Men is admin roles?

slig

heretolearn wrote: »

I have to disagree with those on here who think touch typing skills are not helpful these days as 'everyone can use a computer keyboard'. Yeah, and I'm sick and tired of hiring people who tell me they have excellent computer skills and a good speed only to have them turn up and two finger pick their way round at the speed of a snail. Most of them genuinely believe they are fast. Some of them actually are fast - for two finger typists. Then they hear me typing away and their jaws drop and they ask 'how do you do that?'. If you can touch type you are much faster and so more productive. I really get cross with the people who pick pause pick pick pick pause pause hunt pick pick pick. It's like being expected to employ someone in the pre-PC days who couldn't hold a pen properly. 20 words per minute is SLOW people. SLOW. Even 30 isn't exceptional at all. If you can only type at half the speed you can only do half the work in the course of a day, simple logic. Therefore I'd have to employ twice the people, at twice the wage bill, twice the space and equipment and costs, and destroy my firm in the time being.

Seriously, if you want to work in an office, unless you are one of those really unusual people who can pick their way round a keyboard at a reasonable speed of say, 40 words per minute, learn to touch type! your employer will love you for it.

I now make everyone - coming for any role at all - sit and do an IT test in my room so I can listen to them. The slowcoaches are automatically out, I don't care how good they are in other ways, I don't see it as any different to not being able to write.

I can accurately type about 45 wpm with two fingers, and if I am typing in Word then I go a lot faster. And I don't think it is some magic skill I have, I think I'm fairly average; I've worked with people who two finger type much faster - and I've also met touch typists who go much slower.

That said, none of my admin roles have been ones that involve very large amounts of typing. If someone is going to be typing all day then, as you say, 25wmp versus 50wpm makes a huge difference. But if the typing they are doing is replying to emails or composing reports or letters, then speed doesn't really matter so much, as you can't type faster than your brain. Form letters/emails can be used for standard replies, and for non-standard the amount of time spent thinking about what to say, revising your wording, etc, makes more of a difference than how quickly you can get the words down.

I guess it depends on what kind of job we're talking about - admin is pretty broad. What we think of as a traditional secretarial job is quite different to a project or events administrator role, for example.

Falko, 55wpm is good, however, I don't think anyone would hire you on that alone. You'd probably need office experience, and almost always need intermediate MS Office, good written/verbal communication, and customer service skills. Plus most admin jobs have additional specific requirements, which could include things like finance experience, knowledge of the industry, knowledge of a particular IT package, often A-Levels and sometimes a degree, etc.

36CrazyFists

heretolearn wrote: »

I have to disagree with those on here who think touch typing skills are not helpful these days as 'everyone can use a computer keyboard'. Yeah, and I'm sick and tired of hiring people who tell me they have excellent computer skills and a good speed only to have them turn up and two finger pick their way round at the speed of a snail. Most of them genuinely believe they are fast. Some of them actually are fast - for two finger typists. Then they hear me typing away and their jaws drop and they ask 'how do you do that?'. If you can touch type you are much faster and so more productive. I really get cross with the people who pick pause pick pick pick pause pause hunt pick pick pick. It's like being expected to employ someone in the pre-PC days who couldn't hold a pen properly. 20 words per minute is SLOW people. SLOW. Even 30 isn't exceptional at all. If you can only type at half the speed you can only do half the work in the course of a day, simple logic. Therefore I'd have to employ twice the people, at twice the wage bill, twice the space and equipment and costs, and destroy my firm in the time being.

Seriously, if you want to work in an office, unless you are one of those really unusual people who can pick their way round a keyboard at a reasonable speed of say, 40 words per minute, learn to touch type! your employer will love you for it.

I now make everyone - coming for any role at all - sit and do an IT test in my room so I can listen to them. The slowcoaches are automatically out, I don't care how good they are in other ways, I don't see it as any different to not being able to write.

Do you make reasonable adjustments for disabled candidates?

slig

Hey Falko, just to add, have you thought about registering for temporary data entry work? (Or applying for permanent data entry roles?)

falko89

slig wrote: »

Hey Falko, just to add, have you thought about registering for temporary data entry work? (Or applying for permanent data entry roles?)

I would but can't find anything, where do you find such work?

missprice

for the OP
I have noticed more females in 'secretarial roles' but in admin then men as well as women about equal split.

for the typing skills
I can get to 80wpm plus thats if I am in a typing only role which do still exist.
generally I am around 65wpm.
so the more I type the faster I get
btw I did RSAI, II and III
but have not had anyone ask in a long while how my typing skills are or how fast I type or even to take a typing test. :cool:

slig

Register with all the job agencies in your area, but make sure your CV and covering letter/statement are targeted specifically at data entry - I know you have other skills, but I'd say go fairly narrow in your application (if this is something you are definitely keen on pursuing). For permanent roles, then it would be the same way you look for any other job. Someone else can probably advise better than I can.

heretolearn_2

do we make adjustments for disabled candidates?

Yes, we would, if they tell us, and it's a reasonable adjustment for a small firm to make. We've not had anyone inform us of any problems they may have with keyboard use.

We have employed two disabled people previously, with different adjustments, which as we only have 10 people employed here altogether gives us a pretty good diversity/equality rate, I think.

LTL

falko89 wrote: »

I had a wee go at this test typeonline . co . uk I hit 55 wpm with 3 mistakes so I guess i'm not to bad, that's on a laptop to which is a bit harder to type on I find.

That was fun! I got 84 WPM with 1 mistake.

It also raises a serious point though. I left school 5 years ago (so relatively recently) and I learnt to touch type through school - so I am guessing that a high number of people can type at a relatively fast pace nowadays.

I still work in somewhat of an admin role (my first job was very much admin!) and how fast can I type does not matter; it's accuracy of my spelling, customer service etc.

Lots of guys here who have an office based job where a lot of their work you can define as 'admin.'

gibson123

I have just appointed 5 apprentices for admin roles, 3 male and 2 female, we have also appointed a male apprentice in childcare, a female apprentice joiner and a female for sports development (football). Gender specific jobs are a lot less common than they used to be

Savvy_Sue

gibson123 wrote: »

I have just appointed 5 apprentices for admin roles, 3 male and 2 female, we have also appointed a male apprentice in childcare, a female apprentice joiner and a female for sports development (football). Gender specific jobs are a lot less common than they used to be

Exactly. Some of the best admin people I've known have been male, I've had excellent male childcare workers, and some of the best nursing care I've received has been from men.

However, I'd say there are more and more jobs where you do your own admin rather than having dedicated admin staff.