Business Support & Operations Vacancies

Business support and operations recruitment: the people who keep your business running

Every business has someone who makes the day work. The receptionist who sets the tone for every visitor. The administrator who knows where everything is. The PA who guards a director’s diary. The office manager who fixes the problem before anyone else notices it. They’re not easy to find, and they’re even harder to replace.

Cathedral Appointments is a recruitment agency based in Exeter, with a presence in Plymouth and Taunton. We have been finding business support people for South West organisations since 1988, on permanent, temporary and contract terms, and we take the time to understand the role first.

Talk to Lacey Dorliac on 01392 575696.

What we recruit

Business support covers a lot of ground. Cathedral Appointments recruits across all of it.

• The front of house. Receptionists, reception supervisors and managers, community and facilities coordinators, and visitor and front-of-house teams. The first face your visitors and clients meet.
• The engine room. Administrators, business and sales administrators, office assistants, project administrators and coordinators, and data, document and order-processing staff. The people who keep work moving and records right.
• Right hand to the boss. PAs, EAs, secretaries and executive assistants. They protect a leader’s time and make everyone around them more effective.
• The customer voice. Customer service advisors and team leaders, client and account support, and contact-centre and customer success staff. The people your customers actually speak to.
• Running the place. Office managers, facilities managers, operations support managers and heads of operations. The ones who make the whole organisation work.

Senior and leadership roles

The people who run operations, customer service and administration for a whole organisation are leaders too, and Cathedral Appointments recruits them. These searches are often confidential.

• Operations leadership. Operations directors, heads of operations and operations managers.
• Customer and administration leadership. Heads of customer service, customer experience managers, and heads of administration and business services.
• Executive support. Executive assistants and PAs to chief executives, directors and board members.

Talk to Lacey Dorliac on 01392 575696.

What’s shaping business support hiring

Three things are shaping who employers need, and how they hire.

Candidates are available, but the gap is closing. The October 2026 edition of the KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs, published on 10 October, found permanent placements rising for a second month and candidate availability still rising sharply, though at the slowest pace in three years. Employers have more choice than they did, but the best people still move quickly.

Employment law is changing. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, statutory sick pay became payable from the first day of absence in April 2026, and the time limit for tribunal claims rose from three to six months on 1 October 2026. The qualifying period for unfair dismissal is due to fall from two years to six months from 1 January 2027. Getting the first hire right, or seeing someone in the role before you commit, matters more.

Cover now, hire for good, or try before you commit

Temporary. Someone’s off sick, on holiday or leaving next week, and the phones are still ringing. We find reception, admin, customer service and PA cover, with timesheets handled, so you can get on with your day. It works just as well for a maternity leave, a project or a busy spell, for as long as you need it and no longer.

Temp-to-perm. Not sure yet? Bring someone in on a temporary basis, see how they fit, then take them on, on terms agreed with you at the start. It suits roles that are new or still taking shape.

Permanent. When you want someone who will stay and grow with you, we search, screen and shortlist, so you only meet people who are right for the role.

Fixed-term and contract. Cover for a secondment, a project or a defined piece of work, with a clear end date.

Who we recruit for

Every kind of organisation runs on good business support. We work with:

• Housebuilders and construction firms
• Vehicle hire, transport and logistics businesses
• Schools, academy trusts and universities
• NHS bodies, care providers and healthcare organisations
• Science, research and membership organisations
• Law practices, accountancy firms and consultancies
• Technology, software and online businesses
• Food, drink and agricultural producers
• Charities and housing organisations

How we understand the role

Skills you can test. Character you have to meet.

• We start with you. How your office works, who they will sit next to and what a great first year looks like, before we start looking.
• We screen before we share. Every candidate you meet has been interviewed by us first.
• We look at the team, not just the task. A brilliant administrator who doesn’t fit the team is a short-term hire, so we weigh personality and fit as carefully as skills.
• Cathedral Appointments knows the South West market. What roles pay, which employers are hiring and how far people will travel.

What moves pay

Pay in business support varies with the role and the sector. The big factors are the level of responsibility (a PA to a chief executive and an office assistant are different jobs), the size of the organisation, the skills and systems the person brings, how far they will travel, and whether the role can be hybrid. Temporary rates move with the role and the week. If you are about to advertise, ask Lacey or Charlotte for a benchmark for your role.

Questions we get asked

Should we hire a temp or go straight to permanent? If the need is short-term, urgent or still taking shape, temporary is the safer start, and temp-to-perm lets you see someone in the role before you commit. With the unfair dismissal qualifying period due to fall to six months from January 2027, that matters more than it used to. If the role is clearly long-term and you have time, go permanent.

What’s the difference between a PA and an EA? A PA usually manages one person’s diary, travel and correspondence. An EA works more like a partner to an executive, often handling projects, reporting and decisions on their behalf. The titles get used loosely, so we start from what you need done.

What does an office manager do that an administrator doesn’t? An administrator does the tasks. An office manager owns the running of the office, from suppliers and facilities to health and safety and often the team. Smaller businesses often need one person to do both.

Do these roles work hybrid? Many now do, but reception and front-of-house roles are on site by nature. If you are open to hybrid working, say so in the brief: it widens the pool of people we can approach.

Your contact

Lacey Dorliac, Senior Consultant.

Lacey leads our business support team and works with office, administration and operations leaders across Devon, Somerset & Cornwall.

Lacey Dorliac: 01392 575696 | lacey@cathedralappointments.co.uk