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Personnel Today

Secretaries roles expanding to include HR issues

by Personnel Today 22 Jul 2003
by Personnel Today 22 Jul 2003

The traditional role of the British secretary is ‘dead and buried’, with
many PAs taking responsibility for key HR issues.

A poll of more than 1,200 administrative staff by recruitment specialist Officeteam
shows that secretaries who just take dictation, write shorthand and answer the
boss’s phone are now in the minority.

The study shows today’s multi-skilled secretary is more likely to deal with
office management (62 per cent), recruitment (38 per cent), and even managing
other staff (23 per cent).

Many also organise company events (71 per cent), set up conferences (64 per
cent), and write daily reports (58 per cent).

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Steve Carter, managing director of Officeteam, said modern technology such
as e-mail and mobile phones had eclipsed the traditional ‘gatekeeper’ role of
PAs and enabled them to widen their skills.

The economic downturn is also contributing to the change in roles, with
secretaries being called on to fill many of the gaps left by redundancies.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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Personnel Today
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