What are administrative duties in the workplace?

Administrative tasks are duties completed by administrative professionals in the workplace.

These tasks cover a wide range of functionalities.

For example, a hospital's administrative duties will differ from the law industry.

This guide will explore the most common administrative duties found in modern workplaces.

• What are administrative duties?
• What administrative skills are essential?
• What are some administrative tasks by category?
• What are some administrative tasks based on different industries?
• How to improve administrative duties?
• Best Tips For Handling Administrative Assistant Duties?

What Are Administrative Duties?

Administrative duties are essential to managing day-to-day business operations in an office setting.

These duties differ from industry to industry, but some core tasks are common in all sectors. Some of the common duties are:

• Answering phone calls
• Filing paperwork
• Scheduling meetings
• Greeting visitors
• Answering employee questions
• Managing an organized file-system

Many administrative skills will help you execute these administrative tasks with effectiveness.

Why Administrative Skills Are Important

Administrative skills are important for any business because they help run basic processes effectively. Any successful organization should have an administrative assistant who has the necessary administrative skills to run a business smoothly.

Administrative Duties by Category

All administrative assistants should know how to perform administrative duties. Multiple essential duties are associated with this role.

Here we have broken down the administrative duties based on different categories to help you visualize the broad range of administrative responsibilities:

Communication

Communication skills are essential for administrative professionals. Administrative assistants have to constantly communicate with stakeholders, answer phone calls, write emails, communicate with employees, etc.

That is why these professionals have to communicate information to others.

Here are some communication duties for administrative assistants:

• Answering phone calls
• Taking notes from clients
• Sending emails
• Redirecting emails and calls to respective persons
• Handling client concerns
• Greeting visitors
• Perform customer service operations
• Communicate client’s concerns to management and employees

Organization

Organizing is another essential duty for administrative assistants. They have to schedule appointments, organize office documents, manage calendars, and meetings, conduct events, etc.

Here are some common organization duties for administrative assistants:

• Managing calendar for stakeholders
• Manage office email and redirect mails to appropriate employees
• Maintain office inventory
• Organize office files and access documents as requested by management
• Ensure the cleanliness of the office

Scheduling

Scheduling is another component of administrative duties.

Administrative assistants are often responsible for managing daily plans for stakeholders and management. They need to always keep in mind the daily schedules of stakeholders and understand the priority of tasks to schedule accordingly.

This ensures that all tasks are done within time and without bottlenecks. Here are some common scheduling duties for administrative assistants:

• Coordinating office events
• Schedule appointments
• Manage stakeholder’s schedule
• Plan meetings
• Book and manage travel arrangements

Employee On-boarding

In some industries, administrative assistants also conduct employee orientations. The common duties for an administrative assistant in onboarding are:

• Assisting new employees to get familiar with the office environment
• Collected necessary documents from the employees for payroll purposes
• Provided employees with handbook, paperwork, and office regulation handbook
• Complete health insurance benefit paperwork
• Introducing employees to team members and management
• Set up company mail id for employees
• Demonstrate office management software to employees to access files and records as needed

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping is a big part of administrative duties, especially in small companies where one person manages administration and bookkeeping operations.

Some common bookkeeping duties for an administrative assistant include:

• Record incoming and outgoing transactions on QuickBooks
• Process payments to clients based on Purchase Orders
• Prepare financial statements weekly and monthly for stakeholders
• Manage office expenses
• Provide reimbursements and manage payroll for employees
• Create invoices for clients

Computer Duties

With the advancement of technology, administrative professionals must know computer skills. They should also know how to troubleshoot basic computer problems and operate essential office equipment like printers and fax machines.

Here are some administrative duties involving computers:

• Use Microsoft Word to prepare letters on company letterhead
• Use Microsoft Excel to maintain financial records
• Use PowerPoint to prepare presentations for clients or stakeholders
• Order office supplies from online stores
• Manage company blog or website
• Use POS software to collect transactions from clients
• Dictate meeting notes
• Conduct online events via video conferencing platforms
• Manage office files on computer-based file management systems

Time Management

An office administrator has to handle multiple tasks at the same time. Managing time and balance between several tasks goes a long way for administrative assistants. Time management abilities include:

• Being able to plan your days with calenders
• Planning and setting deadlines for projects

Given below are some tips to improve time-management skills:

• Keep a daily planner, and follow your calendar religiously
• Set time for every activity and do that work without any distraction
• Track your time-spendings, and correct yourself according to the data
• Set long-term and short-term goals and track your progress

Customer Service

To become a successful administrative professional, you need to demonstrate strong customer service skills.

Given below are some qualities for the customer service skill:

• Patience: It's essential to have the ability to remain calm and patient while dealing with customers who are difficult or upset. Soothe a customer's frustrations can help you keep your job and put you in good standing for promotions or raises.
• Empathy: You must demonstrate empathy toward clients, especially when upset or frustrated. Your ability to show empathy will allow you to relate to your client's situations and attempt to solve their issue with as little frustration as possible.
• Listening skills: You must listen carefully, not just hear what a client tells you. Pay attention to their body language and word choice to accurately understand what they are trying to communicate to you.
• Active listening and questioning skills: When talking with a customer, it is essential that you actively listen, ask questions and repeat back what the client has told you so that both of you are on the same page regarding the problem at hand.

Other Administrative Tasks

An administrative assistant has to manage many other types of administrative duties as well, such as:

• Complete research and analysis based on upper management’s requests
• Maintain company’s social media pages
• Handle customer service
• Conduct exit interviews for ex-employees
• Manage company-wide email communications

Administrative Tasks by Industry

Administrative duties widely vary from industry to industry. Here is a list of administrative duties for different sectors:

Healthcare Administration Duties

• Analyze and improve the quality of healthcare services
• Develop departmental goals
• Track changes in healthcare technology and policies
• Ensure compliance with healthcare laws and regulations
• Maintain and organize records of patients and services
• Manage finance of the healthcare organization and oversee payment collection and billing
• Recruit and hire staff members
• Conduct employee engagement activities
• Maintain communication between patients and caregivers and medical staff

Medical Administrative Assistant Duties

• Schedule medical appointments and maintain communication between medical staff and patients
• Manage medical reports in the Electronic Medical Record system
• Interview patients to understand their pathologies and complete medical forms to create case histories
• Assist patients to claim medical insurance
• Maintain confidentiality of medical documents
• Prepare a financial statement for stakeholders

Also Read: How to write a Medical Assistant Resume in 2022?

Real Estate Administrative Assistant Duties

• Track and prepare paperwork for real estate transactions to close deals quickly
• Monitor deadline and prepare legal notices for parties
• Maintain transactions and ensure compliance with legalities & tax withholdings
• Schedule appointments with clients for closing deals
• Prepare marketing collateral such as brochures, flyers, social media content
• Aid customers over call and email and provide excellent customer service
• Conduct training and improve skills of workers

Also Read: How to write a Real Estate Resume in 2022?

Legal Administrative Assistant Duties

• Prepared legal documentation like deeds, legal affidavits, and briefs
• Reviews and proofread legal documents and ensure grammatical accuracy
• Schedule meetings with clients and attorneys
• Maintain legal document file system
• Manage information flow with different departments

Also Read: How to write a Legal Assistant Resume in 2022?

How to Improve Administrative Skills for Improving in Career?

If you want to advance your career as an administrative assistant or improve your administrative skills to support your other tasks, you need to take some calculated steps.

Improving your administrative skills will help you improve your work ethic and manage your workflow better.

Here are the steps you can take to improve your administrative skills:

Mimic Other Professionals

If you have a colleague who is extremely good at managing administrative tasks, try to shadow their process and adapt their practices to your work. For example, if you think that their way of file management is efficient, you can try to bring that to your file management process. You can also build rapport with them and ask them to teach you some administrative tricks and tips.

Set Goals

Set SMART goals to measure your progress. It will help you stay motivated in the course of learning administrative skills. Apart from that, involve your friends and colleagues in your goal. For example, if you want to improve your client's communication skills, you can conduct mock interactions with your friends or colleagues.

Pursue Training and Skill Development Courses

Many organizations run internal skill development courses. Even if they don’t, you can take skill development courses independently. Identify the administrative course you want to develop and take up the courses. It will help you improve your administrative skills and on-job performance.

Take on New Challenges

If you want to improve your administrative skills, you need to ask your supervisor to give you more challenging assignments. The more challenges you get, the more you need to think about how to solve those challenges creatively. This will bring value to the organization and also improve your administrative skills side by side.

Work on Diverse Projects

Be proactive and seek new projects to work on in your workplaces. Listen during meetings and see if any of your colleagues are requesting assistance. These are your opportunity to learn new skills and improve your administrative skills. Also, offer your superior or colleagues to help if they are overloaded with work.

Best Tips For Handling Administrative Assistant Duties?

As an administrative assistant, you're often the first person a visitor or client sees when they come to your office, and you might be the first voice they hear on the phone. You're responsible for various tasks, including everything from organizing meetings and maintaining schedules to delegating assignments and managing correspondence.

With so much on your plate as an admin, it's easy to get overwhelmed when you don't have a plan or feel like you lack confidence in your role. Here are five tips for making the most of your day-to-day work.

1. Do Your Homework

You have to know your company inside and out. When you're the first point of contact for a client, customer, or colleague, you need to be able to answer their questions or direct them where they need to go without hesitation. The best way to do this is to learn everything about every department and its processes. Familiarize yourself with the rest of your team's job duties and what they're working on. With this knowledge, you'll be able to quickly identify how a project should be handled and take action.

2. Ask for Feedback

The best administrative assistants always improve their skills and get better at their job duties. To do that, you have to regularly ask for feedback from your boss. Ask for feedback on a new project you took on or ask if there's something you can improve on. Your boss may not always have something constructive to say, but it's worth asking anyway to know where your strengths lie and where you could use improvement.

3. Get Organized

You must stay on top of various tasks, from answering phones and scheduling meetings to maintaining records and organizing files. You should be as organized as possible in both your physical workspace and your approach to completing tasks.

4. Be a People Person

As an administrative assistant, you'll need to communicate with many people, from colleagues to senior executives to clients. As such, you must be friendly, approachable, and professional. You should also be confident in meeting deadlines and solving problems.

5. Ask Questions When in Doubt

If there is anything you are unsure about in your job description or the way you are expected to perform certain tasks, ask questions right away. It's always better to get clarification rather than assume what is required of you. This will help you avoid making mistakes and ensure you are meeting expectations.

6. Find Your Rhythm

Staying organized will help you find a rhythm where you can complete tasks efficiently without getting behind schedule or stressed out by the job demands. You can stay ahead of your workload by keeping things in perspective and tackling the most important jobs first.

7. Be Resourceful

But when you're working in a fast-paced environment, plans can change. And you need to be prepared to deal with this then and there.

Being resourceful means taking the necessary steps to prevent problems before they start. It means being proactive, not reactive. It means that you are constantly thinking of ways to solve problems before anyone even knows that there's one. This can take some practice and require a different way of thinking than what you might be used to in school or other jobs, but once it becomes second nature, your work life will become much less stressful and much more efficient.

8. Prioritize your Work

With so much to do, it's easy to get overwhelmed. You can't do everything at once, so the trick is to concentrate on the crucial stuff and work your way through the less important things during your spare time. Lists are a cool and effective way to organize your thoughts and keep track of progress.

9. Take Initiative

Growth comes when you take ownership of your work. So, always lookout for ways to go above and beyond as an administrator. See if any of your co-workers need any help with a task. This will help you build rapport with your co-workers and help you do your work effectively.

10. Thrive Under Pressure

One of the most important aspects of being an administrative assistant is being able to work under pressure. Your colleagues and supervisors will rely on you to get things done quickly, accurately, and efficiently. If you're the type of person who works well under pressure and thrives when there's a lot to be done around the office, that's an asset that will help you advance in your career.

Kew Takeaways

Here are the key takeaways from what we have discussed so far:

• You need to create a stellar administrative assistant resume to showcase your administrative duties
• Understand the administrative duties to acquire administrative skills to get jobs
• Showcase administrative skills through your workplace duties and communications
• Set your career goals before you look for jobs as an administrative assistant

Make the best use of Hirations Career Builder, which has 24/7 chat support to help you create a resume and cover letter for your job search.

Reach out to us at support@hiration.com, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.