Job Description
Administrative assistants offer administrative and clerical tasks to managers, workplace employees, and visitors. The administrative assistants handle all the tasks to ensure productivity and positivity of the organizations. The prospective candidates must be able to help managers, other employees, and company visitors. The candidates should provide polite and professional assistance through mail, phone, and e-mail, travel arrangements, and reservations making. Administrative assistants will generally be helpful and available throughout when in shift. They help in handling routine and advanced duties of the professionals who they work for. These employees should be able to deal with people at every level, visitors, clients, managers, and corporate CEOs. The assistant must be able to offer first contact points in a company through phone answering and visitor greeting. The employee must be able to provide such assistance in polite and positive manners to different stakeholders within the environment.
Successful administrative assistants’ candidates should be polite, professional, accurate, and attentive while handling people at the workplace. The assistants should be responsive and always prepared to handle and meet emerging challenges. They should be friendly and have good understanding in general office tasks, computers, and excellent written and verbal communication. The most important aspect of administrative assistants is the desire to satisfy other’s needs. They deal with a variety of tasks and people, hence, there is a need to familiarize themselves with a variety of procedures, practices, and concepts. They should be able to deal with sensitive and confidential materials of the company.
Successful administrative assistants should ensure quality in service delivery and time consciousness in communications for effective organization. The administrative assistant in the department will ensure meetings in the insurance and other departments including management are well planned and arranged. The assistant will report to the head of the insurance department and provide the necessary support.
Duties and Responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities of an administrative assistant will be supporting others which will involve various tasks such as:
- Answering phone calls and greeting visitors
- Maintaining the calendar and scheduling appointments
- Maintaining contact lists of all involved parties
- Scheduling and coordinating staff and meetings
- Collating and distributing mail
- Preparing communications such as invoices, memos, reports, emails, and other correspondence (TopResume, 2021).
- Helping in preparation of regularly scheduled reports
- Developing and maintaining filing systems
- Ordering supplies for the office
- Booking travel arrangements for the members of the department
- Submitting and reconciling expense reports
- Providing general support to visitors
- Researching and creating presentations
- Handling multiple projects
- Developing administrative skills through educational opportunities, information provision, and experiential growth opportunities
- Completing preventive maintenance requirements to ensure equipment operation. This may include calling for repairs, evaluating new equipment technologies, and maintaining equipment inventories
- Maintaining supply levels in the stock through inventory level check,
- Conducting administrative activities such as typing, binding, filing, and scanning
- Booking hotel rooms, making relevant calls to couriers and taxis among others entities.
- Overseeing and supervising junior staff (UCAS, 2018).
Minimum Qualifications and Requirements
The candidates should be able to meet the following minimum qualifications and requirements to apply for the vacancy.
- Proven administration or assistance experience
- Knowledge of office management procedures and systems
- Ability to multi-task, manage time excellently, and always prioritize work
- Problem-solving skills and attention to details of matters
- Proactive desire and creation of positive experience for others
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Multilingualism may be an added advantage
- Strong planning and organizational skills
- Knowledge in Microsoft Office
- Excellent knowledge in MS Excel and PowerPoint
- At least 7 years of experience in the field or related field
- Diploma certificate in business administration or higher (Christensen, 2018).
10 Illegal Questions Not to Be Asked
Pre-employment discrimination refers to prejudice against a potential candidate during the hiring process. According to the Federal anti-discrimination laws, Civil Rights Act Title VII, Employment Act’s Age Discrimination, Rehabilitation Act, and American with Disabilities Act, any form of discrimination in employment is forbidden. The following ten questions will not be asked during the interview since they are illegal and discriminative according to the federal laws.
Are you Indian?
The question shows racial discrimination.
Do you go to the Mosque?
The question shows religious bias or discrimination.
How old are you?
Age discrimination is illegal, thus, this is an illegal question.
Are you married, single, or with children?
This is a non-professional question and personal as well, which should be avoided.
Which country are you from?
Questions on citizenship or national origin should be avoided unless a job requirement, which, in this case, is not.
What is your weight and height?
Such question is personal and should be avoided.
Do any of your relatives work in a competitor company?
This question shows a level of discrimination on the potential employee
Do you own a car or a home?
Questions on financial status should be avoided since they show levels of discrimination.
In which gender do you identify yourself?
Questions relating to gender and sexual orientation should be avoided.
Which political party do you support?
The question shows suspicious discrimination on the political side.
Legal Questions to be Asked during Interview
The following ten questions will be asked during the interview since they are legal and not discriminative, according to the federal laws.
Briefly tell us about yourself.
This helps to determine if the candidate is excellently fit for the job.
Why do you want this job?
To understand if the candidate knows the job and the company.
Briefly describe the duties and responsibilities of an administrative assistant.
To know if the candidate understands well what pertains to the job.
What was your previous or current salary?
To know how much money the candidate expects to be paid in the new employment and if the management is in the position to offer such salary.
What salary do you expect in your new job?
To know the alignment of the candidate on the job.
What are your expected goals in the next 1, 4, 6, and 12 months?
To understand the candidate’s plan on the job in terms of objectives.
Which companies do you of that perform best in our industry? Why?
To know the candidate’s understanding of the industry in which the company operates.
Why are you leaving your current job?
To know why the candidate left the previous job and wants to join the company.
What is your greatest strength and weakness?
To help understand the candidate’s qualification for the job.
If we were to hire you, how would you handle pressure and stress?
The question helps understand the candidate’s ability to handle situations with pressure at work.
References
Christensen, M. (2018). What are the qualifications of an administrative assistant? Work – Chron. Web.
TopResume, T. (2021). Administrative assistant job description. Web.
UCAS. (2018). Administrative assistant. Web.