It takes some time to find your feet in any new job.  No matter how well you knew your old job, there is always more to learn when you start somewhere new.  Every industry and every company within that industry does things slightly differently which works best for them.

Being a PA you tend to build yourself systems and processes which you know work well, generally systems and processes are our happy places, how people work without these I will never understand!  But in a new company you can’t just go bulldozering through and implementing the way you work without first taking stock of what works and doesn’t work well already.  Most good companies will already have a structed filing system, a meeting booking system, an Instant messaging system, etc in place and although yours may be better (of course) it doesn’t always do well to disturb these established system.

In my last job the systems were very outdated, there were a lot of things being done on paper still which should have been upgraded to an electronic system a long time ago.  The manager of the department has been there for 20+ years and therefore so had most of the systems.  This can be a tricky situation to navigate as she was the boss and therefore I didn’t want to offend her but also I was very aware of just how much more efficient the office could be with a few simple changes.  It took a few months but eventually she saw the benefits of the way I worked and we upgraded a few systems and in term saved hours of work which then meant we had more capacity to take on bigger projects in the department.

In my current job the systems were well established online and everyone was following them well so I didn’t have this same issue.  What I did find was that my boss did not have a specific email management or calendar management procedure so this is where I focussed my attention.  By using the skills and experience from my last job as well the methods I had learnt from my course with Practically Perfect PA (www.practicallyperfectpa.com) I set about finding which system would work best for us.  Because that’s the thing, when you are managing someone else’s diary and inbox you need to be using a system which works for both of you, not just one. Through a little trial and error we found a great system which means my boss can see what he is doing and which are his most urgent emails quickly and efficiently and has more time in his day for the strategic work.

Outside of these tasks it took a while to find my feet and my place at the company.  My main project was the upcoming office move, finding contractors, designers, furniture and coffee machines, so much fun! But day to day my role was brand new and therefore I didn’t have work to take over from anyone it had to be created.  This resulted in a bit of ‘waiting around’ time for my boss to give me documents and projects to do so I started speaking to the HR and Marketing Managers who I work closely with and offering my admin support for any basic tasks to try and free up some time.  This was a wonderful way for me to help a colleague, get to know them better, free up their time, give me something to do where I felt useful and also help me to learn more about the company and how it works which is always greatly beneficial when starting in a new role.  These small offerings off help have now developed and some of these tasks I have now taken on as part of my role, particularly GDPR client data management and Induction planning for new starters.  These are things I had not done before (on this scale) and now are tasks that I feel confident in, gaining new skills is always an advantage, what are we doing with our working lives if we are not constantly pushing ourselves to learn, grow and upskill.

6 months in I was feeling very confident about my role at the company, the relationships I had developed with my boss and my colleagues and my increasing skillset.  Just in time for my 6 month probation conversation and my 6 monthly performance review and target setting.

Thanks for following!

Kay x