Critical Skills of Senior Executive Assistants - Case Study Example

? 2 parts Advertisement done with log for the financial review in Sydney and a case study report 2 parts Advertisement done with log for the financial review in Sydney and a case study report Executive summary Executive assistants mingle about office duties like typing, scheduling meetings and taking calls. Their duties require specialized training, as their roles are becoming more sophisticated. This field is expected to grow at a rate of 13% in the next ten years, and more of these jobs will be found in construction, healthcare and educational institutes. From the BLS reports, the median annual earnings for executive assistants were $43520 as of May 2010. Most employers were from colleges, universities and other academic institutions, with average earnings of $44680. Becoming an executive assistant one requires to have some educational credentials to succeed in the dynamic business market. Some common courses include typing, computer applications, business law, records and information management, office administration and business communication. Table of Contents 2 parts Advertisement done with log for the financial review in Sydney and a case study report 1 Executive summary 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Critical Skills of Senior Executive Assistants 3 Writing Skills 3 Project Management Skills 4 Financial Skills 5 Benefits, salary, and salary packaging options 6 Salary Trends 6 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 9 Introduction An executive assistant plays a crucial role in an organisation. In the ever changing business environment, it is the executive assistant’s job to assist the key decision maker to stay focused, effective and a better leader. The key skills of this position are excellent communication, creativity and ability to work independently (Yukl, 1998; Zeng, 2011, pp 2 –93; Priem, 1994, pp 421–437). Given that the tasks involve being in charge of managing most of the support activities within the administrative sector, that is, ascertaining that ideal operations of the senior management team carries out all the goals of the organisation. Normally this job entails being an office manager or working as a secretary to the managers of a company. Hancock Pty Ltd is a small firm wishing to recruit an office manager, this position has three direct officers; the receptionist and two administrative staff (Scarborough, & Zimmerer,2006;Shimek & Wen,2008). Critical Skills of Senior Executive Assistants In the ever changing office environment, the critical skills required of an effective senior executive assistant is communication. How the incumbent interacts with peers and other decision makers is paramount on how ideas exchange across the organisation. Other vital skills are interpersonal effectiveness, project management skills, financial planning abilities, and effective writing skills (Torrington & Hall, 2004, pp. 205; Drew, 2007, pp359-369). Writing Skills Effective writing skills are particularly essential for an office manager to put the right words on paper quickly. Therefore, they must be able to communicate more clearly, concisely and persuasively. Words matter and an effective office assistant must learn, develop and enhance how to use them. The key areas that require effective principle of writing are: successful correspondence, message shaping, writing to the point, avoiding writing traps, diplomacy and politics, refining the writing and managing minutes in a meeting (Eije ,2006; Eisenhardt,1989, pp 57-7; Fan, Wong, & Zhang,2007, pp 330-357). Communication Skills An outstanding executive assistant should possess soft skills and abilities to maximise appropriate communication skills for personal and professional potential. The positive traits needed include; self awareness, personal openness, conflict handling, frustration and stress control, assertiveness and making commitments to development. Appropriate communication skills are key to developing a positive image, giving and receiving feedback, presenting ideas with confidence and clarity. Commitment to personal development is related to making choices and managing personal change, building self esteem and emotional intelligence, developing networks, having creative visioning abilities, and being results oriented. Being assertive implies being able to understand both external and internal sources of conflict, ability to gauge the expectations of others, developing self confidence, and having behaviours and words that count. Project Management Skills Project Management skills are a must for executive assistants, they must have the ability and structure to manage short term and long term projects. The incumbent should act as a central partner interacting with all the departments, checking budgets and schedules. They should be aware of factors that affect projects success or failure, developing and implementing classic ways of managing them, understanding customer needs for effective project initiation, planning, implementation and control. The appropriate office manager should be able to deal with the unexpected, communicate the right things to the right people at the right time. They must also have excellent project closing skills, and must be able to appreciate the importance of communication within a project team. They must also be confident and able to accept responsibility for new projects, ability to identify, and apply appropriate tools to effectively manage the processes. Hancock needs people who can stay in control of projects in dynamic business environments, and dealing with unexpected setbacks (Finkelstein, &, Hambrick, 1989, 121-134). Financial Skills Basic financial skills are necessary for this position. An understanding of figures that give information on the business is key to better supporting the manager with preparing reports and analyses. The executive assistant must be able to talk the language of finance and accounting, financial statements, financing international business, business plan preparation and preparing meaningful budgets (Agrawal, & Knoeber, 1996, pp377-397; Alam, 2011). The incumbent should have a basic understanding of how financial tools are applied in planning, measuring and controlling an organisation’s performance. They must possess a deep awareness of the economic environment and its impact on the company with sound abilities to spot facts and figures that might affect the business. Knowledge of the function and fundamentals of accounting is essential to the construction of the profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, statements of sources and uses of funds and statements of retained earnings. Understanding the inter-relations between these statements is necessary coupled with the company’s annual financial report (Constantinides, Harris, &Ren?e 2010, pp 337–429; Andrews, 1987; Ariely, 2008). Benefits, salary, and salary packaging options Malmendier &Tate (2005, pp 2661-2700) argues that, the aims of salary options is to provide employees access to fringe benefits, support in house payroll staff, tax planning professional advice and information to employees regarding salary packaging to obtain best results from remuneration. Salary packaging varies across agencies, and subject to frequent changes. The tasks, roles and duties of executive assistants will determine the salary range. Other factors are influence the wage are period, years of work, type of company, level of education of employee, current economic conditions, and work experience. The cost employment benefits is up to a maximum amount equal to fringe benefit tax free cap of $17000 per annum for public benevolent institutions under Australian taxation law. This amount is based on grossed up taxable value of the benefits given. Therefore, the maximum dollar value of benefits that employees can package without creating a fringe benefit tax liability is $9094 per annum (Audia, Locke, & Smith, 2000; pp 837–853; Gilovich, Griffin, &Kahneman, 2002; Gomez-Mejia, Nunez-Nickel, &Gutierrez, 2001, pp 81–95; Hackbarth, 2008, pp 843-881). Salary Trends According to National Salary Data, in the USA, the salary ranges from $31710 to $67605 per annum according to March 2012 data. Bonuses range from $194.95 to $7366 per annum. While profit sharing ranges from $507 to $6748 per annum. This makes the total pay to range from $30151 to $68963 per annum. However, these values will vary depending on the factors named above. Senior Executive assistants’ salaries range between: $36220 to $78936. Executive Assistants to the CEO range between 31507 and $75228. Executive Secretaries or Administrative Assistants earn between $23498 and $53995. Gender also seems to affect the salary level with females earning more than males. The more educated one is the more the earnings and vice versa, and the pay is commensurate with years of experience (Haleblian &, Finkelstein, 1993, pp 844-863; Lin, Hu, & Chen, 2008, pp160-181). Conclusion Executive assistant duties and roles lies between the roles of business executives and clerical employees. As automation is picking up in offices, the more the jobs become complicated and varied. Organisation and flexibility with multitasking abilities will see the job description evolving to somewhat taking up some of the roles handled by executives. . Bibliography Torrington & Hall. (2003) Personnel Management: A New Approach. Prentice Hall International. pp. 205 Drew S, Kaye R (2007). “Engaging boards in corporate direction-setting: strategic scorecards”. Eur. Manage. J., 25: 359-369. Eije H, Megginson W (2006). “Dividend Policy in the European Union”.SSRN Working Paper. Eisenhardt MK (1989). “Agency theory: An assessment and review”.Acad. Manage. Rev., 14(1): 57-74. Fan J, Wong T, Zhang T (2007). “Politically connected CEOs, corporate governance, and post-IPO performance of China’s newly partially privatized firms”. J. Finance. Econ., 84: 330-357 Finkelstein S, Hambrick DC (1989). "Chief Executive Compensation: A Study of the Intersection of Markets and Political Processes," Strategic Manage. J., 10(1): 121-134. 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