Today kicks off Administrative Professionals Week, a week when leaders in offices around the world thank and celebrate those who keep the engines of organizations running efficiently and effectively. Whether you do it as an individual or corporate activity, or at a social gathering, or at a community event, deliberately and thoughtfully make it a point to applaud your administrative professionals sometime (or several times) in the next five days. This is not to say that you shouldn’t be doing it all year (whenever the opportunity arises to offer positive feedback or praise), but this week is a reminder to do something that often, in the rush of day-to-day responsibilities, slips past many leaders. Ironically, it isn’t until the secretary, administrative assistant or receptionist is absent that most leaders realize exactly how important they are to the successful operation of an enterprise. So don’t wait, do it now.
And how exactly should you celebrate and thank your administrative professionals? Well the traditional approach is to give gifts – flowers, candy, trinkets, lunch at a restaurant, gift cards, or time off – but you can also think outside the box. While flowers and candy are great, their impact can be short-term. How about supporting the long-term success of your staff by offering them training opportunities through continuing education, self-study materials, or seminars?
What are you doing in your workplace to thank and celebrate your administrative professionals this week? Please share what works best in your organization.
By the way, there are more than 22 million administrative and office support professionals working in the United States; more than 475,000 administrative professionals are employed in Canada and millions more work in offices all over the world. [Source: IAAP]