Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants

Job purpose

To provide high-level administrative support to executives, committees and boards by managing their schedules, correspondence and travel and by researching and preparing the papers they consider, so that senior decision-makers are properly supported and the office functions without interruption.

Skills

• Sound knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems — records management databases, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, and file management — together with the organisation's operating policies, bookkeeping and budget preparation. An associate's degree is the most common qualification, with a high school diploma or part-completed college study close behind, plus one to two years of on-the-job learning.
• Acts as the point of contact for the executives supported: answers and directs calls, greets visitors and judges whether they should be given access, and prepares responses to routine correspondence. Meets individuals and special interest groups on behalf of executives, committees and boards, and interprets administrative and operating policies for employees; deferring or refusing access requires tact.
• Reads and analyses memos, submissions and reports to determine their significance, conducts research and compiles data for papers considered by executives and boards, and reviews operating practices to establish whether workflow or reporting can be improved. Problems are procedural with precedent available, though judgements about priority and access are made without referral back.
• Manages executives' diaries, arranges travel, and prepares agendas for committee and board meetings, coordinating competing demands from several senior people and rescheduling as their commitments change. The framework is set by the executives' commitments; sequencing within it is the postholder's own.
• Seated desk-based work using office and records management software and telephony, with steady hand use and repetitive motions in keyboard work and in the filing and retrieval of corporate documents. No manual handling or dexterity demands beyond this.

Responsibilities

• No general line management, though supervises and trains other clerical staff. Provides clerical support to other departments, and represents executives, committees and boards in meetings with outside parties.
• Prepares invoices and financial statements, coordinates departmental finances, orders supplies and may process payroll information. Commits modest sums on supplies and meeting arrangements, but holds no budget and no approval authority.
• Ordinary care of a workstation, office equipment and records management database systems, and coordination of office services including supplies and housekeeping. No responsibility for plant or stock.
• Opens, sorts and distributes incoming correspondence and email, determines what is significant and where it should go, and records, transcribes and distributes the minutes of committee and board meetings. Much of the material is confidential and is seen before the executive sees it, and the accuracy of papers and minutes affects decisions taken at board level.

Effort required

• Continuous switching between diary management, correspondence, research, document preparation, minute-taking and incoming calls and visitors, with little uninterrupted time. Requires accurate recall of commitments across several executives, with judgements about priority made at speed.
• Works closely and constantly with senior people under pressure, where errors are immediately visible. Screening callers means withholding access from people who want it, and confidential personnel and payroll matters must be held without exception. Requires composure, discretion and consistent courtesy.
• Seated at a workstation for the great majority of the day, with continuous screen and telephone use and repetitive hand motions in keyboard and filing work. No lifting or exertion.

Working conditions

• An indoor, climate-controlled office without physical hazard, with time spent in board rooms recording minutes. Psychosocial demand comes from constant availability to senior staff, visitors and outside parties, and from custody of confidential material, rather than from the physical environment.
• Works a regular established schedule of about a standard working week. The day is heavily interruption-driven, with pace set by incoming demand and by the executives' commitments, and peaks concentrate around board and committee cycles, travel and reporting deadlines. Exercises considerable day-to-day discretion over how the office is run, within an authority framework that remains with the executives.