Executive Secretary I

City of Detroit; Michigan; On-site; USD 45,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

City of Detroit seeks an Executive Secretary to support a department head, coordinating information flow, managing the executive calendar, and serving as liaison with the Mayor's Office and other departments.

Responsibilities include scheduling meetings, screening calls, drafting routine correspondence, organizing files, and ensuring timely completion of assignments. Strong communication, discretion, and multi-level coordination are essential.

Qualifications

• Graduation from an accredited high school; preferably an Associate's degree in secretarial science or business administration.
• Four (3) years of experience in secretarial work with office administration duties.

Responsibilities

• Schedules meetings and maintains executive calendar; confirms meetings with participants.
• Answers and screens telephone calls and visitors; directs to appropriate staff.
• Facilitates communication between Mayor's Office, executive, staff, and outside agencies.
• Contacts and informs executive of important matters requiring attention.
• Reviews mail and assigns to staff with instructions; handles routine matters.
• Drafts routine correspondence for executive review and flags issues.
• Ensures timely turnaround of management items and monitors pending items.
• Gathers information for meetings and transcribes notes for reference.
• Ensures documents are in proper format before executive submission.
• Organizes executive files, including confidential records.
• Uses past precedents to ensure continuity during absences.

Skills

Department knowledge

Office procedures

English usage

Written communication

PC skills

Dictation/transcription

Coordination across levels

Prioritization

Time management

Accountability

Discretion

Relationship building

Administrative detail

Education

Associate's degree in secretarial science or business administration

High school diploma

Job description

An Executive Secretary to a department head, manages the flow of information in and out of the administrative office; maintains the executive's calendar; and acts as liaison between department head, the Mayor's Office, all levels of departmental staff, representatives of other City departments and agencies, outside agencies and others.

RELATIONSHIPS AND CONTACTS:

Has contact with all levels of departmental staff, staff of the Mayor's Office, officials and representatives of other City departments, outside agencies and interests, citizens, boards of commissioners, service providers, contractors, consultants, and elected officials.

SPECIAL NOTE:

This is an at-will appointment and the candidate selected serves at the pleasure of the Chief of Police.

1. Schedules meetings and maintains calendar for executive; keeps executive apprised of scheduled appointments; and confirms meetings with expected participants.
2. Answers and screens telephone calls and visitors; handles most calls on the initial contact; and refers all others to appropriate staff.
3. Facilitates communication between the Mayor's Office, the executive and administrative staff, and other departmental staff, department heads and outside agencies.
4. Contacts and informs executive of important matters, messages or emergency situations requiring immediate attention.
5. Reviews incoming mail and refers to appropriate staff with memo of instructions attached; informs executive of mail requiring immediate attention; and independently processes routine matters.
6. Drafts correspondence of a routine, non-technical nature for executives review and apprises executive of important issues referred to others for disposition.
7. Ensures timely turnaround of issues routed to management staff by keeping abreast of pending items.
8. Gathers and organizes information prior to meetings for executive review and transcribes and organizes notes from meetings for future reference.
9. Ensures that documents from management staff are in proper format before submitting to executive for approval.
10. Organizes and maintains executive files, including confidential records and files.
11. Draws on personal knowledge of past precedents, protocol and major decisions and actions to ensure continuity of departmental processes and procedures in the absence of the executive, particularly during periods of concurrent absences of executive and senior administrative staff.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Graduation from an accredited high school; preferably an Associate's degree in secretarial science or business administration; preferably some continuing education classes in customer service.

Four (3) years of experience in secretarial work which has demonstrated proficiency in handling office administrative duties.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

Must be able to perform essential functions which typically involve seeing well enough to read standard English text and speaking well enough to communicate with others.

STRENGTH RATING:

Work is sedentary.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Work is performed in a typical office environment with frequent exposure to computer monitors.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Knowledge of departmental organization and work functions, practices, procedures, rules and regulations and municipal organization.
• Knowledge of general office work, terms, methods and practices.
• Knowledge of common English usage, grammar, spelling and punctuation.
• Skill in speaking and writing well, with correct grammatical usage.
• Skill in operating a personal computer and using standard office word processing, spreadsheet and database software.
• Skill in recording and transcribing dictation with speed and accuracy.
• Skill in coordinating and expediting activities involving multiple organizational levels and contacts.
• Ability to organize and prioritize work to assure timely and effective completion of assignments.
• Ability to manage several priorities and concurrently respond to workplace dynamics in a timely and proactive manner.
• Ability to assume individual accountability with resourcefulness and minimal supervision.
• Ability to exercise tact and discretion in interacting with departmental officials and staff, representatives of various outside agencies and the public.
• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships.
• Ability to handle routine and non-routine administrative detail.

CLASS EVALUATION FACTORS:

Executive Secretary positions are allocated as secretarial assistants only to appointed or elected department heads, their appointed deputies and appointed division heads, and to administrative commissions.

SPECIAL NOTE:

The duration of an appointment or promotion to this assignment shall be at the discretion of, and as determined by, the department executive or administrative commission to which assigned, and no tenure shall vest in this class. Employees appointed to this classification will be advised of the temporary nature of assignment to the position.

The above statements describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to the class. Incumbents may be required to perform job-related responsibilities and tasks other than those stated in the specification. Some of these responsibilities may be incorporated in departmental position descriptions. Essential duties may vary from position to position.