Interviewing for a Secretary

How can we help?

Your secretary, or personal assistant, is the bridge between you and your associates, and also your contacts from outside your business. They have a lot of responsibilities, taking care of all your administrative work. You’ll have a close relationship with them, as your personal helper, so it’s important that you find the right person for the job. Interview Quizzes can help you with that. We quickly sort out the best candidates, saving you valuable time and money.

Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Melba J. Duncan highlighted the fact that many companies now try to do without secretaries, administrative assistants, and even executive assistants, in an effort to save money. This has been shown to be false economy, as there is too much administrative work for managers to keep on top of and do their own job at the same time. It’s in your interest to have a secretary, and one with the right skills too. Using our service makes finding the right employee that much easier.

What skills to look for in a secretary or executive assistant

The role of a secretary is a varied one, and can differ depending on the nature of your business. You know your company better than we ever could, so only you know exactly what you are looking for in your staff. However, whatever industry you are in, there are certain attributes you will want your secretary to have. Here’s a list of some of the most important ones:

• Discretion - Your personal assistant will often be privy to sensitive and confidential information. Trustworthiness and discretion are both vital traits for a secretary.
• Communication - This is an essential skill for secretaries. The role entails dealing with phone calls and correspondence, and liaising with your staff, suppliers and customers. To do these well, your assistant must be an excellent communicator, both verbally and in written form.
• Organisation - A major part of your assistant’s time will be spent managing your diary and arranging meetings and appointments. They’ll also be responsible for organising your travel arrangements, bookings for events and conferences, and reminding you of looming deadlines. If they are to do all this without error, then they must have good organisational skills.
• Computer literacy - We’ve moved on a long way since secretaries needed only to know how to use a typewriter. These days an assistant’s work will involve using many different software packages. You want your potential recruits to be familiar with the standard programs, and also to be able to learn any software specific to your business.
• Typing - Despite all the changes brought about by the advent of computers, typing and shorthand are still key skills for a secretary to have. They’ll be writing your letters, as well as compiling reports and presentations.
• Flexibility - Your assistant will have to undertake many different tasks to support you. Adaptability, a proactive attitude, and the ability to multitask are all useful skills you’ll want to find in your secretary.
• Diplomacy - As so much of their role is taken up with dealing with people, both inside and outside your business, the ideal secretary needs to be tactful and diplomatic. Irate contacts and clients must be treated with a calm and friendly response and, as the gatekeeper to your office, a pleasant personality is also welcome.

Finding the best candidates

Above we have listed some of the most important skills to look for when recruiting a secretary. Now it’s time to find the applicants who have them as quickly as possible. That’s where Interview Quizzes comes to the fore. Choose four from our comprehensive selection of quizzes (which four you choose is up to you, but we have some suggestions below) and ask those who apply for your vacancy to take them online. We’ll give you the results, allowing you to see at a glance which people to invite to a job interview, and which to politely decline.

Which quizzes are most suitable?

There are several quizzes you may find useful, depending on the nature of your business. But here are some which we think will help find the best secretaries for any company:

English Advanced - This is to test how well candidates can communicate with others, in both verbal and written form. Essential in any secretary.

MS Excel Advanced - Your secretary must be comfortable using this software package as maintaining databases will be an important part of their job.

MS Word - The standard program when it comes to writing correspondence. Every secretary worth their salt must be familiar with MS Word in the modern age.

Maths Basic Numeracy - You don’t need to be a mathematician to make a good executive assistant, but it does help if you can do some simple maths in your head. Accounting may be part of the job, so it’s important that no mistakes are made on that front.

IQ - As well as being a measure of intelligence, our IQ quizzes also test a person’s ability to think logically, to work methodically, and to remain calm under pressure. All of these are useful skills to have in your assistant.

Interview Questions

There are some things that quizzes just can’t detect, like honesty or discretion. These traits are for you to discover in a face-to-face interview. However, what we can do is speed up the recruitment process and save you many man hours sorting through a pile of application forms. We know you have much better uses for your time than that.

Conclusion

We can't decide who is best for you, but we can provide the tools to help you MAKE BETTER DECISIONS, FASTER.