Behind every successful company, there is a talented, skilled, and experienced Executive Assistant. Executive assistants provide support to company executives by handling or supervising office duties. The difference between an administrative assistant and an EA is that an executive assistant is a senior office staff member with extra and more complex responsibilities. These include supervising and training other office staff and handling tasks that directly impact the company’s performance and profitability.
What do executive assistants do?
Executive assistants’ duties are similar to administrative assistants’ duties, including making and accepting phone calls, sending memos, letters, and emails on behalf of company executives and receiving visitors, scheduling meetings, and many more. They also have extra duties, responsibilities, and tasks, including:
- Acts as a point of contact between the company senior-level executives and internal, external staff, and persons of interest.
- Develops, implements, and administers departmental office systems and procedures. It is the duty of EAs to establish office procedures, policies, and operations. They also interpret and communicate policies and processes.
- Day to day maintenance of calendar for the executive and his/her team
- Coordinating the repair of shared resources such as a broken down printer
- Creates and maintaining filing systems
- Assist in training, scheduling, and distributing work of lower-level administrative assistants
- Ordering office supplies including stationery
- Producing reports and presentations for the executives
- Writing minutes of meetings and taking dictation.
- Making travel arrangements, accommodation, and detailed travel itineraries for the company executives
- Handling correspondence directed at executives
- Organizing meetings and booking venues for the meetings
5 must-have qualities of a great executive assistant
You should strive at finding a great EA with the following qualities:
Excellent communication skills
An executive assistant is the company’s image, and their communication skills, both written and oral, should be top-notch. A big part of EAs’ duty is to write letters, jot down minutes, draft reports, and memos. They should therefore have an excellent grasp of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. They should also boast of excellent communication skills to interact with company clients and customers professionally.
Excellent organizational skills
Executive assistants often work in a dynamic, faced paced environment that requires excellent organizational and multitasking skills. They should have the ability to multitask in an organized manner that guarantees given tasks are completed within specified deadlines. They also complete day to day tasks like scheduling meetings, booking travel arrangements, and preparing reports.
High professionalism
The right EA should conduct their duties with the utmost professionalism. Executive assistants interact with all organization levels regularly, and they must learn to treat everyone with respect, from the cleaning crew to the chief executive officer. They should be highly confidential of office operations and desist from organizational politics and gossips at work. Confidentiality is a non-negotiable trait of an ideal EA as they often interact with the most sensitive company information.
Excellent collaborative skills
A competent EA should be an outstanding team player. They should view themselves more as partners of the executives who give professional advice and recommendations when asked to. They should also collaborate with other staff spread across multi-departments to achieve the company objectives and produce results.
Willingness to learn
The right EA should be willing to learn new ideas and trends that enhance their performance. They should be the most tech-savvy staff in the entire building. They should also be resourceful, strive to keep up with current trends, and acquaint themselves with the latest industry trends.
What to include in your executive assistant template
There are five things that you may include in ideal EA assistant job description templates:
- Executive Assistant Job summary
- Executive Assistant duties and responsibilities
- Executive assistant skills and qualifications
- Executive assistant experience requirements
- Executive assistant certifications
Executive Assistant Job Description Template
We are looking for a highly experienced, talented, skilled Executive Assistant to support our executive team. The right candidate will manage the company’s various business-related tasks, including but not limited to, creating reports, scheduling meetings, organizing travel and accommodation, taking minutes, and other typical day-to-day office tasks.
Executive assistant specific responsibilities and tasks
- Providing general administrative support to the executive
- Opening, sorting, and distributing incoming mails, faxes, emails, and other correspondence.
- Making travel and accommodations for executives
- Reading and analyzing incoming memos, reports, submissions, and distributing them.
- Accurately recording minutes from meetings.
- Researching by using modern tools to collect data which they will consolidate into reports for the executives
- Filing and retrieving company records, reports, and documents
- Handling basic bookkeeping tasks
- Heading miscellaneous groups and committees, for example, the committee in charge of office fun and social events
- Managing employee appreciation initiatives. The assistants identify and shop giveaways for people within the organization.
- Finding fun things and places for executives to do while on official trips.
Executive assistant skills and education requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in office administration, business administration, communication, or any other related field
- Proven experience as an executive assistant, or administrative assistant
- In-depth understanding of MS office suite
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to meet deadlines in fast-paced, quickly changing environments
- A proactive approach to problem-solving with excellent decision-making skills
- Ability to organize daily tasks by priorities
- Excellent time management skills
If you have the qualifications and requirements listed above, visit our website and apply. Candidates who are shortlisted for interviews will be contacted through email.
Key Takeaway
An executive assistant is the first face of the company and the voice of the executive. They are resourceful to the company as they provide strong administrative support to keep things moving along. Executive assistants are incredibly expected to do jobs that were once exclusively handled by executives. They also perform tasks that were once reserved for lower-level or middle-level managers, such as managing stockrooms, maintaining leased equipment, and negotiating with supplies.
If you are a company executive and considering hiring the right Executive assistant to help with office work, leverage new technologies like those offered by Zirtual. Zirtual will help you find a talented, skilled, and experienced executive assistant who will bring a much-needed difference to your office.