Administration is a job role in itself supporting other colleagues do their work but also it is a task and skill that people now do as part of the role they do for an organisation. Now the problem is you assume everyone works the same way and applies the same level of standard which in my experience is not the case. So are here 3 skills that have helped me be a good administrator
Skill 1 - Organise your work
In my employability roles I always had to be compliant and follow business/project processes in order to maintain compliance standard of project funders & business. So I had to keep a constant record of client meetings and make sure they were recorded on the company database system. So during the 1-1 meetings I would take a mental and written note of the meeting and either after the meeting or towards the end of the day review the notes by typing them into a Word document. Once I had internet access I would copy and paste these into company database system and record a meeting had happened. I found this effective system for me and make the sure the notes would make sense to a colleague reading them
Skill 2 - Planning ahead
My role as employability worker involved up skilling clients to help them be job ready with new or refreshed skills. So every month I worked with the Skills and Training Department organising training courses in my delivery area. First I would speak to clients to find any specific training needs they have, promote what is courses are available and book clients in. Depending on the course I would have to liaise with booking specific Trainers and find out their availability, source and book venues and organise refreshments such as teas & coffees.
Skill 3 - Managing your time well
Working on my own, office and community based, I had to be self motivated and outcome focused on what I need to achieve daily, weekly and monthly. So at the start of the week I had to review my workload and make a list of activities I need to a things to do list. Then I would priortise these activities, in terms of deadlines, does another colleague need info from me to help them do their job e.g. completing reports. Once I have my list I would work through and review as I go as competing priorites creep in, new tasks added in but having the list is a good foundation to work form and kept me being outcome focused.
Look at these skills to see if you feel you have them and how you have used them. There are more skills you can have to a be a good administrator so I may come back on another blog on this.
