Salaries on the rise in Scotland

This year has seen good news all round for office professionals in Scotland, with an 11% pay rise and a shortage in candidates.

"Big businesses and banks are crying out for qualified PAs," Caroline Barclay, Branch Manager for Office Team in Edinburgh, explains. "Over the next year or two, there should be a further increased demand for PAs. Financial services in Edinburgh and Glasgow are particularly hot, along with the public sector, which is a huge employer here. And these cities are good indicators as to what is happening in the rest of Scotland."

As a result of the shortage, employers are recruiting PAs and EAs through new routes. "Employers who would previously have wanted 8 years' experience working for a Managing Director are now realising that they're not going to get all the boxes ticked," Caroline Barclay points out "So they're looking at all sorts of people, especially graduates."

The fact the role of the PA has changed helps. "We tend to think of your average PA making tea and booking hair appointments for her boss," Caroline Barclay explains. "But now many senior people are handling their own emails on their own computers. Graduates are ideal: they've got good transferable skills such as organising and planning, and have often worked in administration already. They've put themselves through three or four years of study and come out with a degree which shows they can learn and train – and employers are taking them on as raw material and training them up."

What skills are in demand?

Key skills required are computing packages – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, database management – and strong interpersonal skills, such as negotiating. These matter, because PAs and EAs have to deal with so many different characters and may be working for several people.

"Good business acumen is important, which includes strong decision making skills," Caroline Barclay points out. "The Executive Assistant is more involved in the day to day business decisions and they're not just assisting the boss: they're making decisions. Which agency, supplier, and hotel chain should the company use? And they're fielding calls, which requires judgement."

So what's behind the pay rise?

The shortage of PA and EAs and the fact their role has expanded so much has contributed to the pay rise. And office professionals have become more pro-active in negotiating their salaries. They know their worth. Caroline Barclay stresses that organisations need to recognise that PAs don't want stay in the same role for year after year but to enjoy career progression. Younger graduates particularly know where they want their career paths to go. Other factors, such as flexitime, are also an important factor.

And what about the downsides?

"Edinburgh has become very expensive to live in, which contributed to the 11% pay rise," Caroline Barclay warns. "And PAs and EAs here have similar problems to those elsewhere: an increased workload, longer hours, stress and ill-health".

"The case of the boss saying jump and the PA saying how high needs to change," Caroline Barclay says. "PAs and bosses more of a team than ever before. Bosses are under more pressure too, which has impacted on the PA's workload. So be more assertive in terms of your role and how you're rewarded for it. Make sure that your job definition is clear, that you have well defined objectives and targets and that you get regular feedback from your boss. Finally, maintain a good work-life balance."

For more information, visit www.officeteamuk.com