3 answers
3 answers
Updated
Bob’s Answer
To clarify, are you asking about the challenges in the job? That depends on the type of job, industry, etc. Office administration is a BIG category, I would suggest to reach out to people who are currently in an office administrative role and do informational interview with those people to find out what challenges they deal with and what skills are needed to overcome those challenges. Does this help answer your question?
Updated
Bob’s Answer
Office Administration, depending upon the industry, the size of the office and the functions thereof, differs significantly. In a small company, office administration may encompass all of the functions and processes dealing with order processing, budgeting, billing, internal accounting functions, legal issues, tax concerns, customer complaints, service dispatch, et cetera.
In a larger company office, the staff may focus upon a very specific area such as accounting, legal, marketing, et cetera.
In any case, the key to managing an Administrative office is the culture that the manager communicates and lives by. By this, I mean that there is a set of beliefs (mutual respect for all employees, a listing of priorities (the customer comes first), and key processes (quality and excellence in execution) that everyone is familiar with and accepts.
In addition, an excellent Administrative Manager makes sure that each individual in the office understands his/her role, and responsibilities as well as how their individual success and the team's success are to be measured.
If the manager does not do this, a myriad of problems will occur; quality of work will suffer, no one will accept responsibility for resolving issues and individuals will complain when their performance is judged by the manager. Worse yet, discontent will become the norm with unhappy employees coming to work each day and doing little to accomplish the tasks that need to be addressed.
When this occurs, the Administrative Manager will be replaced.
You may wish to speak with an Administrative Manager in order to assess his/her perspective related to what I have detailed in my response to your question.
In a larger company office, the staff may focus upon a very specific area such as accounting, legal, marketing, et cetera.
In any case, the key to managing an Administrative office is the culture that the manager communicates and lives by. By this, I mean that there is a set of beliefs (mutual respect for all employees, a listing of priorities (the customer comes first), and key processes (quality and excellence in execution) that everyone is familiar with and accepts.
In addition, an excellent Administrative Manager makes sure that each individual in the office understands his/her role, and responsibilities as well as how their individual success and the team's success are to be measured.
If the manager does not do this, a myriad of problems will occur; quality of work will suffer, no one will accept responsibility for resolving issues and individuals will complain when their performance is judged by the manager. Worse yet, discontent will become the norm with unhappy employees coming to work each day and doing little to accomplish the tasks that need to be addressed.
When this occurs, the Administrative Manager will be replaced.
Bob recommends the following next steps: