Receptionist career within Crombie Wilkinson

We are pleased to be able to share blogs written by our staff, talking about their job role, working at the firm and career progression at Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors.

Crombie Wilkinson Solicitors is a vibrant and growing law firm serving individual and business clients across North Yorkshire from our offices in Selby, York, Malton and Pickering.

A key part in delivering our Value of #ClientCentred and our #ServicePledge commitment is the Reception / Administration Assistant role at our offices. This role is responsible for a variety of administrative duties to contribute to the smooth running of the office for the benefit of the legal teams and all staff, as well as to caring about our clients.  

Here, you can read a blog written by Jodie Hawes, receptionist/administrator at our Pickering office and her thoughts on a career within Crombie Wilkinson.

Thank you to Jodie for sharing her story of working with us.

My name is Jodie and my job role is a Receptionist/Administrator at the Pickering Office. I have been working for Crombie Wilkinson for just over a year and a half. I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have done so far, and I have learnt a variety of new skills and gained so much experience. During my time at Crombie Wilkinson I have taken on various activities which have widened my knowledge and developed my interest about the different areas of law. My job role includes a wide variety of different tasks which is great as it makes no two days the same.

Daily I retrieve all post and DX which is delivered to the office and scan in all the post and distribute to the relevant people to ensure they have an electronic copy and a hard copy. This is a task which needs doing efficiently and on time to make sure the legal advisors get paperwork on their client matters to progress the case.

At the end of each day, I then arrange for all outgoing post to be franked and taken to the post office so it can be delivered out in a timely manner. Whilst working on reception I oversee the banking and the cheques that come in and out of the office each day. We always make sure the banking is done at the end of each day using our specific banking procedure, ensuring we keep a record of everything coming in and out of the office.

Whilst doing the day to day activities above, I see and speak to all the people coming through the office doors on a day to day basis.  This can be either existing clients or potential new clients so first impressions are always key, and excellent client service is always needed for everyone who comes through the doors or who telephones the office (#ClientCentred). My role is to help the clients with what they need by getting as much information as possible so I can pass their enquiry over to one of my colleagues with the legal knowledge who will be able to help them.  I always make sure that I am empathetic alongside being friendly when talking to people on reception to help put them at ease and reassure them that they have come to the right place for help and support.

Whilst working on reception there are many incoming calls to be dealt with, so it is important that I am focused on the call when I pick each one up and give it my full attention so that the person at the other end knows we are interested in what they are saying and want to help them if we are able to. (#ClientCentred and #ServicePledge).

Whilst working on reception in our Pickering office, there are times when I need to get in contact with receptionists or other members of staff from departments at our other three offices in Malton, Selby and York, to help me answer questions and queries. All my colleagues are always happy to assist me with helping where they can, and this works for them when they have a query which they contact me for help with. (#Citizenship)

During my time working for Crombie Wilkinson I have received an award called a GEM award – an award for ‘Going the Extra Mile’. The GEM awards are held once a year by the firm and while the work of individual staff is tracked and logged across the year, the voting by staff on who should win an award takes place across the Autumn and the winners announced at the staff Christmas party in December.

The way the GEM awards work is that all our colleagues can nominate another colleague based on their performance against our four values. Our four values are #ClientCentred, #ContinuousImprovement, #Citizenship and #CommunityFocus. Not only does winning a GEM award give you that accolade from your colleagues and know that you are really valued, the firm also rewards you with a gift voucher of your choice which is very much appreciated for working hard and going above and beyond.

Being a GEM award winner was really rewarding for myself as it is a very rewarding feeling being recognised and appreciated for the hard work which I had put into my job by helping other colleagues as and where I could. The GEM awards are open all year round as you can nominate members of staff at any time throughout the year. This is a really good reward scheme the firm has in place as I think it is important for a firm to acknowledge and reward their staff going the extra mile as the staff get recognition for all their hard work. (#continuousimprovement)

During my time working for Crombie Wilkinson I have been very involved with raising money for charity, something the firm is very keen that we do not only for teamwork (#citizenship) but also to show our support in the places we work (#communityfocus).

I have really enjoyed helping organise and run a tombola stand in reception and a ‘guess the name of the turkey’ competition. I played an instrumental role in organising the prizes for the tombola, which included creating a poster which I delivered to local businesses in the Pickering area asking if they would kindly like to donate a prize. The response was brilliant! This is one of the most rewarding jobs I have done, knowing I could help raise money for charity and knowing that we are able to give something back to those charities and getting the community of Pickering involved. (#communityfocus)