Administrative Assistant's Update - sample

April 2018

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).

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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 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Director, Media Solutions, Canada: Karen Lorimer Publisher: Todd Humber Editor: George Pearson george@adminupdate.ca Associate Editor: Jennifer Lewington jennifer@adminupdate.ca EDITORIAL OFFICE (519) 271-6000 Administrative Assistant's Update Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 1 Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, ON M1T 3V4 CUSTOMER SERVICE (416) 609-3800 (800) 387-5164 FAX (416) 298-5082 (877) 750-9041 customersupport.legaltaxcanada @tr.com Contents copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission. Brief extracts may be made with due acknowledgement. Annual subscription: $195. Publications Mail Registration No. 40065782 GST# 897176350 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

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