Two surveys were published by Purolator just before Administrative Professionals' Day on April 24. The first was conducted among 254 HR professionals and the second among 502 administrative professionals. The goal was to know more about professional satisfaction, workloads, HR planning and the balance between personal and professional life.
83.5% of administrative professionals say they are satisfied with their jobs despite recording increasing expenses for their work over the last three years, for 63.2% of them. For those in HR, 79.9% believe that administrators are taking on more responsibility within their company. According to them, this phenomena is mainly explained by the fact that these professionals now work for several mangers (37.4%) who, ever busier, generate more work for administrators (36.5%), and also by a reduction in administrative staff workforces (25.1%).
Good balance between career and family
Despite increasing workload, administrative professionals appear to have a good balance between their professional and personal lives. 74.7% of them do not feel the need to be available to assist managers outside working hours. 42% of respondents have never been contacted outside their company’s normal operating hours.
Tasks not always in line with the administrative function
Both human resources professionals and those in administration agree that their three most important skills are the ability to multi-task (62.6% and 68.1% respectively), organizational skills (67.7% and 58%) and mastery of computers (57.9% and 50%).
Respondents from the HR field agree that for some tasks the assistance of administrators is essential, especially for event organization (48.4%), messaging service management (49.2%), file organization (38.2%), catering services management (34.3%) and meeting planning (31.9%).
In addition, close to one quarter of administrative professionals said that they have been asked for tasks outside the scope of their regular duties, such as setting staff appointments (9.4%), shopping (8%), buying personal gifts (4.8%), taking care of children (2.8%), vacation planning (2.4%) and looking after pets (1.6%).
Finally, 49.2% of HR respondents plan to hire administrative staff in the next 12 months. This is an encouraging sign, according to Barbara Grogan, National Director and President of the Association of Administrative Assistants, who feels that administrative assistants take on more responsibilities, including additional duties relating to HR, finance and event planning.