As the PA/EA role creeps into middle management, how do you measure the added value you bring?  And more importantly how do you persuade the boss, HR and the company in general to see you as a business asset – and  reward you accordingly?

What Are You Really Worth?

Our breakfast speaker at The PA Show was John Jeffcock, CEO of Winmark Global, a C-suite network which enables business leaders to improve the  performance and sustainability of their organisations.  As the boss/PA relationship is so crucial and so unique, it seemed natural to John to do some research on the PA/EA community and find out more about them and their contribution to the organisation as a whole.  His findings are quite eye-opening and added a new dimension entirely to the current conversation around the changing role of the PA/EA.  These are the main points that we took away from the talk:

  • Don’t accept that fact that you’re a “cost centre” as a reason for not giving you training or promotion: almost everyone working in a company – including the C-suite execs – are a cost centre.
  • In order to rise in the company, your boss has had to diversify and expand his/her expertise.  No C-suite execs are focused entirely on one discipline (e.g. finance, HR, Marketing) by the time they get to that level
  • If you want your exec to take you with him/her, you need to diversify too.  Take on other responsibilities and create a wall of opportunities for yourself
  • The most reported change in the PA/EA role is increased responsibilities and diversification of tasks as companies now tend to replace middle management with PA/EAs which has led to increasing pressure on them
  • So many skilled jobs are being automated (in finance for example) but the skills you have such as communication and people management are of enormous value to a CEO and cannot be automated
  • The average time a PA/EA frees up for her boss is approx one third, which equates on average to £92,004p.a.!!
  • For PA/EAs training is the most needed form of support

In order to try and provide that support – which ultimately will support the company –  Winmark have developed a mini MBA to help PA/EAs explore and move into different roles.  Topics covered include Networking for Business, Marketing & Sales, Leadership & Assertiveness and Project Management.  You can see the course details here.

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