The Executive Secretary must provide high-level administrative support by conducting research, preparing statistical reports, handling information requests and performing clerical functions such as preparing correspondence, receiving visitors, arranging conference calls, and scheduling meetings.
Primary Responsibilities:
- The Executive Secretary provides high level administrative support to one or more executives.
- The Executive Secretary is responsible to perform clerical duties.
- The Executive Secretary is responsible to arrange conference calls and schedule meeting.
- The Executive Secretary trains and supervises lower-level clerical staff.
The Executive Secretary must read and analyze incoming memos, submissions, and reports in order to determine their significance and plan their distribution. The Executive Secretary must open, sort and distribute incoming correspondence which also includes faxes and emails. They must also meet visitors and determine whether they should be given access to specific individuals. There is some correspondence that is routine and the Executive Secretary may respond to all these types of correspondence. The Executive Secretary normally is the one who does such things as ordering supplies, maintaining records and performing basic bookkeeping. The keeping of a data base is very important for the Executive Secretary.
The Executive Secretary prepares agendas and makes arrangements for committee, board, and other meetings. Many times it is the Executive Secretary who makes travel arrangements for any of the executives from her department including flight, hotel and restaurant when necessary. The Executive Secretary may also make arrangements for any incoming visitor. Since some companies has several executives who maybe going to the same destination then the head Executive Secretary will make the travel arrangements for the whole group. When needed the Executive Secretary make other arrangements of an entertainment variety for those who are visiting the corporation and are bringing in their family.
The Executive Secretary must know how to compile data, and prepare papers for consideration at meetings and for the board of directors. The Executive Secretary compiles, transcribes and distributes minutes of the meetings. Then of course must be available to attend the meetings in order to record the minutes. The Executive Secretary is the one who coordinates and directs office services, such as records and budget preparation, personnel and housekeeping, in order to aid executives. She also must meet with individuals, special interest groups and others on behalf of the executive (s) that she is assigned. The executives have a very tight schedule with many responsibilities that is why they depend on their Executive Secretary to manage and maintain the scheduling for them. The Executive Secretary must be capable of preparing invoices, reports, memos, letters, financial statements and other required documents by using a word processing program. The ability to use a computer and understand some of the programs are very much necessary. Since the Executive Secretary must prepare spreadsheets, a database and presentations she must have computer knowledge along with internet capabilities. Many times she must be able to send group emails or transfer some of the documents as attachments on the memos. Understanding the security process is vital to prevent anyone from getting any data that she might be sending to other company officials or clients who make a request for information.
When she is doing her job function she must still be able to supervise other clerical staff members in the group. Training new clerical staff members is the responsibility of the Executive Secretary.
They must also review operating practices and procedures in order to determine whether improvements can be made in areas such as workflow, reporting procedures, or expenditures. The Executive Secretary must be able to work well in a team environment able to interpret administrative and operating policies and procedures for employees.
The Executive Secretary should have a good knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. The Executive Secretary must have the knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. Often this includes customer needs, assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of satisfaction. The Executive Secretary must have knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. The Executive Secretary has many responsibilities and must show a knack for being capable of handling many situations at the same time.