Administrative Assistant's Update

JANUARY 2017 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 Our aging workforce � � � � � � 2 Contrary to common stereotypes, older workers are valuable assets About Skype interviews � � � � 3 Careful prep will help you avoid distractions, accentuate the positive Acoustics is or are? � � � � � � � 5 How to make sure your subjects and verbs are in agreement EA as business partner � � � � � 7 Making sure your potential career path is clear from the beginning By Jennifer Lewington In a 22-year career as an administrative professional, Andrea Bowman has learned to grow with the fast-expanding company she joined in 1994. A focus on organization skills (including listening to and anticipat- ing the needs of others), an embrace of technology and a commitment to continuous learning are among the tools she brings to her job as senior executive assistant to the chairman of the board, the chief executive officer and media/investor relations of Lina- mar Corp., the global precision parts maker based in Guelph, Ont. Her boss, Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz, is blunt about Bowman's impact on productivity. "She plays an invaluable role in allowing me to do so much more," says Hasenfratz, an award-winning Canadian corporate leader. "We all need to focus on the things that we are good at and I think we can all do so much more than you think you can." An important ingredient, she adds, "is having the right support team around you to take on tasks you feel you can trust them with...and doing them reli - ably." Growth is a theme as applicable to Bowman's career as it is to the com- pany she serves. Hungarian-born toolmaker and machinist Frank Hasenfratz founded Linamar 51 years ago in the basement of the family home. Today, he is chair- man of a company with 57 manufac- turing plants around the world and poised to achieve a record $6 billion in sales this year. In 1994, then a 24-year-old recent graduate in history and English from the University of Guelph, Bowman was hired to support the then-execu- tive assistant who served the top four officials in Linamar's C-suite. "When I started, email was just coming into the workplace and was nothing like it is now," she recalls. "You still picked up the phone and there was a lot of human interaction." Two years later, she took over the Canadians staying in workforce longer In 2013 there were 8 million Cana- dians aged 45-plus and 3.6 million Canadians aged 55-plus in a labour force of 18.7 million. From 1997 to 2010, the employ- ment rate for men over 55 rose from 37.6 per cent to 44.9 per cent and for women from 22.3 per cent to 36.6 per cent. Previous trends saw fewer older men engaged in the workforce later in life and career. Older women have steadily increased participa- tion in the workforce since the 1990s, but the rate of participation has accelerated recently. --CARP Growing with the employer: 22 years in Linamar's C-suite Credit: Jennifer Lewington Continued on page 4 "She plays an invaluable role in allowing me to do so much more," says Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz (left) of her senior executive assistant, Andrea Bowman

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