How the role of the Executive Assistant has evolved

Posted on 2/08/2018 by Entree Recruitment

Back in the day, an Executive Assistant would be planted at a desk outside their manager’s office, a veritable gatekeeper to both the professional and personal life of the executive. An EA would be there to shield their manager from any phone calls, and to guard the physical, pencil-filled diary.

While the role of an Executive Assistant may have changed these last few years, the general perception of Executive Assistants has not.

An EA’s role has always been to provide support to their Executive so he or she could concentrate on their principal objectives. While this hasn’t changed, the type of support they provide has. 

Today’s EA has more responsibility, more flexibility, and often has specialty skills in a particular field.

With the advent of smart phones and shared calendars, diary management is now easier and more efficient, and a task most Executives take on themselves. Thanks to Wi-Fi and laptops, tasks which formerly kept an EA tied to their desk can now be done from home, and we are finding flexibility in hours for many of the EAs we place.

The role of an Executive Assistant now includes tasks such as project management, strategic planning, office management, budget management and human resource management.

With the increase in expectations for an EA comes the increase in salary. According to our data, salaries for Executive Assistants have risen by 25% in the last ten years.