Shared Services Administrator (Remote, Australian Hours)

Learning Online Group is a global online education provider delivering industry-informed courses across beauty, photography, animal care, tattooing and the creative industries, with students in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Our brands include Beauty School, The Photography School, Animal & Wildlife Academy and Omnia Tattoo Academy.

We are growing our South African Shared Services team and looking for a Shared Services Administrator to support four functions: Student Services, Compliance, Operations and Kit Facilitation.

Think of this as the best receptionist you have ever worked with, operating at a much higher level. You are the first voice a student hears, and you are also the person quietly keeping four teams' admin straight in the background. The phone rings while you are mid-task, and you pick it up warm and unhurried, sort the student out properly, and go straight back to what you were doing without losing your place. That switching is the actual skill in this job.

This role runs on Australian business hours, which means a very early start in South Africa. If you have worked international shifts before, whether in a BPO servicing the US or UK or for an offshore employer directly, you already know exactly what that involves and you are the person we want to hear from. If you have not, be honest with yourself about it before you apply, because the shift is the part people underestimate.

Two things run in parallel all shift.

The first is the phone. Inbound student calls come in unpredictably and they come first. Students are calling about their course, their kit, their payments, their access, and sometimes they are frustrated. You need to be genuinely good on a call: warm, clear, confident, in control of the conversation without ever sounding like you are rushing them. You will also transfer people to the right colleague, hold the line while you find someone, and set expectations honestly about how long that will take.

The second is the admin, which fills every gap between calls. This is structured, high-volume, process-driven work, and it has to be done accurately even though you are being interrupted constantly. The people who do well here are the ones who can put a task down, take a call properly, and pick the task back up exactly where they left it.

A rough split of your week: about half on Student Services, a quarter on Kit Facilitation, and the rest across Operations administration and Compliance support.

Student Services (approx. 50%)

• Answering inbound student calls warmly and professionally, and logging every interaction accurately
• Transferring students to the right colleague, and setting clear expectations while they wait
• Working through voicemails and turning them into properly structured support cases
• Managing shared inbox workflows: triaging, responding and routing
• Processing student extension requests and updating dates on the learning platform
• Handling login and technical support cases using documented processes
• Administering course swaps and creating cancellation cases in line with policy
• Manual certificate sends, and closing service cases on time
• Knowing when something is beyond your remit and escalating it cleanly

Kit Facilitation (approx. 25%)

• Validating student kit orders for accuracy before dispatch
• Uploading tracking details and maintaining delivery records
• Monitoring shipments and investigating delivery issues
• Liaising with suppliers on delays, discrepancies and damaged goods
• Managing missing item cases and warranty requests
• Keeping students updated on where their kit is

Operations (approx. 15%)

• Data entry, validation and system updates across our operational platforms
• Generating student documentation on request, including tax receipts and proof of enrolment
• Maintaining accurate digital records that our reporting depends on
• Flagging process inefficiencies when you spot them, because you will

Compliance (approx. 10%)

• Reviewing recorded sales calls and documenting what you find, factually
• Identifying potentially non-compliant behaviour and writing it up clearly
• Keeping compliance files organised and audit ready
• Supporting investigations with structured documentation and information gathering

You are not making the final call on compliance matters. You are the person who gathers the evidence properly so someone else can.

Some of our best Shared Services Administrators have backgrounds such as:

• Reception, front desk or switchboard where you ran the phone and the admin at the same time (medical and dental practice reception, hotel front desk at Southern Sun, City Lodge or Protea, corporate reception with Tsebo or Bidvest Prestige)
• International-hours BPO or contact centre work servicing US, UK or Australian clients (Webhelp/Concentrix, TTEC, CCI Global, WNS, iContact BPO, Capita)
• Client services or policy administration in a regulated environment (Discovery, Momentum, Old Mutual, Sanlam, Bonitas, or an FSCA-regulated brokerage)
• Student administration or registrar support at an education provider (Rosebank College, Boston City Campus, Optimi, Damelin, IIE)
• E-commerce or logistics customer service where you tracked orders and chased couriers (Takealot, Superbalist, DSV, The Courier Guy, Bidvest)

What matters most is:

• You are genuinely good on the phone. Warm, clear and easy to understand, professional without sounding scripted, and calm when someone is upset
• You can hold a conversation and drive it, rather than just answering questions and waiting
• You can juggle. Calls interrupt admin all day, and you can switch between them without dropping either
• Attention to detail that borders on fussy, because most of this job is getting small things exactly right
• Strong written English as well as spoken, since a lot of this role happens in a shared inbox
• Comfort working across multiple systems at once (CRM experience is a real advantage, Salesforce especially)
• The discipline to follow a documented workflow the same way every time
• Sound judgement inside clear guidelines, and the sense to escalate rather than guess
• Self-management, because you are remote and starting before anyone else is awake
• Discretion with sensitive student information

Minimum 2 years in administration, service coordination, reception or operations support, with real phone-based customer contact in there. The systems we can teach you. A warm, confident phone manner and the ability to juggle are what is hard to teach.

Remote setup requirements, which are non-negotiable on a shift this early:

• A private, quiet home workspace, quiet enough to take student calls from
• Uncapped fibre internet, minimum 25 Mbps, with a mobile data backup
• Backup power (inverter, UPS or generator) sufficient to cover your full shift through load shedding
• A working laptop or desktop with a headset

A strong base for administrative work in the South African market, plus a performance-based commission opportunity that takes total monthly earnings to around R29,000 to R30,000.

• R26,000 per month base, paid in ZAR
• Commission opportunity of approximately R3,000 to R4,000 per month, based on performance measures confirmed at offer stage
• Hours: 02:00 to 10:00 South African time, Monday to Friday, aligned to Australian business hours (10:00am to 6:00pm Melbourne time, shifting by one hour during Australian daylight saving)
• 7.5 hour shift plus a 30 minute break
• Fully remote, work from home anywhere in South Africa

Why people love this role

• Well above market pay for administrative work in the South African market, with genuine upside on top of your base
• Fully remote, no commute, no traffic, no office politics
• Your afternoons and evenings are your own from 10:00am
• Real variety, you are not doing one repetitive task for eight hours
• A small, direct team where your work is visible and it matters

Why people stay

• We promote from within, and Shared Services is where several of our senior operations people started
• Proper onboarding and documented processes, not being thrown in and hoping
• Direct access to the people making decisions, not five layers of management
• You are helping people who are retraining and building a new career for themselves, and that lands differently than processing invoices