What Makes A Good PA In Today’s Workplace?

The role of a PA, or Personal Assistant, has evolved over the years and this has been undoubtedly impacted by enhances in technology enabling those in higher level positions in business to become much more aware of how to schedule and manage their days. A good PA is necessary to the running of any business, often expected to go the extra mile in a fast-paced environment. Here we take a look at what makes a good PA and how important their role can be in a business environment.

What is a PA?

This is the first question that we have to ask, as at the end of the day when you work to understand the role of a PA this will help you to ultimately understand what makes a good PA. A personal assistant is expected to essentially assist a business with the day to day tasks, retaining an active role in the business and acting as a knowledge bank for certain information that will be required at a moment’s notice.

It is a highly demanding role, that not everyone can do. A specific skill-set is necessary, and it’s important to be highly efficient and have strong organisational skills, but these are just a few of the attributed skills that personal assistants employ within themse

Experience Matters

Building experience is the best thing someone can do in their quest to become a qualified personal assistant. Employers want to know that you are confident in the role that you are doing, and having experience will prove. Obviously, everyone has to start somewhere but starting at the bottom isn’t a bad thing. It might be the remedial tasks that you are expected to do when you first start in a career as a PA, and from time to time further along in your career, you might still be expected to make the odd cup of tea for a client.

As mentioned previously, there are a few key attributes that any good personal assistant must have to establish their career, more detail about these can be found below:

Understanding Business Strategy

One of the most important aspects of a PA’s role is to understand the business strategy of who they are working for, to allow them to get to grips with the work they are undertaking. As a PA you will be expected to perform demanding roles on behalf of their boss, and this could include anything from preparing reports and presentations to attending important meetings, where contributions may even be expected.

Efficient and Effective Working

Organisation is key to any successful business, failing to plan is detrimental to any working environment, if you fail to plan you’re effectively planning to fail. The role of a PA is highly demanding, and it’s important to be able to face a task or problem and be able to strategically work out a solution to assist the business in moving forward. Therefore one of the most important aspects of what makes a good PA is their ability to work efficiently and effectively, and being able to maintain this throughout their working day.
As a business, when you are looking for a suitable PA one of the qualities that you look for is someone you can rely on and who you know will be loyal towards the company as well as being dedicated to their role. If you are looking for a qualified PA for your business, contact Attic Recruitment.