Administrative Professionals Day has a long history, dating back to the 1940s. During World War II, there was a severe shortage of labor to fill skilled, administrative positions, sparking a new appreciation for secretaries, administrative assistants and similar roles, according to TimeAndDate.com.
The National Secretaries Association, which later be known as the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), was established to encourage individuals to start a career in the field and to support them with education and advocacy.
Thus, the Wednesday of the last full week of April was dubbed National Secretaries Day in 1952. As the responsibilities of secretaries expanded and the job titles eventually started to change and diversify, the day was renamed Administrative Professionals Day in 2000.
The day is a celebration of the essential role that administrative professionals fill in our businesses. So it’s traditional to give them gifts and take them out to lunch. They are the key to an efficient running, well-organized and productive workspace. The modern admin’s duties go well beyond answering phones or stocking the breakroom. Their responsibilities expand to filing and retrieving documents, coordinating meetings, scheduling for executives, handling auxiliary tasks for the executives, and so much more. Without them, execs wouldn’t possibly be able to perform their day-to-day duties on their own.
What New Tech Means for Administrative Professionals
There is a growing perception of certain technologies potentially being used to downsize administrative positions or flatout eliminate them. Companies have lately experimented with tablet-based visitor management systems for office visitors to check-in with.
However many of these tech solutions aren’t meant to replace administrative positions, but to supplement them and allow them to expand their duties to other tasks and roles. Administrative professionals are at their best when certain mundane tasks are made easier, so they can take a more active role in helping executives drive the business.
The same sentiment was true for when personal computers became popular and many thought they would minimize secretaries’ duties. However, secretaries were able to do more thanks to computers. They became the earliest adopters of computers in the workspace and their responsibilities broadened.
“Every time a major new technology showed up, there were always predictions that this would spell the end of secretaries,” IAAP spokesperson Ray Weikal said to CNN Business. “You saw that with the development of electric typewriters, the personal computer, and the internet, but every time technology gets more efficient, the amount of business increases. You continue to need people who can use those tools.”
Administrative professionals become immersed in whatever industry that they’re working in. It’s increasingly becoming a requirement for administrative professional to know more about fields they enter such as law, finance, manufacturing, technology, etc. They become valued experts on how to run an office in that particular industry.
That’s why eFileCabinet is a perfect tool for administrative professionals, whose duties typically include the organization and retrieval of documents for their offices. eFileCabinet streamlines the process of handling documents, allowing administrative professionals to refine their office’s processes and focus on more productive projects rather than busy work.
To find out how eFileCabinet can improve your administrative professionals day-to-day, fill out the form below to view a free demo.