Profession secretary
Secretaries (general) perform routine clerical and administrative functions such as drafting correspondence, scheduling appointments, organising and maintaining paper and electronic files or providing information to callers and visitors.
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Personality Type
Tasks secretary
- Answer, screen and direct telephone calls, take messages and handle enquiries and requests.
- Greet visitors and direct them to the appropriate persons.
- Open, sort and distribute incoming correspondence, including faxes and email, and prepare responses to correspondence containing routine enquiries.
- Produce correspondence, memos, reports, presentations and other documents from drafts, handwritten copies, machine dictation, etc., e.g. using computers with a variety of software packages.
- File and retrieve documents, correspondence, records and reports, and set up filing systems.
- Make appointments and keep diaries.
- Organize travel arrangements, business itineraries, conferences and social functions.
- Prepare agendas and make arrangements for meetings, attend meetings and take minutes.
- Order and maintain office supplies.
- Keep informed how to use office equipment such as computers, fax machines, photocopiers, printers, scanners and phone systems, and report about non-functioning equipment.
- Serve refreshments, e.g. to managers and visitors.
Related professions secretary
- Administrative secretary
- Executive secretary
- Legal secretary
- Medical secretary or receptionist
- Minutes secretary
- Office manager
- Personal assistant
- Project secretary
- Secretary, all other
- Team or department secretary
Knowledge
- Company policies
The set of rules that govern the activity of a company.
Skills
- Maintain internal communication systems
Maintain an effective internal communication system among employees and department managers.
- Organise business documents
Put together documents coming from the photocopier, the mail, or the daily operations of businesses.
- Handle mail
Handle mail considering data protection issues, health and safety requirements, and specifications of different kinds of mail.
- Fill out forms
Fill out forms of a different nature with accurate information, legible calligraphy, and within a timely manner.
- Keep task records
Organise and classify records of prepared reports and correspondence related to the performed work and progress records of tasks.
- Process commissioned instructions
Process instructions, usually oral ones, provided by managers and directives on actions required to be made. Take note, inquire, and take action on the commissioned requests.
- Communicate by telephone
Liaise via telephone by making and answering calls in a timely, professional and polite manner.
- Organise facilities for office personnel
Manage the booking schedule for conferences and meetings of internal or external nature. Shop around and book reservations for travelling or hosting for office personnel.
- Monitor staff absences
Keep an overview of the employees' vacations, sick leaves and absences, register these in the agenda and file the necessary documents and certificates.
- Manage personnel agenda
Schedule and confirm appointments for the personnel of the office, mostly managers and directive employees, with external parties.
- Disseminate internal communications
Disseminate internal communications using the different communication channels that a company has at its disposal.
- File documents
Create a filing system. Write a document catalogue. Label documents etc.
- Disseminate messages to people
Receive, process, and pass messages to people coming from phone calls, faxes, postal, and emails.
- Perform office routine activities
Program, prepare, and perform activities required to be performed everyday in offices such as mailing, receiving supplies, updating managers and employees, and keeping operations running smoothly.
- Use microsoft office
Possess the ability to work with the standard programs contained in Microsoft Office at a capable level. Create a document and do basic formatting, insert page breaks, create headers or footers, and insert graphics, create automatically generated tables of contents and merge form letters from a database of addresses (usually in Excel). Create auto-calculating spreadsheets, create images, and sort and filter data tables.
- Draft corporate emails
Prepare, compile, and write mails with the adequate information and an appropriate language to make internal or external communications.
- Communicate schedules to the people concerned
Convey relevant scheduling information. Present the schedule to the persons concerned, and inform them of any schedule changes. Approve the schedules and verify that everyone has understood the information sent to them.
Optional knowledge and skills
place orders for printed paper goods manage budgets write meeting reports prepare presentation material labour law accounting techniques education administration manage online content develop documentation in accordance with legal requirements education law handle petty cash handle financial transactions deliver correspondence manage needs for stationery items issue sales invoices organise travel arrangements for staff use office systems manage accounts demonstrate professional attitude to clientsSource: Sisyphus ODB