PROFESSIONAL SECRETARY
As a
secretary, you are tasked with providing clerical and administrative support in
an office environment. Secretaries play a vital role in business. Not only are
you responsible for handling phone calls and other correspondence, but
secretaries often have to draft memos and reports that are integral to daily
operations.
Typical Workload
Some secretaries are
assigned to a specific duty such as answering and directing phone calls, while
others have a much broader job description that could entail basic IT work,
assisting with payroll, and maintaining large databases and filing systems.
Some
perform as a secretary include:
1. Using
software such as Microsoft Office to produce written communications within the
company.
2. Maintaining
office equipment (such as replacing toner cartridges).
3. Creating
and maintaining a schedule
4. Using
content management systems
5. Booking conference rooms and facilities for staff meetings
and presentations with clients.
Skills & Tools
Your role as a secretary requires that you understand how
to use computers effectively. you need to understand how to use standard office
software such as Microsoft Office. You will be
writing a lot of emails as well.
PowerPoint is also used extensively in a business setting.
These presentations need to work well and be visually attractive.
Communication is an important skill that you must also
master as a secretary.
Job description
A secretary provides both clerical and administrative support to
professionals. Common tasks for the majority of secretaries/administrators
include word processing, audio and copy typing, letter writing, dealing with
telephone and email enquiries, creating and maintaining filing systems, keeping
diaries, arranging meetings and appointments and organising travel for staff.
Typical work activities
·
using a variety of software packages, such as Microsoft Word,
Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel, Access, etc., to produce correspondence and
documents and maintain presentations, records, spreadsheets and databases;
·
devising and maintaining office systems;
·
booking rooms and conference facilities;
·
using content management systems to maintain and update websites
and internal databases;
·
attending meetings, taking minutes and keeping notes;
·
managing and maintaining budgets, as well as invoicing;
·
liaising with staff in other departments and with external
contacts;
·
ordering and maintaining stationery and equipment;
·
sorting and distributing incoming post and organising and sending
outgoing post;
·
liaising with colleagues and external contacts to book travel and
accommodation;
·
organising and storing paperwork, documents and computer-based
information;
·
photocopying and printing various documents, sometimes on behalf
of other colleagues.
Other duties may include:
·
recruiting, training and supervising junior staff and delegating
work as required;
·
manipulating statistical data;
·
arranging both in-house and external events.
Job Description
Clerical
secretaries perform many administrative tasks in an office
setting. Their job includes planning meetings, updating databases and managing
information flow to staff and clients. Secretaries store, retrieve and disperse
electronic and paper information, including memos, e-mails and other documents.
A secretary's duties may include drafting correspondence, reports and other
documents.
It is the secretary that manages the basic
office resources. He manages both tangible and intangible, human and non-human
resources, such as personnel, machines, materials, money, time, information and
methods.
MODERN OFFICE EQUIPMENT,
FACILITIES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
The computer
Everybody knows what a
computer is. I simply define it as an accurate electronic device that performs
calculations and processes information at great speed. Computers come in
different sizes, shapes, capacities, etc. We have desktops, laptops, and
palmtops. The computer is used in medicine, engineering, architecture,
education, banking, etc.
Telephones – mobile and land
The land line is the most
basic office communications tool used by secretaries. The most popular mobile
phone used in Nigeria is the GSM Global Systems for Mobile Communication.
Fax Machine
Just like the
telephones, the fax machine transmits information, but in text or document
format.
Internet (www, e-mail,
search engine, etc.)
This is an intangible
facility on the computer. WWW stands for worldwide web and it is a collection
of information in multimedia form on the internet. This information is stored
at locations, called websites, in the form of web pages. Websites are an
effective way of distributing information, such as advertisements, technical
information, comments, ideas, etc. Other applications on the internet are
chatting for simultaneous communication between people and the use of a web
camera for seeing while chatting.
Search engines like Google,
yahoo, msn, etc. are used to find information on the internet – looking through
millions of sources all over the world. For example, when you want to read
Nigerian newspapers while living in the U.S., you would be helped through the
use of Google.
Teleconferencing
This facility, usually
embedded in the telephone technology, allows more than two people to
communicate via phone at the same time. This makes it possible for people in
different cities to hold meetings together.
Video Conferencing
This facility usually makes
use of the internet with or without the telephone and allows visual and speech
communication among several people at the same time. Like teleconferencing, it
enhances remote communication. For example, your colleague in America can
remotely participate in a meeting held in Nigeria whereby he sees and hears
everybody who attends the meeting in Nigeria as he makes his own contributions.
Scanner
This machine is used to convert
hard copy documents into soft copies to later be transmitted from one place to
the other via the internet. This format can include colours, unlike the typical
fax machine.
Printers and Photocopiers
Printers are used
to convert our documents from soft copy formats to hard copies and photocopiers
are used to make additional copies of such documents.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is
concerned with managing and processing information. This is made possible
through the use of electronic computers and computer software to manage
information. The study revealed that the use of computer, telecommunication and
video techniques
positively and significantly affected productivity of
public sector secretaries. the skills needed by secretaries to manage
information on the internet are
keyboarding skills, grammatical and communication
skills, computer fluency, operating the telephone and
surfing the web. The rest are browsing the net offline
and online and downloading and uploading the software. information technology
provides significant facilities such as word
processing, filing and data management facilities. In
recent times, modern secretaries are exposed to high technology such as the
internet which simplifies
duties and enhance knowledge accessibility
(Edwin, 2008). These technologies make it easier to send messages
by fax, telex and electronic mails. There
are other office equipment that are available to the modern secretary
namely duplicating machines, dictating
machines, printers and photocopy machines to mention a few. These
technological advanced office equipment enhance
proficiency and productivity
Today’s secretaries are exposed to office technology
including the internet that make work much easier and knowledge more accessible
(Edwin, 2008). It is now easier to send messages by telex, electronic mails
(e-mails), fax and telephones. Other office gadgets available to the secretary
are photo-copy machines, duplicating machines, dictating machines, printers,
among others. This is the era of computers and information technology which has
become an enabler of greater convenience. 3 of the most popular types of
computer software programme are word
processing, which help the user to write and edit
memos, letters and reports, data management programmes or databases, which help
the user-secretary to use long lists of data and spreadsheet programmes, which
handle tables and numbers (Dulek and Fielden, 1999). Secretaries now have many
technologically advanced office gadgets to ease their jobs and enhance
proficiency and productivity leading to improved access to goods and ser334
Afr. J. Bus. Manage. vices globally (Akpomi, 2003;
Anyakoha, 2002; Wofersohn, 2001).
There are wide range of office machines and equipment
which now enable secretaries to improve their performances. Such new machines
take the form of electronic typewriters that have replaced the manual ones.
Word processors with milt-purpose facilities, computers and other sophisticated
office machines and equipment are now provided by employers. Some of the
physical equipment used by secretaries includes computer communication
equipment and electronic pocket organizers (Lucas, 1997). New technological
equipment that has altered the procedures and technique for office functions
include the computers, electronic mail/
commerce, voice mail, and the Internet. A secretary is
an office-staff who combines the mastery
of secretarial skills of typewriting and shorthand
with office routine functions. Automation is an innovation and a consequence of
the industrial revolution. It is a collection of methods for controlling
machinery and production processes by mechanical method, usually with
electronic
equipment. Spencer (1981) defined automation as the
process of replacing human work with work done by machines or system designed
to perform a specific combination of action automatically or repeatedly. Mayer
(1977) defines a secretary as an executive assistant, who possesses a mastery
of office skills, demonstrates the ability to assume responsibility with or
without supervision, exercises initiatives and
judgment and makes decision within the scope of assigned authority. It means
that a qualified secretary should have a wide knowledge of business acumen,
versatile knowledge in accounting, personnel, office practice, communication
and inside knowledge of the operation of all departments
within the organization where he works, unlike a half-baked secretary who
possesses only knowledge of shorthand, typewriting and basic office practices.
The advent of the word processor has helped to make the secretarial career path
cleaner. For a secretary to be employable in an automated office, Merony (1983)
believed that such a secretary must be well versed in the following specific
automated office
equipment training: i.) The concept and theory of
specific automated office equipment.
ii.) Knowledge of the categories of equipment and
their intended uses and differences.
iii.) The skill to use resource or reference materials
properly.
iv.) Hands-on equipment training, etc.
The success of the newly introduced equipment depends on
people, procedure and equipment (PPE). Automation can only be successful if a
careful study is carried out to assure the need of the equipment and the financial
resources available for the purpose. It is important
to note however, that technology is not static, therefore
it is essential that while planning to equip the office with modern technology,
great care should be taken of the changing nature of technology. As such finance
should not be invested into technology that is likely to become obsolete in a
short time. It is believed that for a new equipment to be installed in
any organization, it has to win the good will of the
staff, since they are the ones to use it. By getting the good will of the user
staff, the introduction and procedures will be accepted and effective. An
automated office, undoubtedly, offers new roles and responsibilities for the
secretary. Such new roles presuppose that additional training and
qualifications are required from the secretaries. The relevance of automation in
business was identified by Aromolaran (2003) as follows
i.) Creating a distinct career path for the se cretary.
ii.) Automation creates a prominent place for the secretary
on the organisation chart.
iii.) It creates routine and assigned roles for the
secretary.
iv.) With automation the secretary now spends less
time
in correcting, revising, proof-reading and reproducing
documents.
Silver and Silver (1981) asserted that based on the
reorganisation of the office and the introduction of the automated office
equipment, the manager’s work is produced faster with professional touch. The manager is also able
to concentrate on a more creative task with the
presence of an experienced secretary assisting him. Spencer
(1981) opined that automation remains a prominent factor that has contributed
immensely and positively to the complete information processing revolution. In recent
times, the secretary’s routine has reached an
advanced stage due to the invention of automated office
equipment. Most of the traditional and routine tasks are performed by automated
office equipment such as computers, telephone, etc. In a nutshell, automation
has improved general and secretarial education, thus, enabling secretaries to
become better prepared for automated office tasks.
