients on specific milestone dates
- Request charity donation update from CEO every December for the coming year
Sales Support
- Maintain and update the studio’s book inventory and loan list
- Support business development group by booking meetings, sending books to prospective clients, and getting them back once a sales decision has been made
- Ensure our master list of contacts is kept up to date as and when we acquire new inbound and outbound leads
Projects
- Help to onboard new writers by communicating with them re: procedures and logistics, expenses, invoicing, and general troubleshooting as needed
- Schedule transcribers as related to projects, send audio files, receive invoices, maintain updated files and records, and help find new transcribers when necessary; upload audio to Rev if using non-human transcribers (decided on a project-by-project basis)
- Support client project tasks as identified by the Director of People & Projects and other ECHO colleagues
- Maintain project information files on Monday.com
- Receive, ship, and catalogue completed printed books
What you’ll need:
- Proven experience as an Office Manager or Administrative Assistant
- Knowledge of office management responsibilities, systems and procedures
- Hands on experience with office machines (e.g. computers, servers, printers, scanners)
- Ability to organize and prioritize multiple assignments and work with grace under pressure
- Strong written and verbal communication and skills, with an ability to work efficiently, both independently and as part of a team
- Warm interpersonal skills that make clients and team members feel comfortable and cared for
- Proficiency with MS Office Suite (Word, Excel) and GSuite (Google Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Forms); familiarity with QuickBooks an asset
- Rigorous attention to myriad tiny details
- A passion for storytelling and a sense of fun
What we offer:
- A subsidy toward professional development after a probationary period of 3 months
- Access to a Health Spending Account benefits package after a probationary period of 3 months
- The occasional afternoon beer, glass of wine, or Bubly with the team where stories are shared and cheezies are on offer
- Participation in the annual ECHO retreat — a day-long adventure at our CEO’s beautiful cabin on an island in the Salish Sea
- 12 vacation days (plus stats) per year
- A flexible workplace that succeeds because of mutual trust between colleagues
- Staff celebrations: having a birthday? We’ll get you a cake. Celebrating a work anniversary? We’ll get you a cake. Retiring? We’ll get you a cake. We like cake
- The chance to work with a creative team of highly talented pursuers of excellence. Our small team means you’ll be exposed to every aspect of our business, giving you an opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed
- The opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients (manufacturing, law, retail, mining, oil and gas, forestry, not-for-profit, education, healthcare, insurance, accounting, hospitality, construction, engineering, real estate …). Our projects are both corporate and private (ie, personal memoirs), and clients include ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families
Who you are:
As Studio Manager, you will work most closely with the Director of People & Projects. You will be adept in communication, fierce in organization, and thorough in your attention to detail. Deadline driven. Keen to learn. You relish taking care of people. You see magic in spreadsheets and triumph in relationship building. You also love fun, storytelling, and, especially, collaboration. When problems arise, you’ll feel comfortable communicating — with patience, diplomacy, and creativity — a plan to do whatever it takes to complete tasks to the highest organizational standards. As a person who has a bead on most goings-on in the studio, there’s also an opportunity to showcase any additional skills you have that might span our departments: love photography? Take shots around the office for our social channels. Consider yourself a writer? Try your hand at writing one of our blog posts. All about systems? Propose changing one of ours up. We’re a small office and welcome everyone to bring whatever passions and talents you have to the table.
More about who we are:
In 1999, ECHO Storytelling Agency was founded after our founder and CEO missed the chance to get her grandmother’s life on record. What started as a personal mission to capture the stories of her remaining family members turned into a professional passion for deepening relationships with the people who matter most. Since then, as a result of clients coming back and asking us to do more for them, we have grown beyond our roots of producing personal memoirs and corporate histories to now offering a wide range of story-driven services, including short documentary-style films, story-driven family legacy consulting, and storytelling training. Our team members and partners are an elite group of journalists, authors, designers, and filmmakers who craft stories that people remember forever.
We are a values-driven company, firmly grounded in Positive Pursuit, Creative Rigour, and Unconventional Caring. We believe that relationship trumps transaction — with clients and with each other. On any given day there are up to ten of us in our peaceful, open-concept studio near Granville Island, though we do work remotely as well. We laugh, eat cake, and do jigsaw puzzles on the regular.
Location:
Note that this is a permanent, part-time, in-person position (with flexibility, as per above). Our studio is based in Vancouver, and we are on the second floor in a building with no elevator. We acknowledge that we live, work, and play on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Job Types: Part-time, Permanent
Pay: $27.00-$29.00 per hour
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Extended health care
- Flexible schedule
- Paid time off
- Wellness program
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Vancouver, BC V6J 1K2: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Application question(s):
- Please include a cover letter with your application
Experience:
- Administrative: 1 year (required)
Work Location: In person
