No matter how high-tech things get, secretaries – administrative specialists, executive associates, corporate assistants and a host of other titles – will likely never go out of style or be less vital in business. Actually the positions are much stronger these days and the demands much higher, requiring an ever-expanding knowledge of computer and managerial skills, tele-commuting and spreadsheet applications, and even a second language.
No longer delegated to the role of assistant – since mundane activities like answering phones and dictation have succumbed to software and voice mail – more than three-quarters of the nation’s senior managers say their executive assistant plays either a very or somewhat important role in daily decision-making.
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Secretarial training has evolved to meet these changing demands, according to folks at the Katherine Gibbs School in Providence, which in true full circle-style has seen an increasing number of males among its students, as they head toward what they believe is an exciting and challenging future.
And because that future “is so much more computer-based,” the Gibbs school has been reinventing itself, expanding its mission to include programs in visual communications and computer technical support, said Fran Heaston, Director of Admissions. “Companies are expecting a lot more.”
More is right. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1998, there were more than 3 million secretaries/administrative assistants in the United States, plus 1.3 million clerical supervisors and administrative managers.
Although no one knows exactly when the first secretary originated, the International Association for Administrative Professions says the role arose out of the natural need for a prominent person to have a right hand confidant. The word “secretary” even comes from the Latin root that became “secret,” and as a word has been around for at least 500 years, with the earliest use in relation to people who acted in behalf of a king.
There were even secretaries in ancient Rome prior to the empire, usually educated men who took dictation by chiseling upon stone and often acted as trusted advisors.
As the world turned, men continued to dominate the position until the late 1880s when with the invention of the typewriter women started entering the business workforce. Because women adapted well to new technologies such as the adding machines, telephones and typewriters, the job of secretary became a true aspiration for the sex, with demand for secretarial services far outpacing supply.
But when Katharine Gibbs started her innovative school in Providence in 1911, the profession was still dominated by men, Heaston said. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the number of male secretaries dwindled and women became a majority in the office workforce, seeking the professional status and pay previously enjoyed by their male counterparts.
Today, enrollment at the Katharine Gibbs School in Providence is about 41 percent male, Heaston said, a real shift in their student body and one of the results of the profession’s move toward increased sophistication, particularly in computers. (Heaston said on the purely administrative side of programming the number of male students is about 10 to 15 percent.)
Katharine Gibbs will also soon be offering a Web Design course soon, coinciding with the profession’s increased need for competence in Internet research, Web site maintenance and video conferencing – as well as customer service and public relations. “As an assistant in an office they’re expected to do so many things,” Heaston said, expectations that are heightened since the technology itself is “constantly changing.”
Two years ago the IAAP also changed its decades-old name from Professional Secretaries International. Today the group, which has 40,000 members and nearly 700 chapters throughout the world, defines the term “administrative professional” as a person with a mastery of office skills, the ability to assume responsibility without direct supervision, and one who can exercise initiative and judgment and make decisions.
The times demand no less. In a recently released OfficeTeam study “Office of the Future: 2005,” a survey of 150 executives with the nation’s 1,000 largest companies found that 65 percent will rely more on their administrative assistants for project management expertise by 2005.
Areas where entry-level assistants will assume more responsibility include Internet research (81 percent) desktop publishing (71 percent) computer training and assistance (55 percent) and Web page development (31 percent).
Sixty-five percent of executives surveyed expect the administrative assistant or professional title will change again in the next few years, to include the word “coordinator” by 2005. And 56 percent believe administrative assistants will impact the selection and implementation of new technologies – with e-mail, video conferencing, wireless communication, personal digital assistants and voice-activated technology high on that list.
This survey is backed by an IAAP poll three years ago, which found that one-third of its membership supervises others, 45 percent train others, especially on the computer, and 78 percent recommend or make purchasing decisions for the office.
You’d think that salaries would reflect these trends. In 1951 the average annual secretary salary was $3,060 (based on an IAAP membership survey) rising to $5,678 in 1965. By 1976, 60 percent were earning $9,000 a year or more.
Between 1983 and 1990, secretaries salaries increased by 36.1 percent, and by 1999 average salaries ranged from $20,000 to $32,500 to start, up to $45,000 a year. A 1997 IAAP survey found that the average salary of its members was $28,420, with about half earning more than $26,000 and 31 percent more than $31,000.
The numbers show that in terms of salaries, anyway, administrative assistant positions are still used as a way to get through a company’s door, but Heaston said that many of their graduates have risen on the corporate ladder “to great managerial” heights. While some graduates choose to remain in Rhode Island and work for companies here, many also go to New York and Boston where pay scales are higher. “It’s like anything else in life. It’s where you go and what you do,” Heaston said, adding that people can really move up “if someone really values your services.”
For as most business people know, “a good CEO always has a great assistant.”
