What is a Team Assistant?
Team assistants support their colleagues through helping with administration duties. These tasks are often vital to help the team meet deadlines and complete projects efficiently.
The team assistant is a central point within a busy team. Party to many team meetings, along with the manager, an excellent team assistant has a great overview of what is happening within the team. Once this understanding is gathered, the team assistant utilises emotional intelligence to identify and prioritise tasks based on urgency.
Why is the Team Assistant so Vital?
The team assistant’s position is catered to delivering first-class administration support to the team. This assistance elevates the team’s overall productivity by increasing the amount of work a team can complete by alleviating administration duties. A senior team assistant will then be able to improve team efficiency through analysing team workflow and propose ideas to streamline the processes.
Responsibilities of a Team Assistant
Each responsibility of a team assistant alleviates time-consuming tasks such as arranging meetings, booking rooms and general day-to-day communication from the team. This general responsibility means that the team assistant is a consistent team-player and is often close to many people within the team to ensure fluidity of the day and remove admin hindrances.
Typical responsibilities of a Team Assistant include:
Prioritising Emails
Making Copies
Running Errands
Preparing and Proofreading Documents
Organising Electronic Files
Managing Team Diaries
CRM Management
Key Skills of a Team Assistant
To be successful as a team assistant, the management of key stakeholders and prioritisation of the team is key. Excellent communication skills are a must-have with this position to build strong relationships with team members. When combined with a can-do attitude, a great team assistant can listen to each request from team members a prioritise appropriately.
Typical Skills Include:
Multi-tasking, prioritisation and time management
An eye for detail
Excellent grammar, spelling and punctuation
Strong interpersonal skills
Excellent organisational skills
Communication skills
Work well under pressure
The Future of the Team Assistant
With the rise of automation, the team assistant position is transforming. With tools to help organise and project manage becoming a popular choice for businesses, assistants are more frequently becoming involved with larger project work on a continued basis.
This technology is paving its own road-map in the office support industry as the development of such tech is condensing positions and reducing the time taken to complete a task. This means that impressive assistants with technology skills behind them are quickly sought after due to their ability to multi-task, and improve the team’s overall workflow.