A few of the assistants on my job were discussing the need for starting an admin support group within our company to share best practices, ask advice and to share training information. We have approximately 40 assistants in the company. Has anyone started an admin support group in their company and if so, how did you go about it? Did other assistants in your company support it? Any information would be appreciated.
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Many years ago I worked at a hospital and we assisting the Vice President of Quality Improvement. I got the idea of starting the "Support Staff Network" which included all secretaries and unit clerks. We met once a month to review standardization, process improvements and brainstormed ideas. Being the Chairperson I was able to schedule monthly seminars with professionals in the hospital and outsiders. It was a great way to kick around ideas, connect with each other and build on our skills. To this day the network is still running. Of course we had the backing of the vice presidents and president. Good luck. Let me know if you need any additional information.
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Carolyn Santora on
4/19/2017 9:54:49 AM
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Thanks for the additional responses. Lynn, please share the results of your event. Good luck!
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Anonymous on
3/2/2016 6:28:04 PM
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Yes, we have established an Administrative Assistant group. Another department admin and myself came up with the idea, and then we spoke with the Admins in our Dean's office, and they offered to host it on a monthly basis--and provide lunch!
We've had a great response from the other Admins in our college. We've gotten to know one another much better and we've shared experiences. It has been very helpful for all of us.
The down side of our experience, however, is that one of the employees in our Dean's office has kind of "hijacked" our meetings and the dean has insisted that we have "an agenda." The agenda is fine, but we had intended our meetings to be a little more social, as well as professional, than they have turned out to be.
This reminds me, that it's definitely time to plan another one!
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Cheryl Levi on
2/17/2016 11:17:02 AM
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I work for a local government office with staff at five different office locations. We started an Admin group several years ago for our upper level admins and found it very useful. Our best use is simply having an email group. If you need input or assistance or have info to share about a catering service or a bookcase or file folders that are up for grabs, it's a great quick communication tool. We did meet quarterly to discuss ideas, best practices, skills, general dept updates, etc., and we would rotate having staff from each building host.....agenda, minutes, etc. Management would also attend our meetings when wanting to update us on new finance practices, information technology, etc. Somewhat unfortunately, management determined two years ago that we needed to reorganize the group and include every clerical/admin staff person. It's great to everyone included, but now the group is too big and we can't have one meeting for everyone due to coverage issues at five buildings so two meetings are necessary every time we meet. Obviously this became very cumbersome so we just don't meet. The email group is still a great communication tool!
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Tamra Moore on
2/17/2016 8:47:53 AM
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Thanks for the great feedback.
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Anonymous on
2/16/2016 5:57:58 PM
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As the Senior Executive Coordinator, I act as a laison and mentor for all hospital-wide assistants, secretaries, and sometimes "clerks". At least 2 times a year, I will host a luncheon/annual meeting (one during Admin Professionals Week, the other during the holidays).
At the annual meetings, i provide lunch, and "updates" or other pertinent topics. Having monthly meetings are less "productive" and are less attended, so having these twice a year guarantees a good group.
I use a folder in a shared drive, with templates, tutorials, information, etc. (like a SharePoint, which is probably a better idea), to those assistants ONLY as a reference point.
Hope this helps!
Janet
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Janet Datu on
2/16/2016 4:43:53 PM
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With the support of our Senior Executive (Gov't Office), we started a monthly meeting forum. Our Head Secretary ran the meetings and asked that we (about 15 of us) provide topics for discussion. We made it a 90 minute working lunch with an agenda. Items ranged from correspondence practices (agency correspondence manual outdated, not set up for computer generated docs, etc.), time keeping procedures, electronic and paper filing practices, supply issues, staggered working schedules to ensure coverage for Front Office and phones. Worked well until SES was transferred.
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Honora Daly on
2/16/2016 3:50:19 PM
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We are getting ready to have our first company-wide Admin conference. I will be glad to share the results. (p.s. We're having it during Admin week!)
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Lynn Schad on
2/16/2016 3:44:54 PM
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We did here and everyone loved it. We had monthly meetings and whomever could attend did. We also started a SharePoint site and posted everything we needed out there for easy access. This worked great because there were admins in other locations that could access these things.
Good luck!
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Anonymous on
2/16/2016 3:39:27 PM
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