The Duties of a Private Secretary

The secretary finds awaiting him upon his arrival all mail for the executive office. This he opens and sorts, redirecting part of it to other departments, filing away temporarily such letters as require the securing of information before reply, answering all the minor communications, and placing upon the chief's desk those he deems sufficiently important or personal. Even with the latter he assists by preparing digests of their contents or securing from the files the record of whatever previous correspondence may be needed. The reply itself he very commonly writes out in full from the briefest directions given by his employer. This method of handling correspondence, the executive learns, is a great time

saver.

Often the secretary prepares the materials for a banquet address or the annual report of the corporation; sometimes he even writes the address or report in full. He does the editing and proof-reading for sundry articles; or works up from such sources of information as trade papers, government reports, current magazines, or reference books in the library the answers to all sorts of questions. The average executive has reason to appreciate a secretary who is able to do such literary and research work, since otherwise much of it would be left undone.

The secretary meets the callers, ushers in some of them. to his chief's presence without delay, wards off tactfully those who are unwelcome, refers others to the proper departments, attends to many inquiries himself, and makes appointments for others with his chief.

The secretary takes care of telephone calls, records appointments and sees that they are kept, installs and keeps in condition the proper filing systems, follows up orders, and maps out the day's work. The secretary of a well-known insurance president remarked, "There is practically no business of Mr. McCall's that does not pass through my hands."

The Money Value of Secretarial Services

The modern executive recognizes such services as indispensable. It is said that Vice-President Tarbell of the Equitable pays his secretary a salary of $12,000 per year, and that the late H. H. Rogers valued his secretary's services at $30,000 per year. No doubt these two secretaries, and others who draw similar salaries, are well worth such amounts to their employers. But the point to be emphasized is that it is sound economy whatever the scale of the business to shift routine duties from the more expensive man at the top to a subordinate whose time is less costly.

Each minute of the working day of an executive drawing $5,000 a year costs 4.6 cents. If he spends fifteen minutes in the routine of opening the morning mail, it means 69 cents a day, $4.14 a week, $207 during the business year.

If this man wastes thirty minutes hunting for some correspondence which should have been filed and promptly produced by a clerk; another thirty minutes on unimportant. material which could readily have been attended to by someone else; a third thirty minutes answering correspondence of a merely routine nature; a fourth thirty minutes hunting for telephone numbers, waiting for calls, or answering unimportant calls; a fifth thirty minutes in ridding himself of certain visitors who should have been diplomatically sidetracked at the start, his concern loses thereby $6.90 daily, $2,070 annually.

The Secretary Promotes His Chief's Efficiency

This loss as computed by no means represents fully the injury sustained. The various annoyances to which an executive under the above conditions is subjected break up the day, distract the attention until it becomes difficult to concentrate, in short, put a damper upon creative work. Worse still, the executive thus annoyed and yet feeling, as he should, that the

firm pays him for constructive work, is apt after a time to develop as a sort of shield a caustic tone toward callers, a curtness over the telephone, a slowness in answering communications which costs his firm dear in terms of lost goodwill.

As a means of eliminating losses of money or good-will and at the same time enlarging the executive's output of creative work and increasing his ability to co-operate, the private secretary is invaluable. The degree to which the executive is able to utilize the services of the secretary often measures his own advancement or undoing.

Selecting a Secretary-The "Hire and Fire" Policy

The importance of the secretary's place in the scheme of things demands that care be exercised in his selection. If the "hire and fire" policy works out badly in factories, as all progressive employers agree, it is even worse when practiced in the private office, for the secretary brought in thus on impulse may be little able to perform the valuable services required, and on the other hand, owing to the confidential nature of his duties, his summary ejectment may prove very unwise.

It is a particularly reckless form of the "hire and fire" policy to leave the matter to some friend or employment bureau or secretarial school. Temperament in the executive as well as in the applicant is too important to permit the opinion of a third person to be final.

The best way is to make the selection according to a systematized procedure. The executive who sets out to standardize the methods of hiring used by his concern, including his own methods in the selection of a secretary, thereby treats applicants fairly since such methods place employees where they are best fitted to work. He promotes the interests of the firm because in the long run such an employment plan

secures the best possible services for a given cost. And he advances his own interests since, as John Wanamaker so well puts it, "the degree and height of his mastery and success accord absolutely with the number and efficiency of the staff which rises, in decreasing numerical strata, to support himself at the top.

Where to Find Suitable Applicants

In securing applicants such possible sources may be employed as want advertisements, particularly those placed in the best mediums, employment bureaus of high rank which specialize in commercial positions, and commercial departments in the public high schools, business colleges, secretarial schools, colleges and universities, especially those offering commercial training. The promotion of some present employee, one of the best of all methods, will be mentioned later in another connection.

The Secretary's Qualifications

The qualifications to be sought in the applicant vary somewhat with the position, the salary to be paid, etc., but the following may be mentioned as important:

Education: What has been the applicant's schooling? What can be said of his general knowledge?

Professional attainments: Is he an efficient stenographer? a neat, rapid, and accurate typist? Does he understand filing systems, and the use of such office equipment as adding machines, duplicators, and addressing machines? Has he a thorough knowledge of business correspondence? Does he know something of bookkeeping, advertising, business management, and of subjects or sciences particularly connected with our own line of business? What has been his experience?

Dependability: Is he a person whom we could take into our full confidence? Would he be discreet, incorruptible, loyal? Could his memory and methods of recording be