As the assistant to the CEO, I've asked for and received approval to develop a program or forum for our company's admin assistants. I want to champion this group, as well as ensure that everyone is achieving best practices in their jobs. I also want to use this as an opportunity for us to share ideas and discussion and to recognize the group for what they do. I believe that we are the glue that holds our organization together, but we are sometimes "invisible" when we do our jobs well, so this should be a means to recognize the value AAs bring to the workplace.
I need a starting point for organizing this program, and particularly resources for meeting topics and subjects that we should be looking at. These will be informal meetings, since there are only six us, but I want it to be professional and worthy of our time. Any help with reseource materials, ideas, etc, would be appreciated.
Peggy Barker
Submitted by: AEAP
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Our company's new human resources director recently began quarterly administrative assistants/secretary meetings in 2007. The H/R director began with an agenda containing some items she wanted addressed and asked for everyone's input on additional agenda items. She does this for every meeting. It has been extremely helpful to all of the assistants to have a forum to discuss various issues about our jobs, company procedures and many other issues. As an example, it was noted that there is an administrative assistant manual for this company but it hasn't been updated since the 1990s. That has become a project for everyone to have input to make changes and update this manual. These sessions have helped enormously in clarifying company procedures, i.e., accounting requirements for billings and payments, room reservations, auto reservations, etc. It helped to make sure that everyone was on the same page. Hope this provides you with some information to get started with your forum.
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Anonymous on
1/24/2008 10:57:58 AM
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Our admin group holds semi-regular "lunch and learn" sessions. We get together and brainstorm solutions to process challenges one or more of us may be experiencing and also use the opportunities to share "best practices." Sometimes the sessions are convened with a particular agenda and other times we "go around the table" and ask for comments/problems/suggestions/ experiences that might be relevant to the others in the group.
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Donna Chizek on
10/2/2007 2:41:01 PM
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About five years ago the president (my boss) of our company thought it would be a good idea for the admins to meet on a regular basis so that they can lose that "invisibility" that is common in this position. A coworker and I coordinate and lead these meetings, which are usually held on a quarterly basis. Some of these things we've done which seem to have been effective are: in-services by people from various departments (such as Accounts Payable procedures & policies), administrative professionals day luncheon off site, and touring our parent company's facility. There is a lot of good information on the Internet and we provide a lot of handouts at each meeting (usually something on grammar, office procedures, communication, etc.) We always have open discussion and the admins feel comfortable sharing their frustrations. We then follow up to see if we can find solutions to problems that are shared.
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AEAP on
8/22/2007 3:15:37 PM
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Hi Peggy, I have a couple ideas for your forum. The first meeting could entail developing your AAs mission statement and goals (strat plan) for the year. Our mission statement has really helped us pull our team together. The goals we are working on this year show that we are not "invisible" and prove what great contributors AAs are. This has helped us see how important our job really is and gives our team a real sense of accomplishment and pride. Then you could have them all fill out a survey on what challenges they face and what training they need to do their job well. The you can take that information and decide what topics you want each meeting to focus on. The meetings can also have guest speakers. The use of your internal talent can help keep the costs down. So you could be the speaker and enlighten the other AAs on what it is like to work for the CEO. Then maybe get another person from a different department/level to talk about their experiences. If you need more ideas. Let me know.
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AEAP on
8/22/2007 3:14:36 PM
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