Email Etiquette Tips for Personal Assistants
As a personal assistant, you’ll spend a lot of time reading and answering emails. You’ll spend hours trawling not only your inbox, but your boss’ inbox too – and though you might have experience of managing your own emails quite well, being responsible for someone else’s electronic correspondence is a whole new ball game.
If you’ve bagged yourself one of the top PA jobs in the capital and are looking for tips on email etiquette and some general dos and don’ts, you’ve come to the right place! Here are Love Success, London’s leading PA recruitment agency, we have some great email guidelines for those taking on a personal or executive assistant role who want to make a great impression.
Check every single email
As a personal assistant, you need to be checking every single email that comes in, whether it’s directly addressed to you or to your boss. This is the simplest and most important piece of email etiquette you’ll ever learn. Even if you’ve been copied into an office-wide memo that you think has nothing to do with you or your boss, you need to be on top of everything that comes in.
Set up a system
Every successful personal assistant has their own email system that works for them and their boss. This could mean colour-coding certain messages so that they understand which ones need their attention and which ones are not urgent. This may involve flagging certain emails when they require a response, or setting rules to ensure that certain emails are diverted into certain folders. Your system will be unique to you, but find a method that you feel comfortable with and hone it until it’s completely seamless. This will take a few weeks, but once you have it set up, your email management tasks will be a breeze.
Check the mailing history
There will be many occasions in your career as a permanent or temporary PA when you’ll need to respond to a message on behalf of your superior. It’s a good idea to spend some time during the first few weeks in your new role looking back through your boss’ inbox history. Read some ‘sent’ messages and check out what’s in the ‘draft’ folder. This will help you get a better understanding of a) the style and tone your boss uses in all communications, and b) the tone that your predecessor struck in their communications.
Adopt a 24-hour response policy
Aim to respond to all emails within 24 hours – even if it’s simply to acknowledge receipt of the email until you can actually pass on the message to your manager.
Create some templates
There’ll be some emails that you feel like you type out verbatim at least once per week. Save yourself some time and create go-to templates that you can personalise. You may need templates for accepting or turning down event invitations, a template that passes on a request to a colleague, and templates for regular emails you may send in the office (for example, booking a meeting room).
These simple tips will help you succeed in any permanent PA job – if you’re currently looking for new opportunities, get in touch with the team at Love Success today!
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