In contrast to traditional secretaries, today’s executive/administrative assistants are not only seen as indispensable partners to their bosses but also as crucial contributors to the overall office dynamics. Their roles necessitate a profound understanding of their employer’s responsibilities and how they can contribute to achieving business goals. Specifically, a secretary serves as a personal assistant to managerial figures like the Chairman, Directors, CEO, and Managers.
In addition to providing support, the primary function of a secretary involves organizing meetings, scheduling appointments, managing correspondence, maintaining records, and sometimes even assisting in implementing executive decisions. Moreover, they are responsible for managing VIP databases and prioritizing workloads, reports, and minutes.
The grade of a secretary varies depending on the company, with some being designated as Executives and others as Managers. However, the nature of their work may remain consistent or become more personalized based on their relationship with their boss.
A secretary can be your calendar, reminder, organizer, documenter, manager, associate, and friend all rolled into one. The value of a good secretary cannot be overstated, as they can make your life easier, while an unprofessional one can make your official life a nightmare and alienate clients. Therefore, it is crucial to have a professional secretary handling your affairs.
Fortunately, technology has made it possible to access professional staff from remote locations with ease. Secretarial assignments typically involve office coordination, scheduling meetings, preparing and maintaining office records, reports, and correspondence related to the professional(s) and/or management staff’s area of responsibility.
Duties and Benefits of a Secretary or Executive Assistant:
Given the nature of the work, the profile of a secretary is of utmost importance. Not only do they have to manage their own workload, but they also have to manage their boss’s work with zero room for error. An effective Secretary can be highly beneficial and advantageous, particularly for individuals with full or changing schedules and top-ranking officials. Some of the main duties and benefits include:
1. Time management
Time management: Secretaries are responsible for managing their superiors’ schedules as well as their own workload, which can be challenging when deadlines are tight and priorities are constantly shifting.
2. Communication:
Communication: Effective communication is crucial in any workplace, and secretaries are often the first point of contact for clients, colleagues, and other stakeholders. Communicating clearly and professionally can be challenging, especially when dealing with difficult or demanding individuals.
3. Enhanced Professionalism:
Enhanced Professionalism: A skilled Secretary can help create a professional image for the company by greeting visitors, answering phones, and handling inquiries in a polite and professional manner.
4. Personal Assistant:
Personal Assistant: Despite the prevalence of AI and virtual assistants like Alexa, Secretaries remain invaluable as our better halves. Unlike tech tools that only do what we program them to do, a Secretary can anticipate our needs and provide reminders. Furthermore, they can arrange things in an orderly manner, making our work easier.
5. Confidentiality:
Confidentiality: Secretaries often have access to sensitive information, so it is essential that they maintain confidentiality at all times. This can be challenging when dealing with colleagues who may not understand the importance of confidentiality or who may inadvertently share confidential information.
Overall, being a secretary can be a challenging but rewarding role. With strong organizational skills, effective communication, and a willingness to adapt to new technology and processes, secretaries can overcome these challenges and excel in their work. GM Off Rolls provides Secretarial services Offline and Online with great efficiency. You can regulate, advise, or state your requirements to be followed just like your own Secretary.
Virtual Secretary
A virtual secretary is an online personal assistant who provides administrative support to individuals or businesses remotely. Similar to a virtual assistant, a virtual secretary can perform tasks such as scheduling appointments, managing emails, making phone calls, and handling other administrative duties.
The main difference between a virtual assistant and a virtual secretary is that the latter is typically more focused on providing executive-level support and may have specialized skills or experience in specific industries such as Sales, Marketing, Law, Finance, Hospitality, Tourism, or Healthcare.
Virtual Secretary
Benefits of a Virtual Secretary-
Virtual Secretary or assistant can provide numerous benefits to a company. Here are 5 key advantages:
1. Cost savings & Flexibility:
Hiring a virtual assistant can be more cost-effective than hiring a full-time employee. Further, you can save on other expenses such as office space, equipment, and benefits. Covid has brought many changes and impacts on our life.
The work-from-home culture was one of them and in a good way, it benefits the companies to have staff in hybrid modes. Virtual assistants can work remotely and provide support across different time zones, offering flexibility in scheduling and availability.
2. Adjustability & Enhance productivity:
As your business grows, you can easily scale up or down the level of support provided by a virtual secretary. You have the flexibility to adjust the workload based on your requirements.
Virtual Secretaries can handle administrative tasks, freeing up time for employees to focus on core business activities and management. With no fixed hours, the Virtual Secretary can enhance her productivity with innovations and new skills. Virtual assistants can handle customer inquiries and support, ensuring prompt and efficient responses.
3. Expertise and Specialization along with Research & Language versatility:
Virtual Assistants often have specialized skills and experience in specific industries or tasks. They can bring their expertise to the table, providing high-quality support tailored to your needs.
A Secretary can research on behalf of upper management, gathering information on competitors, industry trends, and other relevant topics. Virtual assistants proficient in multiple languages can assist with international communication and expand business opportunities.
4. Time savings & Focus on core competencies:
By offloading administrative tasks to a virtual secretary, you can save time and allocate it to more critical activities. This allows you to focus on core responsibilities and strategic decision-making.
By delegating administrative tasks to a virtual secretary, you can focus on more important and strategic aspects of your work. This can lead to increased productivity and efficiency. By outsourcing non-core tasks to virtual assistants, companies can focus on their core competencies and strategic goals.
5. Multitasking ability & Reduced administrative burden:
Handling multiple tasks simultaneously, increasing efficiency and productivity. Virtual assistants can manage email correspondence, schedule appointments, and perform other administrative tasks, freeing up time for other important activities.
Further, providing support outside regular business hours, ensuring round-the-clock assistance if needed. Hiring virtual assistants eliminates the need for additional office space, equipment, and employee benefits.
Advantages of Virtual Secretary over Secretary:
VIRTUAL SECRETARY
SECRETARY
1)
Available any time including odd hours – Since Virtual Secretary works online, they will be energetic and ready to work at any given time.
Fixed time – Available only during office hours. Since they are on office hours, they will be available only from 9 to 5 pm.
2)
Affordable costs and plans – GM Off Rolls have various plans according to your pockets and time.
Expensive – Comparatively expensive and have to pay even when not working.
3)
Professional and experienced – With years of work experience, you can appoint the best for your company which if full time would have cost you a lot.
Unprofessional and inexperienced – Since the experienced ones would be costly, you would have to compromise the quality and go along with their terms, inefficiency, and slow speed.
4)
Easy Exit Policy – Appoint and re-appoint as per your requirement. You can appoint for a single work, project or even for a few days as per your requirement. In case require more days, you can extend or reappoint.
Long-time employment – A full-time employee termination would be messy and can affect your company’s reputation and even the morale of your other employees as they will feel that it is an insecure job and the management has a ‘Hire and Fire policy.
5)
Tech-Savvy – Virtual employees are always tech-savvy and updated, as they keep updating the technology because their career depends on it
Behind in Technology – As the office secretaries gain experience, they slowly get glued to their chairs and won’t have time to update their skills.
6)
No Overhead cost – Since they are not On rolls, the office equipments, working space, etc are at minimum or null, which helps in reducing the overall cost.
High Overhead cost – Since they are on roll staff, you have to arrange working space, equipments, tear and wear costs, etc. all have to be borne by the company.
7)
No Monitoring – Since they are Off rolls, the company doesn’t have to monitor them. They will be managed by the Off-roll managers through web cams and other latest tech equipments.
Monitoring – Staff being On-rolls, need constant monitoring, verifying, etc. and for that, there always will be a requirement for a manager to monitor and confirm which again costs the company.
HOW CAN GM OFF-ROLLS HELP WITH VIRTUAL SECRETARY?
- ALL OF THE TEAM MANAGEMENT SERVICE IN BLOCK – 1.
- Daily Schedule Management
- Call and Mail management
- Visa & Travel Management
- Calendar Management
- Support to board of Directors
- Confidentiality
- Prioritizing Workload
- Office Management (in his/her absence)
- Managing database’s
- Minutes of meetings
- Scheduling appointments
- Facilitating communications and field interactions
These are just a few of the many benefits that virtual assistants can bring to a company, helping to improve efficiency, productivity, and overall business success – So what are you waiting for? BOOK your Virtual Secretary NOW!!
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