Secretaries are crucial to businesses of all types within a vast range of industries, in place to instantly erase problems when they arise within the office environment of a company or organization. Secretaries spend a high percentage of their working time resolving issues and ensuring that businesses are able to tick over smoothly by carrying out general office duties and admin work whilst assisting other people within companies to complete their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible. Secretaries even often work alongside high-level employees within businesses and sometimes employers, taking out personal assistant responsibilities. The role of a secretary certainly is not boring, and as you can see, it is not always easy to explain what secretaries do, as their roles can vary drastically from position to position.
The responsibility of secretaries varies dramatically, with companies requiring secretarial assistance for a whole range of reasons, from keeping offices in line to providing managers with extra support assistance. However, in general, there are many things that the majority of successful secretaries have in common, for example, a large proportion of secretaries generally spend a huge portion of their working hours on a computer – to organise office-based activities and functions including but not limited to arranging meetings, typing up correspondences and documentation and organising files and records in order to improve business efficiency. Many secretaries are required to have contact with their manager and to act as personal assistants, and cannot expect their days to be the same every day, meaning that people looking to be secretaries must be flexible and adaptable.
Small companies often take on secretaries that are responsible for completing a huge bulk of the office’s administrative tasks alone, working mainly on their own to ensure that a company’s files are in line and that all activities are documents appropriately. Larger companies however typically employ multiple secretaries, each working on their own tasks with secretaries in each of their departments – Some companies only need 1-2 secretaries in order to be as efficient and effective and possible, and some companies employ hundreds.
Because the role of a secretary can vary so dramatically from role to role, it is vital that recruiters boast a particular set of skills in order to succeed. Just some of the traits that secretaries need to hold, whether looking to work for small or large organizations, include the following:
- Good organization skills
- Good time management
- Great verbal and written communication skills
- Confidence with computers and common computer software such as the Microsoft Office suite
- Immaculate attention to detail
- An ability to stay calm when under pressure
- A positive attitude and a willingness to learn
- Self-motivation
If after reading about what secretaries do and what it is like to be one, you think that you would make a great secretary and would like to secure your first secretarial role we highly advise that you take the plunge and get in touch with a secretarial recruitment London company today, who will be delighted to assist you!