Some Developmental Aspects of the Secretarys Role in Schools - Essay Example

School Secretary Introduction The role of secretaries includes administrative and clerical duties that are essential in the smooth and effective running of an organization. Some of their duties entail; scheduling meeting and dates with management, serving as a link in communication between different parties within the school fraternity. The secretary must be able to use certain machines such as printers and some of the computer packages such as the Microsoft office package. An effective communication skill at the workplace both verbal and non-verbal is necessary for smooth running of the business operations. Keeping of school records is of benefit to the educational department and the individual skills as it helps keep a record of crucial student information. This paper discusses some of the procedures involved in the above aspects and their importance in the New York department of education. A school secretary is an important figure in the school administration and provides support to both parents and students and the entire school community. To be a secretary you need to have a well organized and set up office and working in a school environment as a secretary is and added advantage (Hart). Several skills are required to be an excellent school secretary, some of these include proper communication skills both verbal and non verbal, you need to have experience in this job to be able to have good relations with people as part of the job description is to be social and friendly, to have great skills such as computer skills, and organizational skills. Duties and responsibilities of schools secretaries include receiving phone calls and transmitting messages from one person to another. The school secretary is involved in sending mails and receiving mails on behalf of the school community. These makes use of good written communication skills, the secretary should also be good with typing skills and should be punctual at all times. The secretary should have good communication schools also because he or she mingles with students, teachers, visitors and the entire school community. The school secretary is also involved with handling finances such as paying invoices and receiving payments so the secretary needs to be honest in all the duties to have a clean relationship with the school community. The school secretary is the source of information and the link between students and parents within the school. The visitors, parents and other officials make dates with the school management through the secretary. In most situations a school secretary is basically the receptionist so basically he or she has to have good communication skills to be able to be fluent and efficient in passing on messages. The procedure for obtaining a job as a secretary in the New York education department is as follows. The head of the school should first provide letter of nomination to all candidates intending to be hired. The candidates should present their nomination letters to the human resource representative. They must have the valid New York Certification. Afterwards they should submit their applications online on the department’s website. The candidates should the contact the school’s human resource representative to obtain an application for employment and to begin the process of hiring. Candidates must match the requirements of the secretarial position and all the attachments that come along with it. And they are not allowed to work until their fingerprints have been cleared in the situation they have been hired. Communication in the workplace is the passing of data and information between different people in different levels of an organization (Hart). Communication is essential in effective and productive operations of an organization. Communication can be both verbal and non verbal which includes, voice messages, notes, messages and emails. Employees are motivated at the workplace if they can communicate freely up and down the chain in the organization. The benefits of good communication skills can only be reaped when good and quality communication skills without hurdles in the organization are seen. Communication in the workplace helps upsurge trust within the employees hence the spirit of unity that increases productivity. The feeling of job satisfaction is acquired by employees who enjoy effective communication skills as they can voice their complaints and recommendations at the workplace. My chosen communication style is open communication, whereby all the involved individuals have a right to expression of their ideas (Hart). This allows an effective flow of innovation and inventions as ideas are shared to come up with creative and efficient master piece. Open communication ensures that all people in the organization are knowledgeable on the goals and objectives of the organization and that they are working to achieve the best results. Open communication allows all the employees to work towards the same goal hence better productivity in the organization however open communication has its disadvantages too, where there needs to be a quick decision to be made, this method is not effective as it is very time consuming and it is more about having a common ground with each other. Some of the employees especially the senior ones feel like their powers are being reduced by open communication. A pupil accountant is one who is concerned with maintenance of the pupils in a school setting such as keeping check of roll calls daily and the number of those enrolled yearly, monthly or termly. The accountant gathers information on attendance of classes hence can easily monitor student activity for administrative purposes. They account for attendance and this provides information such as the available resources in the school and the development in the school attendance or absence. Pupil accountants are involved in maintaining school records such as financials, attendance, and formalities. This helps in keeping statistics and referring pupils to different schools within a certain region. The pupil accountant plays a role in counseling of new students and ensuring they are familiar and comfortable. They ensure that they have a record for all students, academically, morally and financially to be able to create pupil profile accordingly­­. The pupil student has to keep track of why students have missed their classes and ensure that the records are kept safely for future references. If the students or their guardians have not given notice for their absence from class then the pupil accountant has to handle it by calling the parents or guardians of the students. Maintaining student records which contains all information required by the management about students. The records help a school to be able to give reports to the department of education about students and the school progress. Records help in assessing ability of students and where possible help them seek help hence making them better as desired. Records help in dictating the educational achievements of schools and help in making comparisons with others to promote motivation of the students. Records help in enhancing relationships between students, parents and entire school community. A payroll secretary plays roles in book keeping records and secretarial duties too. There is need for the payroll secretaries to be accurate and trustworthy with their line of duty as it involves very sensitive information regarding the department of education and the school accounts. Some of the duties and responsibilities of the payroll secretaries are discussed below. They are involved in issuing and recording the adjustments to pay based on past debits or credits in the school or education department. They issue paychecks and the statement of financial positions for the school employees and ensure that the statements of financial position are delivered to the educational department. They ensure that all employees are included in the payroll system and works to correct errors by eliminating ghost workers in the system. They also add new employees in the existing payroll system. They enter data into the system, such data includes, deductions and wages for all employees. Payroll secretaries control and coordinate special programs I the school such as movements for charity that involve deductions in the earning of the employees. They reconcile the differences in the payroll by reviewing all information such as the wage totaling, and other books of accounts. Payroll secretaries educate the management and employees on details such as tax information, retirement benefits, mortgages and other provisions that influence the payroll. In case an employee in the school wants to go on retire or transfer, the payroll secretary will fill in, authenticate and process the required papers for administrative purposes such as pensions and other covers. Above all other responsibilities, these secretaries are involved in maintaining all procedures and processes for the payroll function. It is the role of the employees to maintain a good working relationship amongst themselves and the management. They are required to also keep a clean attendance record at work to comply with ethics. In case an employee will be absent from work, they are expected to notify the management prior stating reasons for their absence and how long they will be absent. The management or employer will either decline to this request or agree to their excuse. The management will then record the absence for the purpose of payroll adjustment and record keeping. The management may however decide not to adjust the payments for absence. The staff and the management are involved in discussion concerning the return to work. The absence statistics are recorded then the individual is monitored and reviewed by the human resource department till the leave is over. The procedure for dealing with staff attendance is that they should maintain punctuality and regular attendance. The management is responsible for the communication of attendance policies. Ensuring that the policies for staff attendance are followed strictly. Confirming or rejecting request for leave, offs or any employee benefit plans. Maintaining strict records for staff attendance and monitoring of the employees attendance. The management decides on who has the most productivity in the organization in case the staff becomes excess. They may administer tests to determine who stays in the organization and who is to be laid off. Then according to the results the excess are laid and selection for the seniors is done. All secretaries require basic knowledge on computers as this is part of their job description. Depending on the roles stipulated by the management for their school secretaries, then they might require different kinds of software. Those that integrate accounting roles and basic secretarial roles may require accounting software such as sage, pastel and quick books. However the basic package for school secretaries is the Microsoft office. This software consist of several other packages; excel, access, power-point, word, Ms Publisher and PageMaker. This should be a basic requirement in hiring of all school secretaries. This package comes with all that one may require in an office. Some of the benefits of using this software include the ease of use. It is easy to understand and use, and makes work easier for the secretaries. MS office helps in quick assembling of documents, hence saving time for the secretary, which increases his or her productivity in the school. It increases the available storage space, as this software helps in compressing files and recovery of damaged files. This is a basic technique that ensures records are kept safely and can be recovered easily when needed. Ms Office has a technique to check for errors and correct them automatically; this increases the accuracy of the school secretaries especially where figures are involved. However this software has its drawbacks too. Word documents can be easily edited which may be for the wrong reasons such as fraud or malice. This may cause discrepancies in the records which is a threat to the school as these records are to be submitted to the department of education. Conclusion Communication skills both verbal and non verbal are effective in achieving the best results in an organization. All workers should embrace proactive and honest communication with their seniors and juniors. New York Department of education chooses secretaries who can perform the office duties effectively and maintain good working relationships with the school community. Practice and procedure should be followed to monitor staff attendance, leave, and to manage excising and or seniority. Works Cited Hart, John. "The Secondary School Secretary--Some Hidden and Some Developmental Aspects of the Secretarys Role." Educational Management & Administration 13.2 (1985): 131-139. Read More