Administrative Assistant's Update

JULY 2016 P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T F O R C A N A D A ' S O F F I C E S U P P O R T S T A F F Administrative Assistant's UPDATE JULY 2016 UPDATE PM #40065782 INSIDE EA as business partner . . . . . 2 Mutually productive relationship is built on trust, accountability Admin as project manager . . 3 As a career path, PM seems a good fi t for admin's skills Event planning . . . . . . . . . . 5 Looking after small details is crucial to a good outcome Administrative manual . . . . . 6 Doing it with care benefi ts you and your organization By Jennifer Lewington When Lili de Grandpré led the Canadian practice of Oliver Wyman, she sought input from her administrative assistant, Caroline Mentha, in the interview process for candidates to join the global management consulting company. "We always asked her: 'How did they behave towards you?'" says de Grandpré, now managing director of Cenceo Consulting in Montreal. "Some people think that admin as- sistants are the lowest people on the totem pole and that they need to impress me fi rst because I was the head of practice." Disrespect for admins, says de Grandpré, "was a sign of someone we never wanted to work with." As a manager, she says, "I have always counted on my AAs to be very much my partners." During de Grandpré's six-year stint at Oliver Wyman (until 2003), Mentha served as her administrative assistant and fondly remem- bers being asked for her insights. "If they [interviewees] didn't deal with me properly, she was concerned they would do that with other people," says Mentha. Their collaboration, fueled by mu- tual trust, respect and strong commu- nication, is just one example of what it takes for an effective admin-boss relationship. An alliance of equals pays dividends for both parties, say experts. "It means more job satisfaction on both sides," observes Marilyn Debora, a certifi ed training practi- tioner, a faculty member at the Canadian Manage- ment Centre and a recent speaker at the Ontario Hospital Association's Conference for Administrative Pro- fessionals. "We tend to put in more effort when we feel appreciated and when we know we are adding value," adds Debora. "Success happens when I know what I am doing, why I am doing it, who I am doing it for and I really want to do it for them." That sense of purpose – and shared goals – can be a tonic for admins. Lisette Legault, an administrative assistant to de Grandpré when she was a team leader at Mercer Human Resources Consulting from 2009 to 2011, recalls the impact of the "posi- Help for mental health pays dividends Workplace mental health contrib- utes to the bottom line, according to research by Morneau Shepell, a human resources and technology consulting company. The company reported a 32 per cent improvement in work- place absence among those using its Depression Care program, one of its services to assist employ- ees struggling with depression. Work productivity also rose 51.9 per cent. The study found a gender split on those seeking help: 63.9 per cent of employees using the Depression Care program were women, with more than one- quarter of them over the age of 50. Source: morneaushepell.mediaroom.com Working partners Strong admin-boss relationships based on an alliance of equals Credit: alp studio (Shutterstock) Continued on page 4 Lili de Grandpré Marilyn Debora Caroline Mentha

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