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Job Description for Secretaries

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Technology, downsizing, and our global business world have combined to eliminate the old methods of working and to present many challenges to the secretary that will continue into the next millennium. Fewer and fewer secretaries function in traditional roles as Gals Friday. Position descriptors of secretaries differ depending on the specific responsibilities of the job. In the past, the categorization of secretaries was always office support personnel, but today even that varies. It is not uncommon to see category designations as "office professionals," "office administrators," or "administrative support/clerical." When word processing first developed, the secretarial role was restructured into two distinct types of functions: typing and non-typing. The non-typing role was handled by the administrative secretary who supported principals, executives, and managers in contrast to the typing or correspondence secretary who worked in document production environments. Career paths for upward mobility existed along these lines.

Secretaries are employed in every type of industry, profession, and institution: insurance, banks and financial firms, law, medical and health care organizations, education, airlines, travel agencies, philanthropic and religious groups, manufacturing, real estate, advertising, publishing, radio and television, public utilities, and personnel supply services. However, today, the office is not necessarily within the confines of the organization but can be almost anywhere and anyplace-at home, in a restaurant, in an airline terminal, or in a hotel.

Secretarial jobs vary depending on the type of firm, size of company, specialization, and philosophy of the company. In large firms, secretaries are assigned to a particular department, and company wide procedures are established for handling certain administrative tasks. In smaller offices, secretaries undoubtedly handle diverse responsibilities and are able to exercise more independence in carrying out specific tasks. They also receive a broad range of experiences.



No matter whether it is a multinational firm or small business, secretarial work revolves around new office automation and company restructuring. New strategies based on controlling costs and improving productivity is changing the way business is done, which affects secretarial workers. Generally, their roles and responsibilities have expanded. The workload of secretaries is increasing, tasks are more varied, and they are assuming management duties and obligations. Secretaries basically manage information. Their responsibilities run the gamut from producing correspondence and reports to scheduling staff appointments to office management to managing an entire database. Few professions require such skillful knowledge and ability to execute so many specialized tasks. A 1994 study by the Administrative Development Institute that included 174 U.S. and Canadian members of the Professional Secretaries International found that secretaries were given more managerial duties after downsizing decimated the middle management level. Some management duties are maintaining and purchasing equipment and supplies and hiring, training, and supervising personnel.1 In the same study, McEwen received very good feedback on feelings of secretaries about their new role and duties. Most of the 71 percent of the secretaries who had been assigned managerial duties had positive feelings about their careers; 68 percent stated this gave them opportunities for professional growth; 51 percent indicated they received more respect; and 51 percent believed the new responsibilities brought them into the management teams.

Administrative support personnel need to have a broad set of skills that include document processing, distribution of information, managing records and files, organizing and planning, maintaining equipment and supplies, and performing financial functions. Increasingly, secretaries are producing spreadsheets and databases as well as using desktop publishing and graphics programs. Clearly these qualifications show the 'Beryl C. McEwen, "Preparing Office Professionals for the Next Century," Business Education Forum (October 1997): need to be computer literate and technology oriented to be successful. Secretaries must learn to think like managers. With this change comes more empowerment and freedom in their jobs as well as responsibility.

Those secretaries, who do highly specialized work, such as in the legal and medical fields, need to understand the terminology and procedures used in these environments. More information is given later in this chapter.

Chapter 3 referred to the variety of titles for secretaries that are being used today. Added to that list can be specialized secretary, senior secretary/assistant, transcription specialist, administrative receptionist, and word processing/administrative assistant. These designations frequently don't reflect the qualifications, duties, and responsibilities of the secretarial positions. As mentioned previously, few other professionals have to be capable of performing such a variety of tasks and projects. Jobs vary and require different skills for the nature of the position. When searching for a job, look under the various titles. Read the ads very carefully and be prepared to ask questions about the job to determine if it will be a good experience with potential for you.

There is a constant need for secretaries in many industries, whether it be in traditional business offices, automated environments, or offices of specialists. The field is one of the largest; therefore, new recruits always will be required. Also, many secretarial duties are of an interactive nature and not easily automated. For example, planning conferences, working with clients, and dealing with staff require tact and diplomacy as well as communication skills. Automated equipment cannot substitute for these personal skills; therefore, secretaries will continue to play an important role in most organizations. In addition to the general, behavioral, and technical secretarial skills, employers may seek individuals who have specialized training or experience in technical, legal, or medical areas.

This chapter will introduce you to the many professional secretarial career specializations to help you choose the career best suited to your own interests and talents.

The Image Of Secretarial Personnel

In the traditional office, secretaries generally work on a one-to-one relationship with the principal. However, that is atypical today; secretaries usually are assigned to several individuals. It is the senior partner who may still be supported by the traditional secretary, who functions as a generalist, performs diverse tasks, uses a computer for document production, and is knowledgeable about office routines and procedures as well as the organization. Responsibilities of the general secretary, no matter what the title is, might include duties extending into personnel administration, supervision, management, and other areas.

The National Compensation Survey has replaced the White-Collar Pay: Private Goods-Producing Industries, published by the U.S. Department of Labor. Ten criteria are used to determine the levels or ranking of an occupation based on the requirements of the position. These factors are taken from the U.S. Government Office of Personnel Management's Factor Evaluation System:
  1. Knowledge (tasks, rules, operations, tools, equipment, etc.)
  2. Supervision received (e.g., extent of direct and indirect controls exercised by supervisor and    setting of priorities and deadlines)
  3. Guidelines (e.g., judgment needed to apply procedures and policies; use of reference manuals)
  4. Complexity (number, variety, and intricacy of tasks and methods in work performed)
  5. Scope and effect (depth of assignment and effect on others)
  6. Personal contact (ability to communicate)
  7. Purpose of contacts (kinds of exchanges such as giving facts or resolving problems)
  8. Physical demands (demands work assignment places on employee)
  9. Work environment (considers risks and discomforts of surroundings)
  10. Supervisory duties (describes level of supervisory responsibility)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics develops data on five levels of secretaries. Level 1 is the entry level where an employee performs duties under specific instructions of a supervisor and handles a general range of office duties including inputting on a computer, transcribing dictation, and performing other office functions. On level 2, the secretary works under the supervisor's general instructions, and on level 3 exercises judgment and initiative to take in non-routine situations and works with the approval of the supervisor on other situations. By level 4, the employee is handling independently a wide variety of situations and conflicts involving clerical or administrative functions of the office.

Level 5 is the highest level of achievement and has a significant number of managerial responsibilities.

The long-standing definition of secretary adopted by the Professional Secretaries International depicts this employee as a highly qualified person who possesses not only a mastery of office skills but also personal requisites of the highest order. A secretary is "an executive assistant who possesses a mastery of office skills, demonstrates the ability to assume responsibility without direct supervision, exercises initiative and judgment, and makes decisions within the scope of assigned authority." To be more inclusive and because many businesses are changing the title of secretary to reflect the scope of the evolving responsibilities of the position, an addition had been added to the name of the organization: Professional Secretaries International: The Association for Office Professionals. As of August 1, 1998, the name is International Association of Administrative Professionals.

Secretaries in traditional offices are generalists or individuals who perform all support functions. Secretaries are basically information workers who process and transmit information within and outside the organization. They must possess certain intangible qualities that are not easily measured to carry out the duties of the position. For example, the secretary must be able to make value judgments as to the importance of incoming communications and telephone calls, items that require immediate responses, communications that can be answered by the secretary, calls that can be transferred to another staff member, and documents that should be held for future reference.
Another important aspect of the secretarial position is the interaction with executives, managers, staff, clients, and suppliers. Are good human relations skills being used? Is the secretary presenting a favorable image of the office and company?

Word Processing

The development of word processors led to a more complex auto-mated environment than the traditional office. Large corporations began to establish centralized work areas where word processing specialists handled work from the company at large. When completed, the documents were returned to the principal or originator for signature before distribution. Decentralized arrangements, also referred to as satellite stations and mini-centers, were established to support either a department, a specific division, or selected principals. Centralized work areas are still in operation in large firms; however, the nature of the work has changed to a large extent. Since the current trend is to have a computer on every desk, many employees input their own work. The centralized areas generally produce large projects: charts, graphics, and illustrations for presentations and distribution, and specialized tasks.

As the competition began to force prices down, small firms started to purchase electronic typewriters with automated word processing features and microcomputers with a diversity of software programs for document processing, statistical worksheets, and database management. This equipment was placed on the desks of secretaries and led to the transformation of the secretaries and other members of the office staff into end users, particularly for word processing. Currently, secretaries and other office staff use computers primarily for word processing applications.

Manufacturers do agree, however, that a firm must install a system that matches its needs. Logically, large corporations will focus on systems that interact and include some of the following PC-based office applications: word processing, electronic mail, centralized storage and electronic filing cabinets, spreadsheets, database, graphics, data processing, voice processing, image processing, telecommunications, and teleconferencing. Smaller firms do not require the same degree of sophisticated systems. Ultimately, each firm, from small to large, aims to increase the productivity of all office workers; including executives, managers, and secretaries.

There is great diversity in capabilities of computers with word processing software applications. In addition to creating documents quickly, secretaries can perform many other functions very easily: rearranging text without rekeying; producing complex documents with graphics and tables; merging information from several sources to produce one document; automatic pagination; global search (replacing one word throughout the text with another); justification; incorporating lines, boxes, and logos within a document; and inserting headers and footers. In the merging operation, you can store separately a list of names and addresses, a form letter and selected paragraphs. Information can be retrieved from all three sources to produce personalized letters or general form letters to be distributed throughout the country.

Communicating word processors can also send a communication to an office in a distant city, thus bypassing the postal service. It is also possible to integrate a table, for example, from one software program to another. Other word processing features are the spell check, thesaurus for finding synonyms and antonyms for selected words, and grammar and style programs to help in writing tasks.

This automated equipment together with the sophisticated systems that have been evolving has created dramatic changes in the office environment with resulting effects on secretarial staff. Office automation has opened up many exciting, challenging job opportunities with career paths. This chapter will describe the diversity of positions available in automated environments. This will give you a better insight into the demands of the profession.

Position Descriptions For General Secretarial, Administrative Assistant, And Word Processing Personnel

As you read the job descriptions below, you will note that secretarial and administrative assistant are titles used interchangeably for the same type of position. Reference has been made to these variations in Chapter 3. However, there are differences between the word processing and the secretarial specializations. Word processing support staff handles the key-boarding tasks and document production for principals and other staff who either forward handwritten material or dictate directly to the centralized or decentralized center where the tapes are transcribed. Secretaries and administrative assistants perform a wide range of duties such as screening calls, receiving and directing visitors, filing, scheduling meetings, editing, gathering information, and keeping digests of mail.

The job descriptions that follow are used in the 7995 Salary Guide of Office Team, a specialized administrative staffing service. Note the preference of this firm is to use the title "administrative assistant" before "secretary."

  • Administrative Assistant/Secretary I (up to three years of experience) Performs administrative and office support activities for multiple supervisors; includes departmental secretaries. Duties may include fielding telephone calls, receiving and directing visitors, typing, word processing, filing, and faxing. Requires basic and intermediate computer expertise and strong communication skills.
  • Administrative Assistant/Secretary II (three-plus years of experience) Duties include those described by Administrative Assistant/ Secretary I; support senior-level managers; maintain high-level of computer expertise with ability to train others in systems usage.
  • Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary I (up to four years of experience)
  • Performs administrative duties for senior management. Responsibilities may include screening calls, making travel and meeting arrangements, preparing reports and financial data, handling customer relations, and training and supervising other support staff. Requires intermediate-level computer skills, including proficiency with spreadsheet, presentation and database applications; flexibility; excellent interpersonal and communication skills; project coordinator expertise; and the ability to interact with all levels of management.
  • Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary II (five-plus years of experience) - Duties include those described for Executive Secretary I, advanced communication skills, ability to train others on systems usage; able to support the most senior management personnel, particularly in large corporations; and possibly supervise other administrative staff.
  • Receptionist/Administrative Assistant - Receives and routes telephone calls, greets visitors, handles filing, distributes mail, photocopies, faxes, provides administrative sup-port at various levels within organization, and uses computer.
In the last chapter of this career guidance book, you will become familiar with the steps you will have to take in your job search. You may use the Internet to search for a job and submit your resume for a position on-line. Below are a few on-line ads that were entered by different companies.
  • Office Manager - Coordinates various office support services, including purchasing and facilities management. May also include supervision of office administrative staff.
  • Word Processor - Creates, edits, and proofs a variety of documents; transcribes tapes; knows latest word processing software.
  • Executive Word Processor- Uses word progressing programs with emphasis on advanced projects; adapts to unfamiliar systems with minimal review; performs specialized functions such as graphics creations, troubleshooting, and integration of data from different software applications.

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