Meaning of clerical staff;
 |
| Clerical staff |
In an organization, nearly every worker perform his duty in an office. Most of them do not perform office functions as seen previously. Workers who performs duties, which include attendance to customers enquires, receiving and sorting incoming mail, dispatching outgoing documents and typing or typesetting of correspondence etc. Are known as clericalstaff.
A clerical staff is one who performs the functions of an office. A clerical is some one who performs the ordinary work that people do in an office. That is, an individual who performs the functions of receiving information, recording information, arranging information, giving out information and protecting, safeguarding information and assets of an organization is a clerical staff. They include the secretary, receptionist, typist, computer operator and rodeo clerk.
Grades of clerical staff
- Clerical officers
- Clerical assistants
- Senior clerk
The working place of a clerical staff
The clerical staff works mainly in the office where he performs the office functions in the organization. Most of them work in the central office called registry. A registry is a room or a combination of rooms where office functions are carried out. In business environment ,the administrative department which serves all departments in the organization. Each department may also have a mini registry of its own. This is the practice in government ministries, educational institutions and parastatals.
The registry is always headed by a senior clerical staff. He sits in a place where he can see the activities of all other clerical staff working with him or where he can easily move about to supervise them. The registry may occupy a large room or many rooms for example a room for secretary or receptionist, a room for the duplicating and photocopier operator. The size of the registry depends on the size of the organization and the nature as volume of its activities.
Functions of a clerical staff
The clerical staff performs general functions of the office as listed, specially ,the clerical staff performs the following functions in an organization;
- The clerical staff receives incoming mails sort them and put them in their respective files for further actions
- The clerical staff dispatches Outgoing mails(letters ,quotations etc) to other organizations and individuals.
- He distributes the files or documents to different offices ,department or individuals for their necessary actions.
- He records the movement of every file in the record book to avoid the loss of files.
- The clerical staff keeps files in view and brings them up for actions when necessary.
- He is responsible for opening of new files or closing of old files and keeping them in file cabinet for safety.
- He distributes internal documents (notice of meeting, memorandum etc) to the individuals staff and department in the organization through their pigeonhole or through the office assistants.
Qualities of a clerical staff
For a clerical staff to perform the above functions effectively, he must posses two sets of qualities which is personal qualities and job qualities .
Personal qualities of a clerical staff
A good clerical staff should posses the following qualities :
- He must possess the basic education required for the clerical position.
- He must be intelligent and capable of performing his duties with little or no supervision .
- He must always wear simple ,smart, and neat dresses to work.
- He must always be punctual at work and be commited to his work.
- He must be polite, cheerful and must be ready to cooperate with his colleagues to complete any assignments given to them.
- He must be reliable, honest, confident, and posses good sense of judgement. He must posses integrity.
Job qualities of a clerical staff
In addition to his personal qualities, a good clerical staff must possess job qualities, which will make him to be effective in his
style="text-align: left;">He must have the minimum required education for the job A good clerical staff must have interest in his work and must always be willing to learn on the job. He must be able to communicate well with others on the job . He must be hard working and always ready to work beyond the normal working period when he is required to do so. He must posses the necessary ability to respond to enquires. He must be time conscious and ready to work on schedule. He must be productive and result oriented.
confidentiality of office information
Confidentiality can be described as a situation in which important information must be kept secret. It is the act of not leaking important information to some one who has no business with the organization . Important information should not be leaked to any one includes company's production of some products, engineering drawing for the production of special machines, or trade plans, government policy decisions, company's management policies. Because of competition between organizations, no organisation will like another organizations to know the secret. It is therefore important that an office staff in an organization must not leak the secret of his organization to another organization or even to his own friend who is not working in that organization. He must keep official secrets.
The clerical staff are the people who work in the office of a business or organization. They are responsible for a variety of administrative tasks, including answering phones, typing letters and documents, filing, and maintaining records. They know all the secret of the organization and are responsible for protecting it.
Post a Comment