The Whole Thing reserves the right to alter dates, content, venue and the trainer for each course with reasonable notice.

CERTIFICATION

This course is CPD Certified with each day equivalent to 6.5 hours of CPD

Professional Secretarial and Administration Skills that Create an Effective and Efficient Office Environment for Great Results

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Secretaries, administrative assistants and top talent in the organization that want to learn (or relearn) and improve their secretarial and administration competency so that they can get the very best results from their secretarial leadership, teams and colleagues in pursuit of the organization’s goals.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Secretaries and administrative assistants are responsible for a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to keep office environments running smoothly. They serve as an information manager for an office, schedule meetings and appointments, organize and maintain paper and electronic files, manage projects, conduct research and provide information via the telephone, postal mail and e-mail. They also may prepare correspondence and handle travel arrangements. They are often the first person customers and clients encounter upon entering businesses and other organizations, and therefore should have an outgoing personality and excellent customer-service skills.

Automation, new technologies and an evolving market place have led secretaries and administrative assistants to assume a wider range of new responsibilities.  In addition to the traditional tasks secretaries can also provide training and orientation for new staff, conduct research on the internet, and operate and troubleshoot new office technologies. Mastery of modern secretarial and administration skills is vital to create an effective and healthy office environment that drives business growth.

Modern Secretary Skills is a very practical and proven approach to modern secretarial and administration skill development that covers a wide range of skills identified as essential for secretaries and administrative assistants to successfully contribute to the modern organization. The program takes a holistic view of modern secretarial practice and introduces the delegate to the knowledge, skills and attitude required to be an effective, confident and efficient member of any modern team focusing on their job for great results.

The program is well researched, knowledge-based and designed with the individual learner at the centre of the learning process which means that the course is extremely interactive and practical.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:

✓ Determine the secretary’s role in the modern workplace

✓ Recognize the necessary skills, administrative office procedures and abilities needed in the modern organization environment

✓ Develop the key secretarial and administration skills required by the modern organization

✓ Practice and improve key secretarial and administration skills before returning to work

✓ Produce drive to self-develop in secretarial practice

✓ Produce positive impact on the overall performance of each delegate and the organization

COURSE CONTENT

DAY 1 • CONCEPTUALIZATION AND COMMUNICATION

Facilitated Group Discussion & Exercises:

The following key learning points are given through facilitated group discussion where the trainer first places key learning points & then leads, guides & challenges the delegates to consider their own practice & experiences at work in these areas.  These discussions and exercises are very interactive, fun and delivered in a way that provides actionable insights into how new knowledge & skills learned will used in the job.

The Modern Professional Secretary

• Titles of the secretary / administrative assistant – your job title & your individual responsibilities. What are the similarities & differences?
• New Trends in tasks of secretary / administrative assistant – What’s changed? what different tasks & activities are you now responsible for?
• The Benefits of Effective Secretarial Practice – how would you define this & who benefits?

Effective Style, Challenges and Self-Assessment

• Attributes of someone who is a great secretary and administrator
• Barriers (obstacles) that get in the way of effective and efficient secretarial and administration behaviour
• Activity: “Self- Assessment”

Complete a self-assessment questionnaire. Result establishes the individual’s major strengths and weaknesses in modern secretarial practice that will be used later as a basis to set a personal improvement goal.

• Your Behaviour (Identity Iceberg)

The Role of Secretary in a Contemporary Organization

• Efficacy and efficiency: what are they?
• Defining ‘world class’ customer service
• Understanding the business environment – terminology, practices

Communication skills

• Writing business letters/ memos/ reports
• Communicate on behalf of your manager
• Welcoming visitors and clients
• Handling telephone calls efficiently and competently
  • Personality projection through telephone
  • Quality, clarity and tone of voice
• Activity: “Self- Assessment”

Complete a self-assessment questionnaire.  Result establishes the individual’s assertiveness skills & ways to improve if required.

• Overcoming communication hurdles
  • Methods to win over difficult people
• Listening Skills – listen to a common childhood story & check your listening skills with a short questionnaire.

DAY 2 • ORGANIZATION AND PROFESSIONALISM

Recap day 1

Key learning points from day 1

Facilitated Group Discussion & Exercises:

key learning points are given through facilitated group discussion: our methodology & the benefits of this process have been explained in day 1.

Organizational Skills

• Organizing Yourself and Your Environment – Organizing Daily Tasks
• Organizing Meetings – Meeting preparation, Taking notes & writing minutes, Tele Conferencing

• Organizing Travel Arrangements – Reasons for Travel, Travel Essentials
• Beyond the Expected – surpassing your manager’s expectation
• Time Wasters/Savers
• Activity: “Self- Assessment”

Complete a self-assessment questionnaire.  Result establishes the individual’s time management skills and introduces some easy to implement changes to their work day.

• Managing Time and Setting Priorities – processes, prioritising, goal setting, decision making.

 Information Management

• Researching Information Using the Internet – where, how?
• Filling Techniques and Record Management – simple, quick & easy to apply

Ethics and professionalism

• Safety & Security
• Confidentiality
• Social Do’s and Don’ts
• Stress and Conflict in the Workspace

Key Learning Review

• Group discussion and professional feedback to consolidate key learning. Delegates will leave the day with a list of development activities to improve their secretarial and administration competency back at work.

IN ADVANCE

Each delegate will be asked to complete a pre-course questionnaire to determine their individual learning objectives. These will be used by the trainer to give on track training that is focused on the individual learner attending.

ON-TRACK FOR GROWTH

The individual leaves this course with a Personal Action Plan to encourage immediate transfer of training to the job.

REGISTER FOR THIS COURSE

To register for this course please review the grey box above. If no public course is listed or the location and dates shown don’t suit you then please request a proposal for this course either as a public training course or if you have 6 delegates or more as an in-company training course by clicking on Request a Proposal.