Tips to effectively measure and increase secretary productivity
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Bosses can take these steps to measure and increase secretary productivity. Not only can secretaries benefit from it, but also the bosses themselves, too.
Measuring and increasing secretary productivity should be a two-way street between the boss and the secretary. No two parties should be different from each other if the said objective is meant to be achieved. Picture out a professional boss-secretary relationship. One is making an outline of the agenda for a meeting while the other is taking care of the logistics. The past decade has brought about a lot of changes to the conventional boss-secretary relationship.
At present, authority and major responsibilities are assigned to secretaries, whose tasks were then limited to the boss about a decade ago. Moreover, there has been a noted rise in the influence and prestige of secretaries who are chosen to fill executive positions, with fewer women willing to take on the role as career secretaries. Simply put, when measuring and increasing secretary productivity, it has to be noted that relationships between the boss and the secretary can change over time to meet certain demands in the business.
Moreover, measuring and boosting secretary productivity also have something to do with a secretary’s qualifications. Secretaries who really fit the bill are hard to find nowadays and may even be harder to become satisfied with their position for a given period of time. Like any other employee, secretaries also want to know whether they can grow and advance in their career. Current secretaries are motivated by, and take inspiration from success stories of former secretaries who are now holding top management positions. There are some companies, however, who do not recognize their need for advancement from their clerical posts and only provide low incentive for them, which could lead to lower productivity in secretaries.
The secretary should ideally be recognized as an important part of the management. For instance, when the boss writes a letter, it is the secretary that checks for grammar, punctuation and spelling and types it up well and neatly in order to present a highly professional appeal. It is also the secretary that makes sure that the letter is delivered to the right recipient and when it ought to be sent. Both the boss and secretary take the responsibility for various parts of a given project – this requires joint effort. It should be a partnership, in which the secretary follows through the action that the boss initiates.
A true professional relationship requires both parties to be confident of the skills and contributions of one and both should learn to appreciate and respect each other. Secretaries view the boss, or act in a manner that implies such. To measure and increase secretary productivity, and thus enjoy potential perks of a boss-secretary relationship, it is important for the boss to know that their relationship is two-fold and that they cannot be able to achieve their common goal if they do not work together.
Higher remuneration may be the most immediate incentive in increasing secretary productivity, although this may not always necessarily be the be-all and end-all of such. Some form of relief from routine may also be a good incentive, as in the case of clerical work. For instance, you can assign decision-oriented and less than routinary work to secretaries who show themselves capable of managing them. Many secretaries, like most employees like to be acknowledged of their contributions in the corporate structure.
Tags: improve productivity, measure productivity, secretary productivity
