What does an administrative professional do?
An administrative professional specializes in performing administrative support and clerical tasks in a company or office, ensuring accuracy and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities typically revolve around managing schedules, arranging appointments and meetings, producing progress reports and presentations, delegating tasks, and attending meetings on behalf of executives or staff. There are also instances when an administrative assistant must answer calls and correspondence, respond to inquiries and concerns, welcome guests, relay messages, and provide staff with any support tasks or documents.
Administrative professional responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real administrative professional resumes:
- Manage documentation, folder structures and user permissions in SharePoint.
- Participate in committee meetings by preparing minutes and presentation summaries, planning meeting agendas, and organizing and managing meeting logistics.
- Keep vendors accounts up to date, process payroll, collect on accounts receivable, keep accounts payable up to date.
- Create document libraries for several hospital initiatives in SharePoint.
- Receive and distribute payroll garnishment/bankruptcy notification letters to employees.
- Develop and maintain relevant organizational charts, facilitating retrieval of staff data in PowerPoint format.
- Complete project and implement procedures to ensure the organization are following all OSHA and healthcare safety regulations.
- Design PowerPoint presentations for monthly divisional meetings with top-level executives, while providing editorial review of the firm brand.
- Participate in committee meetings by preparing minutes and presentation summaries, planning meeting agendas, and organizing and managing meeting logistics.
- Serve administrative subpoenas on businesses to obtain data for case information.
Administrative professional skills and personality traits
We calculated that 16% of Administrative Professionals are proficient in Customer Service, PowerPoint, and Data Entry. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Organizational skills, and Writing skills.
We break down the percentage of Administrative Professionals that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 16%
Managed the customer service aspect of the facilities by contacting customers when necessary to provide relevant information.
- PowerPoint, 12%
Designed PowerPoint presentations for monthly divisional meetings with top-level executives, while providing editorial review of the firm brand.
- Data Entry, 11%
Provided specialized support including cost savings assessments, project management, facilities management, correspondence/mailings, data entry, etc.
- Travel Arrangements, 7%
Coordinated travel arrangements, maintained database of customer and ensured the delivery of premium service to students.
- Administrative Tasks, 3%
Assisted Military Personnel Flight Commander in any administrative tasks assigned by tracking, reviewing, and dispersing correspondence.
- Office Equipment, 3%
General administrative and office duties using general office equipment.
"customer service," "powerpoint," and "data entry" are among the most common skills that administrative professionals use at work. You can find even more administrative professional responsibilities below, including:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for an administrative professional to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "secretaries and administrative assistants interact with clients, customers, or staff." Additionally, an administrative professional resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "utilized interpersonal and communication skills to provide excellent customer service to all constituents. "
Organizational skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling administrative professional duties is organizational skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "secretaries and administrative assistants keep files, folders, and schedules in order so that an office runs efficiently." According to an administrative professional resume, here's how administrative professionals can utilize organizational skills in their job responsibilities: "provide excellent customer service to internal and external customers requiring excellent communication, organizational, and pc skills. "
Writing skills. This is an important skill for administrative professionals to perform their duties. For an example of how administrative professional responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "secretaries and administrative assistants write memos and emails when communicating with managers, employees, and customers." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of an administrative professional: "assisted staff on projects by performing data entry, sending out mailings, performing research, and writing supporting documents. ".
The three companies that hire the most administrative professionals are:
- Cintas23 administrative professionals jobs
- Northrop Grumman17 administrative professionals jobs
- Humana11 administrative professionals jobs
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Compare different administrative professionals
Administrative professional vs. Secretary
Secretaries are employees who are responsible for many of the administrative needs of the office. They are usually assigned to executives or to a specific department. They manage schedules and appointments, often handling the calendar in the office. They are also responsible for keeping files organized, whether physical or digital copies. During office meetings, secretaries are in charge of documenting the minutes of the meeting and highlighting the action steps that need to be taken. They may also be assigned to check on concerned departments who need to present deliverables in the next office meeting.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an administrative professional are more likely to require skills like "data entry," "sharepoint," "phone calls," and "reservations." On the other hand, a job as a secretary requires skills like "purchase orders," "secretarial support," "direct calls," and "patient charts." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
On average, secretaries reach lower levels of education than administrative professionals. Secretaries are 5.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Administrative professional vs. Office specialist
An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real administrative professional resumes. While administrative professional responsibilities can utilize skills like "office procedures," "reservations," "event planning," and "project management," office specialists use skills like "patients," "office support," "computer system," and "hr."
In general, office specialists achieve similar levels of education than administrative professionals. They're 4.4% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Administrative professional vs. Office secretary
An office secretary is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to ensure the smooth flow of operations and prevent delays with project deliverables. Office secretaries also welcome guests, respond to their inquiries and concerns, and direct them to the appropriate department or personnel for their appointments. They schedule meetings, sort documents, handle incoming and outgoing mail, as well as manage inventories for the adequacy of office supplies. An office secretary must have excellent time-management and multitasking skills to conduct tasks within a strict deadline and minimal supervision.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from administrative professional resumes include skills like "customer service," "administrative tasks," "sharepoint," and "reservations," whereas an office secretary is more likely to list skills in "hr," "transferring calls," "secretarial support," and "purchase orders. "
When it comes to education, office secretaries tend to earn similar degree levels compared to administrative professionals. In fact, they're 3.0% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Administrative professional vs. Assistant secretary
An assistant secretary is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the daily operations of various departments and management personnel and ensure the efficiency of business functions. Assistant secretaries usually assist in business communications, responding to customers' inquiries and concerns, reaching out to existing clients to schedule appointments, welcoming guests on the office, and routing calls to the appropriate department. They also handle data entry procedures, updating customer information on the database, as well as creating reports on business and financial transactions.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between administrative professionals and assistant secretaries, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an administrative professional might have more use for skills like "customer service," "data entry," "sharepoint," and "phone calls." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of assistant secretaries require skills like "computer system," "direct calls," "federal agencies," and "real estate. "
In general, assistant secretaries hold similar degree levels compared to administrative professionals. Assistant secretaries are 0.9% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 1.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of administrative professional
Updated January 8, 2025
