Who is an assistant secretary and what does he do?

The position of secretary has long been the most coveted for many women. Previously, as a rule, practically nothing was required from such an employee, except for an attractive appearance. However, now everything has changed, sometimes such an employee is an important part of the team and must be ready to perform many functions. As a result, he is often very busy with work. Read about what these responsibilities are, what requirements must be met in order to receive a job offer, read in this article.

The secretary profession goes back to the times of Ancient Rome. The "secretaries" were the emperors' confidants - men with great political influence. This profession received its new beginning during the First World War, but it already meant performing completely different duties. Until now, only echoes of the original meaning of "secretary" have survived in the form of positions such as secretary general and secretary of state.

Nowadays, the profession of a secretary-assistant requires the performance of work related to documents, the organization of office work, the management of office equipment and other functions. Communication skills and attentiveness are considered important skills for an assistant secretary. The prefix "referent" means that the employee will communicate with the boss about various work matters. It is obvious that the competition among those wishing to take this position is high, especially in large firms or companies. The specifics of the skills that a secretary must possess can sometimes depend on the field of activity of the firm.Simply put, in a technology marketing firm, the secretary will need to know the intricacies of business negotiations. However, this is not at all necessary, for each company everything is individual.

Large recruiting companies argue that this position, along with the driver's position and other similar jobs, involves a lot of overtime. People in these positions are forced to adjust to the schedule of their superiors and be ready to work almost 24/7. Nowadays, “virtual secretaries” are gaining popularity, which perform most of the duties of an ordinary secretary for those companies that do not have the opportunity to rent an office or simply do not do it due to cost savings. Separately, it should be noted the importance of the appearance of the secretary. The secretary should dress in a business style, avoid bright, flamboyant and inappropriate makeup and hairstyles.

This document contains all the responsibilities related to the activities of the employee. Also, the job description contains the rights of the employee and a description of the requirements for him. This document contains information about who will have to replace the employee during his absence. It is also worth noting the fact that, if necessary, the job description can be revised and changed. This can happen in the following cases.

• Changing the duties of the secretary-assistant.
• The appearance of changes in the documentation of the organization.
• The appearance of changes in the structure of the organization.

Below are the main responsibilities of the assistant secretary.

• Often times, the person in this position is responsible for providing the office with office supplies. He should also order groceries if necessary. The direct responsibility of the secretary is to order a water cooler and monitor its fullness.
• The secretary-assistant must take calls for the manager and make them “screened out”.
• He must also organize the procedure for receiving visitors.
• The person in this position reports directly to the CEO of the company. Thus, most of the duties performed will be related to his requests and orders.
• The list of responsibilities also includes the reception and dispatch of received and sent correspondence, preparation of any necessary documents at the request of the general director, control of documents that the director needs to sign.
• The secretary also transfers the necessary information from the director to the employees and vice versa, calls employees to the director as needed.
• This employee also interacts frequently with the administration department. Sometimes he can coordinate with the employees of this department on the provision of office supplies and equipment. Unlike the first point described above, this point is not always spelled out in the job descriptions of the assistant secretary.
• The secretary must book plane tickets and book hotel rooms in case the director or other employees go on a business trip.
• In some organizations, the secretary is required to notify management and / or other employees about upcoming celebrations, employee birthdays and holidays. Sometimes this is done by an HR specialist.
• Every day the secretary must prepare the director's office for the beginning of a new day - turn on the light, office equipment (printer, computer, and so on), prepare the necessary documents.

The secretary-assistant must be responsible for document flow and has no right to disclose confidential information. Such an employee is responsible for the safety of documents and their timely submission to the authorities. The secretary is responsible for failure to fulfill the duties prescribed in the job description, i.e. for failure to fulfill his job functions, including such violations as being late. An employee may have problems if he is negligent in working with documentation.

Responsibility is borne for the disclosure of confidential information that belongs to the category of "commercial secrets". An employee is prohibited from damaging inventory, in particular, furniture provided to him or belonging to the company. The secretary is responsible for treating employees tactlessly or rudely. Since he communicates with all other employees almost daily, the secretary should be non-conflicting and diplomatic.

First of all, the secretary-assistant has the right to request various documents that he needs to work from various employees. The secretary can distribute the received phone calls depending on their importance at his discretion. The same applies to the procedure for receiving visitors at the reception. He can also demand explanations from employees if there has been a disciplinary violation. The secretary-assistant also has access to documents classified as "confidential".

Only the CEO can fire or hire such an employee, and not the head of a department or department, as in other cases. The same applies to the imposition of reprimands. The secretary can make suggestions for management to improve document management or management practices. It can also optimize some workflows. Like any other employee, he has the right to demand the creation of comfortable working conditions and may even verbally demand explanations from employees who violate labor discipline.

As a rule, the work of the secretary is assessed on the basis of his diligence and efficiency. Thus, other skills are secondary. The employee must be able to communicate with people, negotiate, have a well-delivered speech. Must be able to solve various organizational issues, use Microsoft office programs - Excel, Power Point, Word and others.

There are no strict requirements for education, as well as for the specialty received. However, there must be education, albeit specialized secondary. Law graduates are preferred due to the fact that most of their work is related to record keeping. Work experience of at least 1 year is desirable. An alternative to work experience may be taking secretarial training courses.

In foreign companies, a future employee may be required to know a particular foreign language. The secretary should be able to correctly express his thoughts, write and compose documents without grammatical errors.

The demand for this profession is great. As a rule, such activities are best suited to young professionals who have recently graduated from educational institutions. This activity is a great opportunity to find out the structure of the company's work. It is believed that in this position you can acquire good skills of a future good manager. Since the secretary-assistant performs a wide range of duties, he is an important and necessary employee even for the smallest companies.