What is Administrative Work? (With Examples)
Administrative work can be extremely broad in nature, consisting of many roles and duties. Usually, the main task of administrative work involves maintaining an office setting, and the employees within. Understanding the different types of administrative work can give you a better idea of whether it’s a career you’d like to pursue. In this article, we discuss the answer to the question, “what is administrative work?”, explore seven types of administrative work and their duties and answer some frequently asked questions.
Most commonly, administrative work includes filing information, managing an office and its supplies, answering and directing phone calls, writing and answering emails and scheduling appointments. Higher-level administrators can oversee the daily administrative operations of an entire company or project.
Types of administrative work
Due to administration being such a comprehensive category of work there are many different job titles. Some may refer to jobs with similar duties such as ‘administration assistant’ and ‘program administrator’. Though some describe different jobs altogether. Here are seven examples of administrative jobs, their average salaries and primary duties:
1. Administration Assistant
Primary duties: An administrative assistant is a professional who supports more senior employees in an organisation. They help to improve productivity and complete essential tasks such as scheduling meetings and ordering supplies. Administration assistants tend to screen and route phone calls and emails, and often have a wide range of other duties.
2. Data entry clerk
Primary duties: A data entry job entails handling different types of electronic or raw data by editing and entering it into a database or platform. Data clerks do this on a computer for professionals, often using a keyboard and processing programs. They may transform sales figures or transcribe notes from meetings, both verbal and written, into electronic formats.
3. Legal secretary
Primary duties: Legal secretaries perform administrative tasks in law firms. In addition to normal office duties, they also type up legal documents and contracts. These professionals often perform research into legal matters and attend court hearings.
4. Facilities manager
Primary duties: Facility managers oversee the building of a company or office and its maintenance. These professionals ensure that general maintenance and cleaning are organised and that building security is managed. Facility managers also take care of shared services such as electricity and water maintenance.
5. Senior executive assistant
Primary duties: Senior executive assistants provide a wide range of services for high-level corporate managers. Their duties precede that of an executive assistant or secretary and their role involves administrative and organisational functions. They are essentially the liaisons between staff, clients and management.
6. Operations director
Primary duties: A director of operations is responsible for overseeing the entire operating procedures of a company. They assess communication, productivity and work directly with human resource departments and upper management to improve operations. These administrative professionals can also manage client support services.
7. Project administrator
Primary duties: A project administrator aims to support the project team and manager. The project administrator plans and coordinates a project or program. They can work in a broad range of industries. A project administrator’s duties usually involve taking calls, writing emails, preparing reports, analysing data, processing sales orders and even visiting sites.
12 Administrative Assistant Performance Goals (And Examples)
Administrative assistant performance goals are objectives that relate to administrative tasks and may involve improving the efficiency of company processes. If you’re interested in improving your skills as an administrative assistant, then you may want to learn more about setting performance goals.
Administrative assistant performance goals are objectives that administrative assistants may set for themselves or that their manager sets for them. An administrative assistant is a skilled professional who performs management and office tasks, such as scheduling appointments, bookkeeping or planning office events. They may create goals for themselves to improve their performance or to have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Administrative assistant performance goals may directly reflect the office’s goals. For example, if an office goal is to reduce spending costs, then an administrative goal may be to reduce those costs by 10%.
These goals should be specific and measurable so that the administrative assistant can track their progress. They should also be both realistic and challenging so that they’re not too difficult or too easy to complete. To track these goals, the administrative assistant could make a spreadsheet that defines what the goal is, steps to reach the goal and when to complete it. The spreadsheet may also state what the desired result of the goal is. Recording the goals can help measure progress.
List of 12 administrative assistant performance goals examples
1. Administrative
These are goals relating to office work, which is a primary duty of an administrative assistant. Administrative goals can help an office run more efficiently. You may create administrative goals that increase your office’s productivity. These types of goals usually relate to office duties, such as replying to emails or answering the phone. Although these tasks and goals may seem small, they’re often essential in creating a professional office setting because they can improve customer service.
Example 1: Answer the phone within two rings to decrease wait times for clients by 15%. If not possible due to unforeseeable circumstances, return each missed phone call by the end of the workday.
Example 2: Reply to emails by the end of the workday. Prioritize high-importance emails and respond to those first. If the company receives an email after office hours, then reply to them the next morning before the lunch hour.
2. Bookkeeping
Administrative assistants may set bookkeeping goals because they manage some financial tasks, such as writing financial reports or creating office budgets. These objectives can help track an office’s finances or even decrease expenses. You may create bookkeeping goals like ensuring that the office buys the highest quality supplies at the lowest possible prices. You could also set an objective to know when all the office bills are due and to pay them on time.
Example 2: Create a budget for quarterly spending for the front office. Collaborate with the finance team and look at the last quarter’s total revenue and expenses. Use a spreadsheet tool and aim to optimize savings.
3. Calendar management
This refers to any scheduling duties that the administrative assistant may handle. For example, you may schedule appointments for clients or coordinate meeting times between employees and management. You could also schedule departmental meetings or any other calendar events, such as socials. An important aspect of calendar management is ensuring there are no double bookings. As an administrative assistant, you may set these goals to increase office organization.
Example 1: Schedule meetings with clients as necessary while ensuring that the client’s availability aligns with employees’ schedules. Use calendar tools or programs to organize and share meeting information with both clients and employees.
Example 2: Before the start of each month, update the digital calendar with any known events, such as appointments or meetings. Meet with the executive to add their high-importance events.
4. Event planning
Administrative assistants may do some event planning, which is why they may make these performance goals. You may schedule company events like parties, dinners or banquets. Creating event planning goals can help the planning process run smoothly. You could create general goals, such as planning a certain number of events per year. More specific goals could include increasing the company’s event attendance rate.
Example 1: Plan an end-of-year gala for all employees and their families to celebrate company accomplishments and recognize outstanding employees. Try to keep expenses within the event planning budget.
Example 2: Organize a monthly luncheon for each department. Additionally, schedule one off-site luncheon per quarter for the entire company. Create a reasonable budget for these events, along with a schedule to give to employees.
5. Office management
These goals refer to working with leadership to maintain a positive office environment for employees. Assistant administrators may create these goals to help their office manager perform tasks, such as improving employee relationships or onboarding new employees. It could even be a smaller goal, like ordering and restocking office supplies. You could also set objectives like making a system to evaluate employees.
Example 1: Create onboarding activities and events for new hires, such as meet and greets. Make training materials and distribute them to new employees. Decrease turnover rate by 20%.
Example 2: Develop a new employee evaluation system based on the company’s performance goals. Create a self-review survey and ensure that the completion rate is 100% by reminding all employees to turn in their reviews. Assist office manager with evaluating employees.
6. Human resources
Administrative assistants might set human resources performance goals to help the HR manager with their duties. There are many HR goals that you might create, such as ensuring that all employees fill out and return their tax forms. You could also set a goal to help write job descriptions and screen candidates during the hiring process. Administrative assistants may make sure that employees know about their paid time off, so you could create a goal to help remind them of their paid holidays or vacation time.
Resource:
https://au.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-is-administrative-work
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/administrative-assistant-performance-goals
https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/administrative-skills