Personal assistant

The role of a PA is to free an executive’s time from organising and administrative tasks so that they can spend maximum time on strategic tasks. Responsibilities typically include:

• acting as a first point of contact: dealing with correspondence and phone calls
• managing diaries and organising meetings and appointments, often controlling access to the manager/executive
• booking and arranging travel, transport and accommodation
• organising events and conferences
• reminding the manager/executive of important tasks and deadlines
• typing, compiling and preparing reports, presentations and correspondence
• managing databases and filing systems
• implementing and maintaining procedures/administrative systems
• liaising with staff, suppliers and clients
• collating and filing expenses
• miscellaneous tasks to support their manager, which will vary according to the sector and to the manager’s remit, eg completing some corporate governance reporting (to ensure that the business is being run properly and complying with legislation and regulations) or conducting research

Key Skills for PAs

• Discretion and trustworthiness: you will often be party of confidential information
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Good oral and written communication skills
• Organisational skills and the ability to multitask
• The ability to be proactive and take the initiative
• Tact and diplomacy
• Communication skills
• A knowledge of standard software packages and the ability to learn company-specific software if required