By: Rocky White
Note: 2018 Administrative Professionals Week is April 23-27 and Day is April 25. This is a worldwide celebration of all Office Professionals.
There are more than 4.1 million secretaries and administrative professionals in the United States today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 8.9 million in administrative support roles. Adding some 475,000 administrative professionals in Canada and you have identified a significant portion of the workforce. And yet, oftentimes this group of employees remains invisible when it comes to training and being considered for talent management. Why is this?
Some of the titles given to Office Professionals (OP) include: executive secretaries, administrative assistants, front desk receptionists and back office workers, customer service reps, help desk staff, accounting clerks, office managers, board liaisons, desktop publishers, project coordinators…and I could go on. But the point is, there are many employees who fall within the category of Office Professional. Because of this, the originator of Administrative Professionals Week and Day has expanded the celebration to include all Office Professionals, regardless of title.
Mark your calendar for April 23-27, Administrative Professionals Week, and begin thinking about how you can best recognize and celebrate Office Professionals. SyN will help you do that, by focusing on the eight skills areas that turn ordinary employees into extraordinary talent.
Mark your calendar for April 23-27, Administrative Professionals Week, and begin thinking about how you can best recognize and celebrate Office Professionals. SyN will help you do that, by focusing on the eight skills areas that turn ordinary employees into extraordinary talent.What kind of skills do these individuals need to excel in their roles? SyN has identified the following as essential for an exceptional Office Professional:
- knows his/her assets and areas needing development to create a dynamic personal brand – to look, talk, think, act, and become the ultimate professional
- communication skills to build strong relationships with inside colleagues and outside customers
- business writing that reflects well on the company and gets results
- interpersonal skills to work with all personality types, diverse groups, and across generations
- techniques for working effectively with and through others
- management skills every employee needs – critical thinking, decision making, delegating, and giving/receiving constructive feedback
- leadership skills to get others to follow and give their best to every endeavor
- a personal action plan for lifelong learning, developing professional networks, and keeping pace with technology and changes in the business world
In the workplace today, it isn’t enough to capably perform the tasks listed on your job description. We no longer work in a vacuum or with one or two other people. Rather, most of the work we do today is done as part of a team and revolves around projects. We’re asked to constantly adapt and interact with people above and below our positions, across departments and facilities, and with customers, partners, allies, and others outside the organization – even halfway around the world. Managers in corner offices are no longer the only ones that negotiate, delegate, envision and implement innovations, make decisions, and take the lead in certain situations. It’s been said that the world is now flat – and so too are organizations. There is no top and bottom to the organizational hierarchy, only free-flowing interrelated networks. Today, every employee is vital to the success of the organization; every employee is the organization.
By overlooking, underutilizing, and not including office professionals in the talent management pipeline, employers are excluding a huge talent pool. You don’t have to go outside to find exceptional professionals; you can grow your own.
This blog will hopefully get you thinking about Office Professionals – a class of workers, far larger than we had imagined – and how we can provide the exact training and development they need to expand their roles and enhance their contributions.
So, mark your calendar for April 23-27, Administrative Professionals Week, and begin thinking about how you can best recognize and celebrate Office Professionals. SyN will help you do that, by focusing on the eight skills areas that turn ordinary employees into extraordinary talent.
Speakers you Need (SyN) applauds Office Professionals. SyN is a professional training company headquartered in Kansas City with over 100 subject matter experts positioned throughout North America. For more information about SyN’s professional development and training programs, contact Rocky White at 913.815.1494 or visit: http://speakersyouneed.com/
