Jani’s Journal Issue 18: Administrative Efficiency
4/2/2024
Unleash Your Nonprofit’s Hidden Weapon: The Power of Administrative Support.
Imagine gaining 3-5 hours per week or more to focus on your core mission. That's the impact a skilled administrative professional can deliver. Many nonprofits see administrative support as a cost they can’t afford, but it's a strategic investment with a high return. Here's why:
Efficiency Boost: Delegate time-consuming tasks like scheduling, email management, and research. This frees you to focus on fundraising, program development, and strategic initiatives.
Organizational Glue: They keep the team on track by managing deadlines, maintaining schedules, and anticipating needs. They're also the go-to for team support and problem-solving.
Cost-Effective Advantage: Hiring a qualified administrative professional allows you to leverage a lower-wage employee to handle administrative tasks. This frees up your time for higher-level activities that generate revenue.
As Administrative Professionals Day (April 24) approaches, Jani’s Journal proudly honors the invaluable contributions of administrative professionals worldwide by sharing ways to boost your organization’s efficiency and productivity. These unsung heroes are the backbone of organizational efficiency, playing a pivotal role in driving success and fostering productivity. Join us in recognizing their dedication and expertise on Administrative Professionals Day.
Want to amplify your nonprofit's mission and impact more lives? You’re in the right place! Jani’s Journal is where nonprofit heart meets business savvy mind.
Share this newsletter with your board and leadership team, and let's discuss how to optimize your team for maximum impact.
Jani’s Jackpot!
If you only have time to read one article, Jani’s Jackpot promises the ultimate payout!
🔗 50 Powerful ChatGPT Prompts For Executive Assistants To Boost Productivity 🔗
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes a great Administrative Professional even better and can act as an alternative support for a one-person show. Not sure how to get started? Create a ChatGPT or Google Gemini account and begin practicing your prompts with this boldly.com blog. Some of my favorite example prompts from this article by Katie Hill:
You are an empathetic customer service representative. Reply to a one-star review that a customer left about...
Today I have to accomplish [list of items]. Suggest an ideal plan for the day with the most complicated work in the morning, including a one-hour lunch break and finishing by 4:30 pm.
Summarize the following article and pull out three key points: [paste article]
Create a job description for [title of job] that makes it sound fun and would attract applicants in [location] but don’t use the words [list of banned words]: [current job description].
My goal for this week is [insert goal]. Break it down into smaller tasks and provide a timeline for getting them done.
The Business Case
🔗 Five Ways Administrative Assistants are the Backbone of Office Success 🔗
The American Society of Administrative Professionals highlights the immense value administrative support brings to organizations. Both for-profit and nonprofit companies can benefit from the key advantages administrative support offers:
Gatekeeping of Productivity—administrative professionals are the “first line of defense in managing workflow and maintaining organization” by “anticipating needs, troubleshooting issues, and finding solutions to problems that may arise.”
Eyes and Ears of the Office—with their “unique vantage point, being central to all office activities,…keen observational skills and ability to connect the dots, administrative assistants often have a deep understanding of what's happening within the organization.”
The Ultimate Multitaskers—“that allows them to juggle multiple projects, problem-solve, and easily adapt to changing priorities.”
The Keepers of Deadlines and Schedules—“by meticulously tracking deadlines and maintaining schedules, administrative assistants ensure that no project falls behind and no meeting is missed...and are skilled at prioritizing tasks…[ensuring] urgent matters are addressed promptly.”
The Glue that Holds the Team Together— they “[foster] a sense of camaraderie within the office…[and] are often the go-to person for team members seeking guidance or assistance.
🔗 Have You Fully Cracked the Efficiency Code? 🔗
This McKinsey & Company article cautions organizations to be strategic in where they invest in efficiencies and highlights their research indicating a 15%-25% impact when organizations are focused on efficiencies within their “indirect operations,” i.e. departments like finance, human resources, marketing and communications, and information technology. How is that? McKinsey offers 7 drivers of efficient indirect operations:
Reducing demand: decrease the number of work packages, reports, and meetings required of your indirect operations teams.
Consolidating and/or outsourcing responsibilities: eliminate redundancy across departments and locations for indirect operations and consider outsourcing at a lower cost.
Optimizing process efficiency: streamline processes and tasks within and across various indirect operations. Start with process mapping which sheds light on where your opportunities lie for greater efficiency.
Implementing stringent performance management: monitor continuous improvement efforts with data and benchmarks to know if your efforts are creating the desired impact.
Digitizing: introduce intelligent systems, such as robotic process automation and automated workflows to replace repetitive manual work and free people up to focus on other priorities.
Optimizing organizational structure: remove overlaps, decrease the number of layers, and adjust spans of control accordingly.
Developing capabilities: improve team members’ skill sets, particularly cross-training and productivity skills.
A related McKinsey & Company article highlights the most important drivers in finance and human resources departments’ efficiency and effectiveness. Notice that some of the most important drivers do not hold true across both departments except talent deployment, “acquiring, developing, scaling, and retaining staff with the right skill sets and mindsets.”
Level Up Your Efficiency
🔗 PM 101: What Executive Assistants Need to Know 🔗
This Executive Leadership Support article highlights the growing importance of project management skills for administrative professionals. Building upon the planning and organizational skillset administrative professionals already possess by introducing them to the formalized practice of project management both enhances their value to the organization and opens new opportunities for them. In addition to common project management certifications, ELS recommends administrative professionals begin familiarizing themselves with the phases of project management and software commonly used to support it:
Planning—asking the important questions between idea and execution is a critical first step to avoid costly repeated project adjustments, direction changes, and failure.
Initiating—identifying all the deliverables, scheduling, and interdependent tasks to ensure smooth execution.
Executing—whether the administrative professional is executing the project themselves or simply ensuring others are completing their assigned activities, execution is the core of the project.
Monitoring—Throughout the execution phase, monitoring to make sure everyone stays on plan and within budget as well as troubleshooting potential or real barriers to project execution.
Closing—often overlooked, the closing phase is where the lessons learned are discussed and documented to ensure future projects run even more smoothly.
🔗 Seven AI Prompts for Streamlining Administrative Tasks 🔗
Amidst all the talk of AI replacing administrative professionals, I love this statement from the American Society of Administrative Professionals:
“AI can do a lot to improve productivity in the workplace, but it can’t replace your creativity. Not to mention, it won’t be able to match your critical thinking skills and the rapport you’ve established with coworkers and senior leaders.
This ASAP article shares a few common ways administrative professionals can leverage AI to their advantage in completing mundane tasks like drafting emails, writing meeting requests, researching, writing correspondence, summarizing information, etc. which leaves room for you to focus on the critical thinking and interpersonal relationships that truly reveal your value to the organization.
On Administrative Professionals Day, let us express our heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated individuals who uphold the efficiency and effectiveness of our organizations. Share your appreciation for administrative professionals and celebrate their unwavering commitment to excellence.
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