Why and how you should train your administrative staff

So you have gone through the recruitment process to find the perfect PA, secretary, office manager or receptionist for your organisation, prepared the offer letter for the candidate and arranged a starting date. While you may be able to strike off recruitment off the list, your work is not done! Now you have a new employee starting with your company, it is important to think about how you’re going to ensure this person fits right in and works to their full potential, benefitting both you and them.

It is important to remember that administrative staff are pivotal to a company. A PA could be the first person a client speaks to when they call the office, and a receptionist may be the first person they see. Of course, when you hire someone, you would have made sure they have the right personality and skills that they need for that role. This does not mean, however, that they have all the skills they need and are the perfect PA – there’s always more to learn! Perhaps you’ve taken on a graduate with a great educational background but little work experience? You will want to ensure they are working to the best of their ability, helping them, and in turn, helping you and your business work as efficiently as possible. Your staff and employees are the most important assets in the company; without them it’d be quite difficult to keep everything running smoothly. That’s why we think that training your staff is so important, and can really make a difference to your company and the way it is run.

Employee motivation

Telling an employee on their first day of a new job that they’ll be provided with training gives the impression that you really value your employees and the contribution they will make to the company. It sends a good message to employees about the company work ethic, showing how progress is viewed with great importance, both for the individual and the organisation. You are saying that you’re willing to invest time, money and energy in their professional development. In turn, employees feel motivated to do well, to really give something back and show how they should be valued in the business. If an employee is motivated, it will undoubtedly show in their work. Offering employees the opportunity to partake in a training day should be seen as a reward and time out of their working routine to develop their abilities and be taught invaluable skills.

Career Development

It’s important to allow employees to develop a career within an organisation, no matter what their role. Training a PA will allow them to set solid career goals, learn about the business and the company and develop certain skills that will enable them to perform better in their role. If your PA has career progression in their sights they will want to work harder, show their dedication and take on more responsibility. It will also hopefully encourage them to stay within the company if there’s a chance their role can develop, perhaps going from a junior PA to senior PA to EA.

New Skills – For Your Benefit!

Not only does training benefit your employees, it has huge benefits to you as the employer. You want your administrative staff to work to the best of their ability and learn the skills that are required of them for a particular role. Different companies have different requirements from their staff, so it’s important that you demonstrate to employees how you like things run. You want your employees to come into work motivated and driven, with the best skills and expertise in their field to make them stand out from others and make themselves indispensable to the company.

Building Relationships

It’s often daunting starting a new job, lots of new faces and unfamiliar surroundings. It’s so important to build good, professional relationships in the workplace – a positive working environment will enhance the mood in the office, which is so important for employee morale. Bringing people together for training sessions, workshops and team building will really help with this.

Now you’ve realised the benefits of training your administrative staff, how do you get the ball rolling? There are many options to choose from; what you need to do is think exactly what you want out of it, who will be taking part, and then make sure the training you choose meets your requirements.

Perhaps one of your PAs is struggling with managing multiple diaries and prioritising their time? Would they benefit from a one-on-one coaching session addressing particular difficulties they have? If you have a team of administrative staff, then an in-house training session or workshop may be beneficial, bringing the team together in a collaborative learning experience. Training and learning in a team allows individuals to work together, share experiences and strengths and form a sense of camaraderie in the workplace, a positive outcome for both the individual and the organisation as a whole.

There is also the opportunity to arrange external workshops and training. It’s often favourable to take employees out of their everyday working environment to a different setting so they can concentrate fully on the learning and meet other professionals, then taking their refreshed and improved selves back to the workplace to practice what they’ve been taught.
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If you’re looking for new administrative staff, please get in touch today!

Author David Morel Tiger Recruitment Team