Office administration

Updated on Jan 30, 2024

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Office administration is a set of day-to-day activities that are related to financial planning, record keeping & billing, personnel, physical distribution and logistics, within an organization. An employee that undertakes these activities is commonly called an office administrator or office manager, and plays a key role in any organizations infrastructure, regardless of the scale. Many administrative positions require the candidate to have an advanced skill set in the software applications Microsoft Word, Excel and Access.

Office Administrator

An office administrator has the responsibility of ensuring that the administrative activities within an organization run efficiently, by providing structure to other employees throughout the organization. These activities can range from being responsible for the management of human resources, budgets and records, to undertaking the role of supervising other employees. These responsibilities can vary depending on the employer and level of education.

Skill Set

The importance of an office administrator to an organization is substantial due to the duties that they are entrusted with, therefore specialized training is required in order for the employee to work efficiently and productively, these being;

Payroll training that involves the responsibility in ensuring that all employees receive their pay slips on time.

To have good communication skills in order to coordinate with other employees around the organization.

The ability of being able to supervise support workers

The ability of adapting to changing environments and new technologies that could be implemented e.g. New software installation.

Show good initiative

To be able to work under pressure when given a task that is of vital importance to the organization.

Roles

There are an extensive range of roles that can be associated with an office administrator, these being; organizations advertise junior office administrator vacancies targeted at students that are currently studying or who have left secondary school or college, the opportunity to gain experience or build a career through full-time work or an intern ship over the course of a summer break.

Receptionists play a key role in the organizations management, as they are entrusted with arranging and meeting the clients, suppliers and visitors directly via emails, phone calls or direct mail. The employee undertaking the role of a receptionist must show good organisational, communicational and customer service skills in order to ensure efficiency with the organisation. Other responsibilities that a receptionist is entrusted with are;

Ensure that the outgoing and incoming mail is allocated to the right department within the organisation

Organise and assist fellow employees with meetings, conferences and direct telephone calls when required

To communicate with members of the public when an inquiry is made

Manage and maintain the filing system that has been implemented into the organisation e.g. information systems

Clerical duties that involve the ordering of equipment, office supplies and other inventories that are required

Personal Assistants are commonly associated with an office manager that help maintain the efficiency of their day-to-day work, this is through providing secretarial support and assistance. Becoming a personal assistant requires the employee to have experience in previous administrative jobs, in which entailed the use of computers and information systems. Like any other role that is related to an office administrator, the job title of personal assistant requires the employee to be organized, show professionalism and the ability to work under pressure when given a task of vital importance. The duties that a personal assistant must carry out each day are the following;

The task of inputting, filing and managing the data that is stored within the organization's office system

Personal assistants act as a first hand to the office manager so they must ensure that all contacts from third party individuals are processed through them

To arrange transportation and meetings that are of importance to the office manager

Ensure that documents, reports ad presentations are set up prior to any meetings

Process emails and letters that are received in correspondent to the office manager

Office Manager

An office manager has the responsibility in ensuring that an organizations office duties are completed efficiently and effectively, whilst allocated the task of supervising other member of staff. The role of an office manager requires the candidate to have a higher skill and qualification set than other administrative vacancies, such skills and qualifications include; strong administrative experience, competency in human resources, reporting skills, delegation, managing processes and the ability to communicate to other members of the organization.

Duties

Office managers are given many important duties daily that help the organization run effectively and efficiently, these being;

Organize the office's operations and procedures by undertaking several administrative tasks e.g. designing and implementing a new filing system

Assigning certain employees to undertake operational requirements, whilst following up on their progress

The duty of recruiting, selecting and training new employees, whilst simultaneously maintaining the current employees through coaching ad counseling

Producing an annual budget that represents the organization's financial objectives (determines where expenditures need to be scheduled for the next financial year).

Attending several workshops that will benefit and increase the knowledge of the office manager e.g. educational workshops and participating in professional societies.

References

Office administration Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA