Secretaries Are in the Driver’s Seat : Greater Need and Growing Shortage of Clerical Workers Has Increased the Competition for Them, Driving Their Salaries and Benefits Sharply Higher
Karen Jorgensen, a Glendale-based recruiter, accepted a daunting assignment when she agreed to help Nylon Molding search for someone who would work closely with its president on a variety of tasks.
“I thought the search would be time-consuming,” said Jorgensen, president of a firm that provides executive search and personnel management services. “There’s the worry that the person you find may not be right for the job.”
The task could have been very difficult, but the search was aborted when a promising purchasing agent already working for the Monrovia-based manufacturer accepted the job. Nylon Molding had found its secretary.
It’s no longer unusual for companies to ask recruiting companies for help in finding secretaries. Nylon Molding and many other Southland firms are taking note--there’s a severe shortage of applicants for secretarial jobs in Southern California.
The shortage stems from a growing demand for secretaries, combined with a diminishing labor pool. But inadequate education and the attraction of more glamorous pursuits are also contributing to the lack of candidates. In response, more and more companies are paying higher wages, offering perquisites normally reserved for executives and providing flexible working hours to woo and retain clerical help. In addition, they are luring away employees from other firms and paying their own employees a finder’s fee for successful candidates.
Growth in Demand Predicted
Nylon Molding, which makes fasteners for aircraft and computer manufacturers, attracted an in-house candidate for the position of executive secretary by touting the job as a prestige position with high demands and a salary to match. Lori Armstrong was given a raise when she moved from the purchasing department to the secretarial post.
The shortfall of clerical workers is reflected in many recent reports. For example, 225 California firms surveyed in June by the Los Angeles office of Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler & Krupman, a management consultant, found that 22% couldn’t find enough adequate applicants for clerical positions.
A 1988 survey of 1,500 California firms by Thomas Temporaries, an Irvine-based provider of short-term clerical help, predicted a dramatic growth in demand in the Los Angeles area. In all, 40% of the respondents anticipated a need for additional clerical workers during the first six months of 1989. In contrast, only 27% of the respondents in a similar survey anticipated the need for staff increases during the first half of 1986. The increase in demand comes during a period of demographic change, said Jerrold Bratkovich, a Los Angeles-based consultant at the Hay Group, a management consulting firm specializing in human resources. The timing is unfortunate because of a decline in the number of people 21 to 35 years old, the prime ages for secretaries, Bratkovich said.
“There’s a general reduction in applicants for most entry level jobs and that will continue for some years to come,” he said, The pool of people available for clerical work is also shrinking because more women are opting for other occupations, according to Bonnie Nash, president of Thomas Temporaries. “Women who might have gone into clerical work are finding opportunities in customer services, sales and consulting,” she said.
Seen as Dead-End Job
Many are avoiding the clerical field because it has a poor image, according to Faye Baxter, president of the California division of Professional Secretaries International, a Kansas City, Mo.-based association that tries to promote the occupation.
“It’s not a profession many men or women are going into because . . . it’s seen as a dead-end job,” Baxter said. “Secretaries are looking for recognition for their value as a team player and as a contributor to a company’s growth and success.”
Many executives and secretaries alike say shortages also exist because area schools are not giving students the skills necessary to handle jobs such as letter writing.
“The situation in the schools is catastrophic,” said Thomas P. Christie, vice president and director of human resources at Pasadena-based Century Federal Savings & Loan Assn. “Some companies are giving remedial help with reading and writing. Some secretaries can’t spell. You ask some to prepare a letter and find they can’t write.”
To attract candidates inside and outside the company, more firms are offering incentives, Jorgensen said.
“The trend is to offer awards based on overall office production and individual performance--incentives similar to ones offered executives,” she said. “Some companies are offering profit sharing, stock and bonuses if certain objectives are met.”
As a result of the demand and bidding, wages for secretaries in Southern California are 15% to 17% higher than pay levels in the rest of the country, labor studies indicate. Wages for secretaries employed in downtown Los Angeles are generally 4% higher than the pay levels in the rest of the Southland, according to labor specialists. They say downtown employers generally must pay more because people with secretarial skills need an incentive to work downtown because they can find work near home.
Adjustments Necessary
“The more experienced secretaries are getting substantial wages,” Jorgensen said. “Companies have to pay secretaries more in this area.”
The secretary shortage is forcing adjustments on employers and employees. Sometimes employers and job candidates do not adequately conform to the realities of the new job market. Management consultants cite these incidents.
An Orange County manufacturer, unable to find an applicant on the West Coast for a high-level clerical position, found a candidate on the East Coast. The candidate accepted an offer, agreeing to a wage and benefit package that included free use of a company car.
During a cross-country drive to the new job, the prospective new employee began to feel heady and stopped periodically to negotiate improvements in the benefits. Company executives were concerned that they had hired a very demanding new clerical worker, but agreed to the requests. Finally, when the prospective new employee asked the company for assurances that the promised car would be a convertible, the company withdrew the offer.
A prominent Hollywood company offered about $50,000 a year for an executive secretary position. However, the company has been unable to retain an employee in the position because the supervisor, unhappy about the secretary’s relatively high salary, is “too demanding.”
The shortage of candidates for clerical positions has awakened an appreciation of the value of the occupation among executives, some management consultants say. However, some secretaries believe that attitudes are changing too slowly.
“Not many women want to go into this (occupation) if they’re qualified to do something else,” said Sandra Shaw, a Glendale legal secretary. This causes secretaries to change jobs often, added Shaw, who has been a secretary for 20 years. “They walk out of one job and into another and think it’s going to be different--and it’s not. . . . We’re professionals and we should be treated as professionals.”
As the shortage grows, more companies are willing to lure valued secretaries away from other firms, Christie said.
Finder’s Fees
“Raiding has become an ordinary part of the (personnel mangement) job at some companies,” Christie said.
While some companies rely on personnel managers to recruit, others are offering their employees incentives to find job candidates for clerical positions. For example, employees at First Federal Savings get $200 for recruiting an employee, said Jeanette Parr, vice president and director of resources at the West Covina-based institution.
Still, it sometimes takes time to find candidates, Parr said. She said an administrative support position requiring typing and phone-answering skills recently went unfilled for four weeks.
Parr said some potential candidates shy away from clerical positions because the occupation has become more technically demanding. For example, more secretaries are required to work on computers.
First Federal recently trained Robin Ogden to operate a computer. Ogden, who primarily handles word processing chores for a variety of supervisors, said she enjoys her work.
“I’ve often heard women say, ‘I don’t want to be just a secretary’,” Ogden said. “More prestige and responsibility has to be associated with the job.”
Lori Armstrong, who made the unusual move from the purchasing department to executive secretary at Nylon Molding, expressed a similar sentiment.
Armstrong, who had worked in clerical positions at other companies for four years before a two-year stint in purchasing, said she took the secretarial position because it involved a wide range of duties. She said she helps executives coordinate trade shows and direct mail and advertising campaigns.
“It was definitely a step up,” she said. “There’s still a lot of typing and copying, but . . . the president sometimes bounces ideas off me. I feel like I’m part of the executive team.”
