The concept of auxiliary, which derives from the Latin word auxiliāris, is used to qualify that or that which provides assistance or some kind of help. Administrative, for its part, refers to what is related to administration (the act of organizing or disposing of resources to achieve a goal).
The notion of administrative assistant refers to a job position or position that exists in most companies. The administrative assistant has the task of developing various activities of the company administration.
Administrative assistants carry out typical office work: filing documents, carrying out paperwork, managing the agenda, etc. Usually these people are at the service of a hierarchical superior, helping him to fulfill his tasks.
The manager of a company, for example, may ask the administrative assistant to gather all the invoices for the purchases made in the last semester to analyze the expenses, the guarantees in force and other data. The administrative assistant, on the other hand, may be asked to contact clients who register a debt with the firm to coordinate when a collector can withdraw the payment.
An administrative assistant must have knowledge of customer service and suppliers, marketing, business techniques, quality standards, protocol, human relations, documentation and information technology, among other topics. The more knowledge the administrative assistant has, the better he will be able to develop his work and the more possibilities he will have to grow in the internal structure of the organization.
Although sometimes this job does not receive much respect from society, given that it is not at a high hierarchical level, it is necessary to emphasize that the offices could not function correctly and efficiently if it were not for the administrative assistants. The large and varied number of tasks that they carry out on a daily basis must be considered together to appreciate their importance.
The presence of the administrative assistant in a company is so fundamental that the use of information and the functioning of administrative systems depend largely on their work. Let’s see below some of its most significant functions in detail:
* Administrative support: it is carried out by means of photocopying documents, filing, sending messages digitally, telephoning, managing supplies and registering incoming messages. In addition to these specific tasks, it is not uncommon for you to take over for the telephone switchboard and reception staff when they are absent;
* Correspondence management: although in recent decades the volume of physical correspondence has decreased considerably due to the overcrowding of the Internet, companies continue to send and receive packages, and the work of the administrative assistant is key so that everything reaches its destination;
* File management: this point can lead to confusion, since in large companies there is usually a specific position for file management. However, when the volume of documents is not so great, the administrative assistant can be in charge of ordering and storing them for later use;
* Personnel control: among its tasks in this area is the registration of absences, hours worked, rights to days off and claims;
* Transcription of texts: it is common to be asked to transfer a draft to the computer or to transcribe a recording;
* accounting: as if all of the above were not enough, some administrative assistants have the obligation to perform tasks such as preparing invoices and calculating wages, social security contributions, deduction of taxes and the cost of orders.
