Administrative Assistant's Update

OCTOBER 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 UPDATE PM #40065782 INSIDE Your professional image � � � � 2 Expand your professional network, clean up your Internet closet Back up LinkedIn data � � � � � 3 Sites like LinkedIn hold the key to your data if you don't back it up Admin compensation � � � � � � 4 Demand for versatility, high skills brings comp concessions Project management lexicon � 6 Understanding the terminology helps you see the PM structure By George Pearson The demand for administrative profes- sionals continues to grow in Canada, as does the range of skills that employers seek in those positions. Demand is particularly keen at the executive assistant level, where expe- rienced, well-qualified candidates are finding employers eager to hire them and often willing to offer compensa- tion packages that include additional vacation time, bonuses, schedule flex- ibility and even some work-from-home considerations. Employers are also hiring reception- ists, who are often asked to take on some typical administrative assistant responsibilities as well, at a brisk clip. The one exception to the strong hiring market for admins is Alberta, where depressed oil prices and a devastating fire in Fort McMurray have dampened employment opportunities. In its recently released 2017 Salary Guide for Administrative Profession- als, OfficeTeam also notes a demand for "versatile workers who can take on hybrid administrative roles to address company needs," a reference to the flexibility that many employers are looking for when they hire administra- tive professionals. OfficeTeam, a Robert Half company, is an administrative staffing service specializing in placing office professionals into temporary, temp-to-hire and permanent positions. In all administrative roles, strong systems skills are must-have qualities for the administrative professional, says Gena Griffin, OfficeTeam regional vice-president for the Toronto area, and that starts with the Microsoft Of- fice package. "You need to be quite advanced in knowing how to use them [MS Office components], even if that wasn't part of your job description in your current job; knowing how to do those functions and being able to execute them is impor- tant. You're really not setting yourself apart if you're only basic to intermedi- ate in skill level in those applications." Increasingly, admins find them- selves involved with enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) and to some extent with customer relation- ship management systems (CRMs), especially in small to mid-size orga- nizations. While some organizations may seek these systems skills in their Smile, your public persona is being examined "By far the majority of companies now that are interested in hiring you Google you," says an execu- tive of a leading office profession- al staffing firm. According to Gena Griffin, regional vice-president of Office- Team, "You want to make sure that what's displayed to the public truly is going to be relevant to employers who may be looking at that information and deciding whether or not you could poten- tially be part of their team. "Know how to use the secu- rity features of what's public and what's private because … com- panies are now looking at every candidate." Hiring market for admins stays strong Credit: kurhan (Shutterstock) Continued on page 4

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