In Latin America, assistance to executives is tending to be remote

The typical elegantly dressed secretary who used to be like an appendix of an executive seems to be leaving room for a different profile.

Virtual assistants develop tasks similar than traditional secretaries, but they also perform tasks related to business management.

Highly competent when computer devices, these secretaries may either work exclusively in an employment relationship or provide services to several clients, through a commercial relationship.

According to Matías Ortega from the Argentinian newspaper, Ambito Financiero, “assistants develop tasks in every kind of company: from people who, due to any reason, have no fixed place to work and need a professional to take care of administrative matters, to companies, even big ones and multinationals, that choose to hire them for specific reasons”.

“Virtual assistance’s industry implies working with clients in every kind of project, from strategic planning, essential administrative tasks, marketing, social media, transcriptions, events organization, executive travelling logistics, public translations, among others”, explains Marcela Frugoni, who runs Bureau Red and is a pioneer in this work mode in the Spanish speaking world.

Since 2002, Bureau Red has trained and certified over 400 virtual assistants in almost 20 countries. “The important thing is to take into account that a virtual assistant knows about companies, has experienced in collaborating with his/her bosses during his/her traditional job and is currently improving his/her skills to join his/her client when dealing with new challenges, given the fact that she was able to create her own company”, states Frugoni. “This requires knowledge on ethics, commitment, management, decision making, and providing added value to the company”, she adds.

Assistants trained by Bureau Red work under a strict confidentiality, which allows them to consult with their colleagues that help them when having to solve difficulties. Besides, through online conference rooms, they keep continuous active training that may adapt to each client’s specific needs.

Together with this tendency, has appeared hiring temporary offices or co-working spaces that, usually offer clients the possibility of hiring virtual secretaries. These persons are in charge of receiving phone calls with personalized attention, working as receptionists and delivering correspondence, and handling a meeting schedule. “Many people need just that and not an entire office; therefore, that is when our staff of secretaries becomes important”, tells Bernardo Fernandini, director of the company Regus for Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Users of this service have a telephone number that is handled by these secretaries with a customized telephone attention protocol, according to the client’s needs.

Mirna Bajraj, an assistant with over 20 years of experience in both national and foreign companies, tells us how it is like to work in this remote activity. “Many times, there is no need of having an employee with fulltime day work. Then, that person may be hired only to do the work that needs to be done”, she assures. Bajraj also highlights in this way, small companies may add value to their activity with the experience of a large corporations’ executive secretary.

Analía Skerk, another certified virtual secretary, states that this kind of job “is a challenge that is not adequate for everyone” due to “freedom of action” that comes with it, which is a huge difference to the traditional secretary job. With no doubts, a main key is being responsible when handling flexibility.

The labour world keeps on changing, necessities are dynamic and services offer to attend them are progressively more diverse and complete.