Clerk: duties and characteristics of the profession

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Paperwork is a characteristic activity of most enterprises, organizations and private companies, which involves the collection, execution and storage of all documentation. The efficiency of obtaining and processing information depends on the correctness and literacy of the preparation of papers, and this leads to the timely adoption of effective decisions. Accordingly, in the staff of any business entity there is a clerk whose duties extend to document management. What are the duties of a clerk?

Characteristics of the profession

A clerk whose duties can vary from paperwork to making operational decisions is always in demand in the labor market. He can work in any company where there is a document flow. Today, according to the legislation, every enterprise, regardless of the scope and form of ownership, is required to have properly executed supporting documents on activities and finances, and their maintenance is the responsibility of the clerk. They come to this profession from related positions: dispatcher-operator, secretary-referent,office manager or help desk employee. A good office worker is an indispensable specialist and a reliable assistant to the manager. The clerk, whose duties have long outgrown the banal paperwork, can become a personal assistant to the head. A specialist in this profession is primarily an employee who is responsible for organizing and storing company records. Most often, he works in the office and is guided by tax, civil, judicial legislation. In small firms, the clerk, whose duties extend only to filling out paperwork, performs his duties alone. It is possible that he and the secretary are the same person. In large companies and corporations in the state there are several employees of this direction who process papers on a specific range of issues.

Functional duties of a clerk

His main duty is to maintain the company's document flow, he:

• receives, corresponds, sorts, sends all business papers and letters;
• conducts business correspondence;
• keeps track of them in special journals and controls the non-disclosure of particularly important information, as well as controls the timely and correct execution of documents;
• prepares all necessary materials for the executive and business meetings;
• organizes the work of the archive.

Making requirements

The clerk must have a diploma of higher education (economics, law), there are times when secondary education is enough. The candidate must be fluent in the language, know the key rules for conducting business papers. This profession requires from a specialist not only professionalism and intellectual abilities, but also such personal characteristics as accuracy, organization, punctuality, goodwill. A person who wants to work as a clerk should be characterized by the ability to long-term concentration, excellent memory, psychological stability, communication skills and a constructive perception of criticism. Most often, in addition to personal qualities and a diploma of education, other requirements are imposed on the candidate, for example, knowledge of foreign languages. Today, many companies cooperate with foreign enterprises, and in order to avoid misunderstandings, the clerk must speak a foreign language, most often it is English.