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Reliance Staffing & Recruiting’s Guide to

Hiring an Administrative

Professional

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What admins add to an office

Administrative professionals are the unsung heroes of many companies. After all, a founder can come up with an idea and a team can bring that idea to fruition, but if nobody’s answering the phone or keeping track of where the important papers are kept, the finished product might never see the light of day.

But administrative professionals do so much more. Besides answering phones, their job duties can include: • Business correspondence

• Schedule meetings and travel • Filing and database management

• Light project management • Conduct research

• Monitor supplies and inventories • Make and update spreadsheets • Create presentations

• Manage equipment and vendors • Plan and schedule meetings and

events

• “Office parent” stuff like birthday cards and cakes

Think about it: how many questions around the office every day are an-swered with “Ask [admin’s name].”? Administrative professionals are cru-cial to an efficient organization, and they’re deserving not only of respect

but of very careful, deliberate hiring procedures.

We believe that the right adminis-trative staff can make a great com-pany even better. In fact, we believe it so much that we have a dedicated office-professional division!

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Sometimes, businessfolk can be reluctant to hire an administrative professional. There’s a tendency, especially among entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, to default to doing everything themselves. Marketing strategy? I’ll do it. Meeting with investors? I’ll do it. Ordering office supplies? I’ll do it. Filing? I’ll do it.

But think about it: is filing or re-stocking printer paper really the best use of your time and skills? These activities are essential to the functioning of a company, absolute-ly, but are they what you need to be spending your time on?

If you’re doing it all yourself, sooner or later the work will pile up past your capacity. You know to focus on the mission-critical activities first, but eventually the less urgent stuff builds to the point that it becomes urgent and, often, expensive. Hir-ing an assistant to handle all the administrative stuff could be much

cheaper than trying to handle it all and failing.

Plus, one of the most crucial func-tions of any business leader is tak-ing time to catch up on news and reading, to plan out the company’s next steps, to recharge, to think. If you’re cutting into that time to do administrative work, you’re actually limiting your company.

So consider that hiring an admin might be one of the best invest-ments your company makes, in terms of productivity, efficiency and overall sanity.

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The term “admin” is pretty broad; it’s kind of like “family car.” Just as the most appropriate kind of family car is dependent on the size of your family, what activities you do and what you anticipate for your future, the most appropriate level of admin for your company can depend on similar factors.

If your company is small or just starting out, you might only need one administrative assistant for the whole company. If you’re in a busi-ness with lots of phone activity, you might want to hire a receptionist to supplement the work your admin

does. And when you’re planning for an expansion, you should also plan to include additional administrative professionals to help everyone han-dle a higher workload.

Here are some of the most broad levels of administrative professional:

Clerk/File Clerk - Not many com-panies have or need these positions anymore, especially now that acres of files can be replaced by one solid database. However, some files are required to be kept on paper, and if your business deals in those, it helps to have someone who knows those

files like the back of his or her hand.

Receptionist - Having someone as-signed to answer phones and route calls is a must for most businesses. Think about it: if you answered all of the calls that came into your busi-ness, would you even have enough time to do your actual job? (If you answered yes, that probably means you’re already a receptionist.) Re-ceptionists are vital for any business, not just for handling calls but for providing a friendly, helpful pres-ence for all visitors and callers. Nev-er undNev-erestimate the importance of people skills in a receptionist.

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Administrative Assistant - These folks are often the lifeblood of a company, handling correspondence, reports, travel, office inventory, office policies and procedures and birthday cake. Obviously, attention to detail is crucial for an adminis-trative assistant, as is the ability to keep track of multiple projects. Or-ganization is a must as well; a disor-ganized admin is a disaster waiting to happen.

Executive Assistant - While this position can be “inherited,” mean-ing that a manager’s assistant fol-lows him or her after the manager

receives a promotion to the execu-tive suite, it can also be created and hired for. Executive assistants must take a wide view of the company’s needs and focus on the individuals whom they assist. They function as gatekeepers for these individuals, determining who gets inside the office and who doesn’t. Because of the decisions they make and the lev-el of information they can be privy to, discretion and good judgment are paramount for an executive assistant.

Your business might also require an industry-specific type of admin,

such as a legal or medical secretary. These positions involve skills such as data analysis, recording patient histories or drafting legal docu-ments. Additional fields that require specialized admin skills include real estate, insurance, research and de-velopment, government and educa-tion, among others.

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You’ve decided to hire an admin. Now, what would your ideal candi-date be like? The experience, skills and behavioral traits to look for will vary a little bit based on your indi-vidual company and the position, but there are some general items that are always good to have.

Skills:

Organization – The importance of organization to an admin truly can-not be overstated. They’re the folks who keep your company organized, so it’s vital that they be organized themselves and that they seem to enjoy organizing things.

Software expertise – Everyone says they know Microsoft Office. But then, it’s almost impossible to work in an office and not learn how to use it enough to get by. One clue to a great admin is the “Training/Edu-cation” area on a resume; if they’ve received some form of certification in a software package, that means they’ve undergone a formal course. So not only do they know the pro-gram in question, they’re eager, or at least willing, to learn about soft-ware in general. Of course, Reliance offers tests in literally hundreds of software packages so there can be no doubt of their proficiency.

Experience:

Experience in administration – Obviously, in today’s job market, you can require several years’ experi-ence as an admin at the same level for which you’re hiring. However, the pendulum may swing in the oth-er direction someday. If you’re trying to find someone to fill an admin position but none of your applicants have served as an official admin before, try to can look beyond job ti-tles. Many office interns have duties similar to a starting administrative assistant, and call center employees can make great receptionists.

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Experience in companies sim-ilar to yours – While you’re still inundated with resumes, you can help differentiate the potential in-terviewees by seeing how much experience they have in your indus-try. For instance, an admin at a radio

station would probably work well in a loose, informal working environ-ment but would require a bit of an adjustment curve to work for a law firm, and vice versa.

Behavioral Traits:

Customer orienta-tion – Whether they’re outward-facing, such as a receptionist, or inward-facing, such as a department admin whose “customers” are the other people in the department, it’s vital that admins be oriented

toward customer service.

Diplomacy – Part of customer ser-vice is not making customers angry, even when you’ve got news they don’t want to hear. The more dip-lomatic an admin can be, the more time they can spend doing their job and the less time they have to spend smoothing ruffled feathers.

Flexibility – Every day, admins have to deal with changing directives, shifting priorities and emergencies. The more flexible they are, the bet-ter they can do their job.

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Sometimes, our expectations can work against us when we’re hir-ing. There’s a popular image of an “admin” as an outgoing, secretly overachieving woman who tends to dress for the holidays in themed sweaters. But holding on to that image can make you overlook some great candidates.

Extroverts – Nothing against extro-verts; they’re great folks. But a per-son doesn’t have to be extroverted to do a great job as an admin. So if you’ve got a candidate that’s perfect for the job except they don’t seem extroverted, give them a shot.

Overqualified appli-cants – You don’t want to have a fantastic admin get promoted out of your de-partment—or have them leave to pursue their true dream job. Instead of hir-ing the candidate with the most objectively impres-sive resume, aim for the

one whose resume indicates a good fit for the position and goals that are in line with an admin’s potential in your company.

Gender – The traditional image of an admin is female, but men make

great admins, too. And just as many stay-at-home-moms become admins once their kids are old enough, stay-at-home-dads can do the same. As always, what matters is the qualifi-cations and cultural fit of each indi-vidual.

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Almost any business that’s larger than a few people needs an admin, but the skill set needed by an admin in a large company can differ greatly from the skills needed for a small business. The smaller the business, the more hats the employees have to wear, and that applies to admins, too. Here are our suggestions for a basic skill set for small-business admins. Based on your business, your needs might vary, but these are definitely a good start.

Knowledge of office equip-ment. Who knows how to send a fax, use the postage meter, unjam

the copier and make the all-import-ant distinction between when to shake the toner cartridge and when to replace it? Your admin should.

Basic computer knowledge. Now, we’re not saying your admin should be an IT person, but they definitely need to know how to keep a com-puter running safely and reliably: • check for and disable viruses • defrag a hard drive

• attach new hardware • add or remove programs • find files on the network • back everything up

Honestly, everyone in your organiza-tion should know how to do these things, but it’s especially important for an admin.

Knowledge of the main software your business uses. We’re talking besides Microsoft Office (or what-ever office suite you use). If you’re a legal office, they need to know how

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to use your case management soft-ware. If you’re a warehouse, they need to know how to use your sup-ply chain/logistics software. Not only does it make them more efficient, when someone’s out sick or on vacation, admins often help pick up the slack in the workload, so know-ing how to use the software makes it much easier.

Bookkeeping and basic

fi-nance. Admins handle invoices, so it makes sense that they should be the ones qualified to record them, pay them and track them. Also, having an admin that can tell when

some-thing on a financial report isn’t right can be priceless.

Data management. Whether they’re entering, accessing or pro-cessing data, admins need to be proficient and comfortable with all parts of the data life cycle. (It also helps if they’ve got major keyboard-ing skills.)

Government regulations. Every business is subject to regulations by various agencies: EEOC, SBA, OSHA, etc. Admins should stay on top of these regulations and make the adjustments necessary to keep you

in compliance.

Contract basics. Your admin

doesn’t need to know how to draw up a contract in the legal sense, but they do need to know how a con-tract is supposed to be formatted. They should also be able to witness a contract, and if they’re a notary? So much the better.

Employment law. We’re not advis-ing usadvis-ing your admin as your legal counsel at all. But they should know the basics of employment law, in-cluding how long documents need to be kept.

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Besides having the qualifications you require, the admin you hire must be a good fit for your firm. But how do you know if a person would be a good fit? Starts by fo-cusing on your company’s culture. Think of the way your company gets things done, how employees treat

customers and each other, the spe-cial something you bring to your industry.

Then think of the behavioral quali-ties that would work with that cul-ture. For instance, if yours is fairly conservative, behaviors could in-clude “high attention to detail” and “excellent planning abilities.” If your culture values innovation, behav-iors might include “able to handle changing priorities and deadlines.” Now you can check resumes to see if those behavioral qualities are listed or implied by the applicant’s

past experience. If they’ve worked at a large company or a government agency, chances are they’ve got a feel for a more conservative com-pany culture. Whereas, if they’ve worked for at least one start-up, they’re no stranger to sudden changes in game plans.

Finally, when interviewing, ask ques-tions based on the behavioral qual-ities you’re seeking. Some examples might be, “Tell me about a time your attention to detail made a differ-ence in a project,” or “Describe the last time your priorities got shifted suddenly.”

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A strong admin can make a good business great, so once you’ve hired the best possible fit, you want them to stay. How can you be the best boss an admin ever had?

Communicate with them:

Promptly – If a deadline, a bud-get or a standard changes, they’ll definitely be affected, so keep your admins apprised of changes as soon as possible.

Regularly – Check in with them every so often, and don’t just ask the generic “How’s it going?”. Ask “Is there anything that could be

going more smoothly?” or “How do you think your workload is right now?” Honestly –

Your admins, perhaps more than anyone else, know just how hollow corporate-speak can be. Be truthful with them about everything, espe-cially when it’s bad news.

Kindly – Be honest but not brutally so. Much ad-ministrative work consists of smallish tasks that don’t get a lot of fanfare. When they’re done well, let them know. When they fall short, gently point out areas of improvement.

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Listen to them:

Regularly – When you ask those check-in questions, pay attention to the answers. Bring along a notepad and a pen and write down their con-cerns or suggestions.

Genuinely – When an admin comes to you with an idea, don’t dismiss it because it didn’t come from a high-er spot on the org chart. Admins can make some great contributions.

Treat them well:

Respect them – You should never utter the phrase “just an admin,” especially in front of anyone else. After all, you might not think your toes are that important, but you’d fall on your face without them.

Trust them – Treat your admins with the same level of trust and generosity you treat everyone else in the company. Trust is a positive feedback loop.

Respect their workload – Those smallish tasks we mentioned earli-er add up, and can take up a huge chunk of an admin’s time. When assigning a new task or project to your admin, be sure to tell them what other tasks can slide so that the new task can get done.

And when in doubt, the occasional gift card doesn’t hurt either.

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Or you could call us.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been filling administrative positions all

around Hampton Roads. Contact us today to get access to our pool of

thousands of qualified administrative professionals.

References

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