Administrative Assistant's Update

April 2017

Focuses on the training and development needs of admin professionals and features topics such as hard skills (software competencies, writing, communication, filing) and soft skills (teamwork, time management, leadership).

Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/798378

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 0 of 7

APRIL 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 Bring on the challenge � � � � � 2 Supporting a top executive means constant monitoring of priorities LinkedIn strategies � � � � � � � � 3 Here are some of the changes as Microsoft takes the reins Career paths � � � � � � � � � � � � � 5 EA's community relationships take her role to a new level The multi-faceted admin � � � � 6 After side-trip into banking, this admin has now turned to teaching By George Pearson AAU Editor Employment opportunities for skilled and savvy administrative profession- als continue to expand. While the national unemployment rate for all occupations sits at about 6.8 per cent, according to Statscan, the unemployment rate for the cat- egory known as business, finance and administrative occupations hovers around 3.2 per cent. "That, for all in- tents and purposes, is full employment," says Dianne Hun- nam-Jones, a district director for Office- Team, the adminis- trative staffing division of Robert Half. Hunnam-Jones is based in Toronto. "If you're looking for a job today you actually have a little more of an upper hand than you had six months ago, because companies are looking for your skills." Of course the demand will vary from one locale to another, and the most intense demand for highly skilled administrative pros is in the country's urban centres, where it's not unusual to find employers compet- ing for the same experienced, highly skilled candidates. Where there is competition for talent, employers may be willing to loosen the purse strings and pay more than they have in the past. They may also be open to flexible work ar- rangements: a compressed workday (shorter lunch period, for example), adjusted hours to accommodate fam- ily needs, or the opportunity to work from home. Management not feeling the pain that workers do Canadians are feeling an increas- ing amount of workplace stress, but management is not necessarily aware of the extent to which that stress is felt, according to a recent study by Accountemps, a staffing service for temporary accounting, finance and bookkeeping profes- sionals. While only 21 per cent of CFOs acknowledged their teams are stressed, 58 per cent of workers re- ported being "somewhat stressed" (45%) or "very stressed" (13%). Top stressors cited by employees included heavy workloads and looming deadlines (41%), attain- ing work-life balance (22%) and unrealistic expectations of manag- ers (17%). Employers compete for top talent in admin sector Credit: iQoncept (Shutterstock) Continued on page 4 Dianne Hunnam-Jones

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Administrative Assistant's Update - April 2017