The assistant to the regional manager may carry on a variety of tasks. He or she can include human resource work like hiring and training new employees, organizing the regional manger’s time, clerical work, and running individual stores. Many times the assistant is hired by the manager personally to help with tasks he or she can’t handle alone. Other times, the parent company hires an assistant to help manage and run their stores.
Often, the assistant to the regional manager will do human resource tasks. This is especially true in chain restaurants and stores where they may not have separate human resource departments for each location. Tasks in this area involve hiring new employees, firing current ones who are not working out, and training new recruits to do the job. This person may also help keep track of top performers as well as employees who are not maintaining a high level of performance and need correction.
Other assistants may act more as personal assistants. This type of assistant may be responsible for doing small, more trivial tasks like getting coffee or picking up mail. Clerical duties like typing, filing, and answering phones may also be required. In some cases, an assistant will take on both managerial and personal roles in order to best meet the manager’s needs.
Sometimes the assistant to the regional manager is also the branch manager of a single store location. This person would be in charge of the aforementioned human resource duties, as well as managing the operation of the store, ordering new supplies, and filing paperwork. Assistants in this role may be employees who move up the chain of command, or college graduates who enter the field as a lower level manager. In this case, eventual promotion to regional or district manager may be possible.
In order to become an assistant to the regional manager, one must either have worked with a company for many years or obtained a degree. The amount of education needed will vary based on the individual responsibilities of the assistant in any given case. Requirements may range from basic computer skills to a four year degree in business or management. If the assistant has no educational background and starts as a lower level employee, he or she often gains educational experiences while on the job. Companies that hire assistants to regional managers generally include franchises and other chain retailers.