WIDER SKILLS A KEY ASSET

PERSONAL and executive assistants looking to futureproof their employment are urged to broaden their skills beyond administration.

Workers who do this are predicted to be in strong demand despite Federal Government data forecasting a fifth of personal assistant and secretary jobs will disappear in the next five years.

Hays Jobs Report July – December 2018 reveals EAs and PAs with skills in IT (information technology), communications, creative writing, presentation, office management and people management will be highly sought.

“Employers also look for candidates who have worked in a similar industry,” the report reads. “There is a growing need for EAs with project experience. Most executives are technically capable and therefore require a candidate who can support with current projects.”

Roy Hill Holdings EA and supervisor of business support Lydia Hart is a finalist in the Executive of the Year Awards’ Executive Assistant of the Year category and says the best EAs recognise their own skills and value and use these to support their chief executive.

“I know my CEO appreciates my ability to identify critical issues, anticipate their impact and suggest options to mitigate risk,” she says.

“It is these values that builds alignment and trust with stakeholders both internal and external to the business.”

Fellow Executive Assistant of the Year finalist Kath Moir, who is EA to the chief executive of Australian Red Cross Blood Service, says EAs must also be loyal, discrete, honest, efficient, organised and have well-developed emotional intelligence as well as the strength to raise concerns when appropriate.

“An EA needs to be well connected within their own business but also be creating links externally in order to benchmark and keep energised,” she says.

Her chief executive, Shelley Park (pictured with Kath Moir), says EAs are often undervalued as so much of what they do is unseen.