Maximizing a Hidden Resource -- Administrative Assistants in Your Organization

by Betty Burr, President, NoonTime University

The hub of the wheel around which the manager and team revolve, administrators are often the last to be considered for development opportunities. Yet, training them can maximize the effectiveness of other personnel development efforts.
      A team of senior AAs in a large Silicon Valley company created a plan to increase the efficiency of company administrators world-wide. The plan included formally sharing information and instituting administrator training. After the AAs made their proposal to a committee of senior executives (many of whom were their managers), one executive remarked: "I didn't know they could pull something like this together!"
      As his surprise illustrates, management may be overlooking the hidden power of highly trained professional assistants. According to a study by Georgia Tech, managers spend 59% of their time doing work below their own work level. Trained AAs can step in to allow managers to tackle more strategic tasks. Also, organizations typically spend large sums to train managers to retain critical technical talent, but managers often fail to use these new techniques because implementation takes time. Trained AAs can again step in to relieve management pressures and allow managers to concentrate on developing and implementing new behaviors to help retain new talent.
      Nancy Miller of Norell Corporation predicts that administrators in the 21st century will do financial reporting, project management, staffing and networking, and will track quality and productivity, as well as manage Internet communications. In this new era, AAs will need:

Managerial Skills -- Eliciting collaboration from other workers and interviewing, hiring, and training new employees are some of the functions the increasingly stretched manager may hand over to the administrator. The AA will have additional authority to make business and financial decisions.

Advanced Communication Skills -- As more workers become telecommuters or virtual employees and more managers travel globally, the administrator increasingly becomes "Communication Central." In long distance communication, about 50 percent of the impact can be lost. The administrator must become an expert in abstracting correct meaning from quick or electronic communication.

Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Skills -- AAs in tbe flattened and networked organizations of the 21st century will make more decisions, have less direction from managers, and have more contact with customers. To keep the company competitive and successful, they'll need greater ability to solve problems and make decisions consistent with the company's philosophy and mission.

Conflict Resolution Skills -- A report in "The Secretary." a publication of Professional Secretaries International (PSI), states that "more than nine work weeks per year are spent resolving employee personality clashes." Administrators often tell us that they either know about conflicts or are involved in them. By expanding administrators' conflict management skills and their ability to interact with different kinds of people, organizations can save management some of those nine weeks each year.

Self-Management and Assertiveness Skills -- AAs willing and able to handle some of the more routine managerial reports, budgets, and interfaces may not feel confident enough to step forward and suggest taking them over. Assertive communication skills and self-responsibility techniques make it easier for administrators to become partners with their managers.

What can you do as the HR professional?
      1) Despite the obvious benefits of investing in AA training, most companies still don't offer it. One reason is that because their AAs are so valuable on a day-to-day basis, managers can be reluctant to let them go to long classes. You can suggest an alternative adopted by one major Silicon Valley company -- offer a series of seven short training sessions once a month. The company, which stresses the value of training for every employee, asks managers to sign off in advance on the entire series for their assistants.
      2) Explain to management that employing AAs to take on more broad range jobs will maximize the return on investment from leadership and management training. Link the administrative assistant's role to the company's strategic plan and corporate goals.
      3) As you consult with managers about employee relations issues, suggest greater utilization of the administrator as part of increased team effectiveness, problem solving, and conflict resolution.
      4) In some companies, AAs are forming councils to increase their effectiveness. Offer to partner with them to set up a development program.
      5) Encourage AAs to enhance their skills. Let them know about the availability of training courses and of PSI's Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) program.
      6) Help managers offer more than just roses on Secretaries' Day by giving the gift of knowledge -- training programs to increase their value to the company.

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