APRIL 2018
2
Admin's role changing to knowledge work
In our admin profile this month (see
page 1), Janice Vilaca takes us inside
the admin / executive relationship to
reveal how mutual trust is built and
what a standout EA has done to create
and sustain that relationship.
She told AAU associate editor Jen-
nifer Lewington that to be a strategic
partner with an executive "you have
to be able to work at a level of seeing
projects, initiatives and mandates of
theirs in a much bigger picture."
This entails not only being highly
competent but also making sure the
executive can see and call upon that
competence.
"Assistants who are terrific at what
they do are very, very collaborative,"
says Melba Duncan, whose retained
search firm is the only one in the
United States that deals exclusively
with administrative-executive support
professionals. "They understand the
business that they're in and the moti
-
vation of the executive. And they learn
this from always communicating with
the executive."
That modus operandi is evident
as well in the excerpts on page 5
from profiles of accomplished admin
professionals that AAU has inter-
viewed for past issues. As one hospital
executive points out in the Sue Dunn
excerpt, "It's knowledge work, it's not
task work anymore."
AAU salutes the countless standout
admin professionals who grasp and
perform this role – to the benefit not
only of the executive but the entire
organization.
E D I TO R ' S N OT E
George Pearson
Administrative Assistant's Update
is published once a month by
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Director, Media Solutions, Canada:
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Publisher: Todd Humber
Editor: George Pearson
george@adminupdate.ca
Associate Editor: Jennifer Lewington
jennifer@adminupdate.ca
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UPDATE
Administrative
Assistant's
VA: Swiss Army knife for clients
By Staff
Admin professionals seeking new challenges, more
flexibility in work schedules or greater rewards are
increasingly finding them as virtual assistants: inde-
pendent entrepreneurs providing services online to
a roster of clients.
"Virtual assistants are doing a lot more than just
administrative work now," says Tawnya Sutherland,
who owns and operates VAnetworking.com, a vast
worldwide network of virtual assistants (VAs), from
her base in British Columbia.
"They're doing social media marketing, they're doing image market
-
ing," she says. Most clients "need help with their Facebook page, their
LinkedIn groups or things like that."
VAnetworking.com, which offers resources and training for virtual
assistants, boasts a network of more than 20,000 paid members in
its VAinsiders Club and 30,000 in its Forum group, which offers free
membership.
Based on feedback from clients who use VAnetworking.com's job
board, clients are looking for communication skills, including English
language proficiency, Sutherland says.
"You have to learn how to communicate in the way the client wants
you to," Sutherland says, and cites phone, email and project manage
-
ment systems proficiency as critical.
"You have to be a problem solver, a MacGyver in many ways, figure it
out for the client, because each client's going to be different; you have
to have a good sense of people and how you work with them."
What's the earning power of a VA? Sutherland said her daughter, who
bills $65 (U.S.) an hour, has to turn away work. VAs tend to bill in U.S.
dollars, she says, because of their global clientele.
Tawnya Sutherland