Accountability, Innovation, Integrity, Teamwork & Winning Mindset - those are the five corporate values of my company. Each year when we draft our performance evaluation goals we are asked to choose one of the corporate goals as a core competency and strive to make some measurable and identifiable improvement in that area.
This year I choose "Innovation". After discussing my annual goals with my VP, to gather his input on how he thinks I could show improvement in this area he suggests that I focus on my own job functions (it doesn't have to be a new idea or process).
So I humbly reach out to this vast network of intelligence and experience and ask:
"How are you innovative in your administrative roles?"
I struggle here because most of my daily duties are not manual processes, as it once was back in the day. In today's administrative role most functions are handled with productivity tools: email & meetings (Outlook, Web-Ex, Communicator, PGi), budgeting (SAP & Ariba), travel & expense (Concur & Carlson Wagonlit Travel Agency), and the list goes on...
Here we are nearly at the end of the Q1'2014 and I'm at a impasse trying to come up with ideas on how I can bring some innovation into my administrative role.
I would be every so grateful if you would share examples of tasks you believe you are handling in an innovative way. All suggestions and ideas are welcome.
~TT
Submitted by: Anonymous
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Hello, had a spare moment and reading the forums. I am a little late, but where is the Library in Outlook that has the form "While you were out"?
Thanks
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Wanda Heit, CAP-OM on
10/21/2015 12:22:11 PM
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Dear Colleague,
Every time you do something to make your job easier (work smart not hard), you are being innovative. You mentioned Outlook. Do you know that in Outlook there is a form in the Library called ?While You Were Out?? So when a caller calls or a visitor stops by for your boss and he/she is not available, use this electronic While You Were Out. You send it out like an email. But it stands out because it has an icon of a desktop monitor. Get rid of those While You Were Out pads.
Another innovation (if you have not done it) ? scan your executive?s business card. I have a small scanner and it scans business cards to my executive?s Contacts in Outlook.
Good luck.
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Anonymous on
3/21/2014 1:46:44 PM
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I agree with Kelly, I also utilize many of the same systems you do for daily activites. It is a matter of personalizing your processes and streamlining procedures. Can you communicate with co-workers and clients with fewer emails? SAP has many ways to save reports by varients that can cut down on time to produce desired results. Sometimes the innovations are small but the impact is big. I wish you the best.
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Joan Hudson on
3/19/2014 3:32:57 PM
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Innovation can also be known as groundbreaking, advanced, state-of-the-art, pioneering, inventive, original, new, novel, and modern. I would suggest looking at what you do, not only what you do daily but also on a monthly/annual basis and try to find ways that you put your own, personal touch to what you do and how you accomplish it. Innovation can be developing a more efficient or productive way of doing a recurring task or responsibility. It can also be the way you change your communication styles or techniques to deal with both your internal as well as external customers. I believe we have the natural tendancy to continually strive to improve what we do without really taking notice of it at the time the change is made. Try looking at yourself from the outside as a stranger and make notes on what you see. After all, you used your innovative flair to reach out to your peers via this forum! Good luck!
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Kelly Dodson on
3/19/2014 3:03:50 PM
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I don't know how "innovative" this is but I am trying to develop a procedure manual for my position so that if I would be gone there would be a seamless transition for someone to step into my shoes if need be. It would also hold my contacts, not only with suppliers but also with businesses that I would deal with personally in the name of the company. We as executive/administrative assistants do so many things that those we work with are unaware of our even doing them much less how we do them and the time it takes. Most of the time we just get the task done without any process involved. I am doing this project as a PDF so that they can use the find function to look for what they are trying to do.
Survey Monkey is also an online tool that you can use to send out surveys after an event. Hope this helps.
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Anonymous on
3/19/2014 2:32:24 PM
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One of the new things we are using is online surveys. We develop these through Google and send them to staff and community for input. The program takes all the replies and you can even see how many replies are coming in so you can track it. You can put a date on the survey of when it will stop taking replies. The participants access it through a link that we can place in an email, on our website, and on our Facebook page. Hope this helps.
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Shelley Black on
3/19/2014 2:16:44 PM
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