A Career in Reception, What You Can Earn as a Receptionist, How to Be a Receptionist - all on Mywage Zimbabwe
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By Wongai Zhangazha
Sitting at the front office of Sappol printers is a beautiful and bubbly young lady called Tendai Zuva. With a big smile she greets and welcomes customers, helping them with their needs and directing them to the relevant people they wish to visit.
Tendai is a front officer worker, or a receptionist, at a big printing company in the capital city of Harare. Her daily duties include receiving patrons, customers and clients. She also creates letters or memos, and files and alphabetises invoices. A large part of her working day is spent answering incoming calls.
“My company’s phone line has eight incoming lines and I transfer hundreds of calls in a day for almost everyone in the building. Calls have to be transferred to different people, people need to be paged and callers need to access voicemails. This can be tiring sometimes, but you have to maintain a bubbly voice,” smiles Tendai.
Working Conditions
Tendai is one of the first employees to arrive at her work place. From Monday to Friday she starts work at 7.30am and works until 5pm. On Saturdays she works a half day from 8 am to 1pm. “My social life is very much affected. Most of the time I am at work. It’s only on Sundays that I get to rest,” says Tendai.
Benefits for a receptionist depend on the sector or company one works for. For indigenous business it is very rare for the receptionist to be on medical aid. Benefits are sometimes made in the form of groceries or airtime. However, in some professional organisations there is full medical aid for private hospitals as well as a transport allowance.
Receptionists can be employed by a variety of businesses and institutions such as hotels, offices, schools, hospitals, and more.
Very important job
Being a front office worker is very challenging says Tendai, because she is often the first person to interact with potential clients.
“I am the image of the company hence I am very important. If I don’t handle the customers well I risk losing a great deal of them and I would have failed my job,” she says.
Salaries
The minimum wage one can earn as a receptionist or front of house staff person is $250, while in NGOs and at embassies a front office manager can take home between US$900 and US$1000 a month.
Requirements
Human Resource manager Sharon Ratidzai said because the position of receptionist can cover a wide variety of business types it is impossible to define all educational requirements.
However, most receptionist positions require at least high school education and some training on business procedures. Some employers might require receptionists that are proficient in areas such as human relations, customer service, computer operation, communications, and other related subjects.
Since a large part of this job will be answering incoming calls a background in business customer service is a huge advantage.
Career Enhancement
According to Sharon it is possible for one to rise from a front office manager to a sales person.
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