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Cutbacks Lead to Opportunities

The latest SecsLife report from Gordon Yates and Guardian Jobs has been widely reported. The following article appeared in both OS Magazine`s Feb/Mar 2010 edition and also in Professional Administrator, the magazine for members of the Institute of Professional Administrators.

Staff cutbacks and recruitment freezes imposed last year may also have a surprising positive effect, according to the latest SecsLife survey. The report finds that, as people leave a company, remaining support staff often have the opportunity to develop a myriad of new skills, opening up excellent opportunities for career development. 

Richard Grace, Joint Managing Director of Gordon Yates explains: “As companies become leaner, they are looking to their support staff to pick up a greater range of work. PAs and secretaries have been expected to multi-task for many years, but our report shows that their work is expanding into new areas way outside their traditional role. Extra work may add to the pressure of the job, but it also provides a fantastic opportunity to display their abilities and raises the perception of the support role to an entirely new level.”

More strings to the bow
66 per cent of respondents learned new skills last year. These included project management, financial skills, PR, marketing, event management, recruitment, handling redundancies, copywriting and training.  

One London secretary taking part in this year’s study said: “As part of an efficiency drive, my company decided to move PR in house and it’s become part of my job. Although I’ve no experience, I’ve been on a PR and copywriting course and I’m really enjoying the challenge. It’s great having a new string to my bow.”

Employers are helping staff to cope with their expanded roles by providing training.  Despite pressure on costs, 73 per cent of companies retained the same training budget in 2009 as in the previous year and 15 per cent even increased their spend. 

Money maestros
Another indication of the growing responsibility of PAs is the level of budget they control. A third of those surveyed manage a budget and half of these manage a budget that exceeds £25,000. 

Despite the greater responsibility and variety of the support role, the report highlights growing dissatisfaction: 53 per cent of permanent employees have become less satisfied with their job over the past year, primarily for reasons related to job security. 

42% of support staff say that they are looking for a new job. Many of these staff may have developed new skills, making them increasingly valuable to their company, and employers may want to consider ways of encouraging them to stay.

Other Secslife highlights:

• Fewer companies awarded pay rises: Only 60% of companies gave their support staff a pay rise in 2009, usually less than 5 per cent.  

• Reduced bonuses: only 37% of companies awarded a bonus in 2009.

• Support staff demand stabilises:  A third of employers reduced support staff numbers in 2009, but only 9% plan cuts in 2010. 72% plan to maintain current staff numbers. 

Visit www.secslife.co.uk for the full survey results.

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