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Assistant manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Timothy Edwards,

Bruce Heiman Ph.D.

Some of the most important hard skills an assistant manager can possess include managing company policies, keeping paperwork, and assisting with payroll. It's important that assistant managers have these skills because they will likely be major parts of the job. Assistant managers may also need hard skills such as work with food safety practices in the food service industry, or work with POS systems in retail.

When it comes to soft skills, managers should be focused on providing excellent customer service while still attending to the needs and concerns of their staff. Assistant managers will likely need to coordinate amongst many different people, so great communication skills are also crucial.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical assistant manager skills. We ranked the top skills for assistant managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 10.2% of assistant manager resumes contained paperwork as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an assistant manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 assistant manager skills for your resume and career

1. Paperwork

Any kind of work that revolves around writing, managing, and keeping official reports, letters, and forms is termed as paperwork. The term paperwork is mostly used in government and educational institutions, business corporations, law firms, and any kind of facility that involves data to be written down.

Here's how assistant managers use paperwork:

Assisted on a committee to streamline operational procedures which would reduce paperwork and increase efficiency with member interactions.
Managed daily operations in parking facility including sales and keeping detailed paperwork Hired new employees Trained new employees

2. Cleanliness

Here's how assistant managers use cleanliness:

Maintained outstanding levels of facility cleanliness and store security, resulting in reduced store shrinkage and customer loyalty.
Implemented new cleanliness and building maintenance policies and schedules that reduced energy expenses and improved overall store appearance.

3. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how assistant managers use customer service:

Maintained exemplary customer service within the store and established special business relationships with our customers.
Increased sales with excellent customer service levels and developed good relationships with regular customers.

4. Math

Here's how assistant managers use math:

Applied Statistics Quality Control- An applied approach to statistical quality control utilizing theoretical tools acquired in other math and statistics courses.
Demonstrated high proficiency in math and basic computer applications.

5. Basic Math

Here's how assistant managers use basic math:

Perform a basic mathematical calculation commonly used in business.
Bank deposit experience, gained basic mathematical knowledge for day sales and net sale totals.

6. Payroll

Payroll is the sum of all the compensation that an organization has to pay to employees at a specified time. Payroll is managed by the finance or HR department while small business owners may handle it themselves. Payroll isn't fixed as it varies every month due to sick leaves, overtime, etc.

Here's how assistant managers use payroll:

Managed up to fifteen high school-aged personnel; processed daily/weekly payroll and inventory controls; maintained inventory; and monitored productivity.
Helped store manager maintain profitability of store within or exceeding company standards by controlling costs associated with inventory and payroll.

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7. Inventory Control

Here's how assistant managers use inventory control:

Learned advance sales techniques, administrative account and records management, work-schedule development, and cash/inventory control and order verification policies.
Assisted with store operations including inventory control, merchandising, product ordering, overstocks, and supporting weekly advertised promotions.

8. Cash Control

Here's how assistant managers use cash control:

Managed cash control/security procedures and implemented marketing plans, maintain inventory, manage labor, and completed financial reports.
Complete cash control/security procedures, maintaining inventory, managing labor, reviewing financial reports, and taking appropriate actions.

9. Store Operations

Here's how assistant managers use store operations:

Managed store operations while manager was on sick leave; again, increased operational efficiency and overall customer satisfaction.
Managed all facets of store operations which include profitability, employee development, cost control and sales/marketing execution.

10. Food Safety

Here's how assistant managers use food safety:

Practice excellent food safety and sanitation practice standards; monitor compliance with safety guidelines, build awareness about safety.
General tasks included team management, ensuring food safety standards, and guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

11. Sales Floor

The sales floor is the area in a company or a business that is specified for retail activities or is designated as the selling area of the shop. A car showroom can be considered a sales floor, as it has cars in its display which are to be sold. A sales floor is generally crowded with sales assistants who are there to help you out while you can search and check out the products. Generally a sales floor has free access to the public and they can observe, view and get information about the product that is being sold.

Here's how assistant managers use sales floor:

Direct sales floor activities ensuring excellence in customer service and resolving store level problems
Maintained an aesthetically pleasing sales floor through detailed visual merchandising.

12. Loss Prevention

The steps taken by a business to prevent theft is called loss prevention. There are multiple methods for loss prevention for example usage of automated cash handling, secure physical location, product security staff buy-in, and attentive customer service.

Here's how assistant managers use loss prevention:

Managed day-to-day operation that included: administrative activities/HR, operational expenses/budget planning, cost analysis, loss prevention/shrinkage and inventory controls.
Tracked inventory assurance under loss prevention initiatives and supervised completion and delivery of product sales to corporate clients.

13. Leadership

Here's how assistant managers use leadership:

Worked closely with center leadership to identify problem areas, evaluate options and develop solutions that are operationally and financially feasible.
Provide leadership and guidance to my team that creates an environment focused on customer satisfaction, maximum productivity and profitability.

14. Customer Relations

Here's how assistant managers use customer relations:

Prepared sales and customer relations reports by analyzing and categorizing sales information; identified and investigated customer complaints and service suggestions.
Demonstrated and utilized high-quality customer service and coordinated all donations with location organizations, increasing customer satisfaction and improving customer relations.

15. Sales Associates

Here's how assistant managers use sales associates:

Motivated a team of sales associates to improve performance through analyzing data and developing strategic plans to enhance profitability.
Assisted sales associates in the resolution of escalated customer service issues and diffused tense/hostile situations efficiently.

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What skills help Assistant Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on assistant manager resumes?

Dr. Timothy Edwards

Professor, Interim Director, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Writing and research skills. Analytical and critical thinking skills. Technical skills such as web design, graphic design, audio and video production skills. Employers are interested in potential employees knowledge, intelligence and skills.

What hard/technical skills are most important for assistant managers?

Bruce Heiman Ph.D.

Professor of International Business, San Francisco State University

-Analytical skills (ability to gather data, clean it, analyze it, write-up results and present on what the meaning of the analysis suggests for action (the last one is most important--"what does it really mean?"

-Some experience and skills with coding in any language (at the moment, Python or C++ are preferred, though Ruby on Rails is also good)

-Deep spreadsheet skills (pivot tables and macros, as examples).

-Relational database skills, including programming (e.g., MySQL)

-Data mining

-AI/Machine Learning experience

What soft skills should all assistant managers possess?

Bruce Heiman Ph.D.

Professor of International Business, San Francisco State University

-Languages beyond English (fluency in written and oral)

-Ability to work collegially in a diverse cultural setting

-Ability to identify good problems on which to work in a competent manner

-Ability/flexibility to interact/work productively with people who have serious constraints on their time owing to other work or personal commitments/issues

-Some of my answers to Q1 above would also apply here

What assistant manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Steve Wages Ph.D.

Director, Cloverdale Center for Youth and Family, Faulkner University

I recommend they use this time to fill in the gaps, no pun intended, in their program of studies by expanding their knowledge base. All educational programs have gaps in the training, content areas which are not addressed adequately. For example, my counseling program was highly regarded, yet I had little to no content related to aging studies, parenting, or personal finances, etc. Further, the content of counseling programs is problem-centered or remedial, conceptually focused on tertiary prevention.

Consequently, graduates are not exposed to a large body of research and literature related to human development, individual wellness, and family strengths which would greatly inform and enhance their assessment and intervention strategies employed in counseling. I believe the more we can do to strengthen our understanding of healthy individual and family wellness, the better equipped we will be to address unhealthy relationships and family dynamics. Put another way, being well grounded in primary and secondary prevention will further equip the pastoral counselor's efforts at intervention. Again, use this time to acquire relevant knowledge and content that most counseling programs do not address extensively.

What type of skills will young assistant managers need?

Dr. Barbara Davis

William J. Atkins Dean, Centenary College of Louisiana

Analysis - Graduates will need to analyze situations, identify the best choices, and seek solutions with the highest benefit to the organization.

Creativity - Graduates will need to possess critical and creative thinking skills.

Flexibility - Graduates must remain flexible to succeed in a highly changing environment.

What technical skills for an assistant manager stand out to employers?

Kerem Cakirer Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer, Indiana University Bloomington

The labor market is not so different than any market with demand and supply. The demand from employers will shift towards more technical (software, coding, computer language programming) and analytical (problem solving on your own) skills than social skills overall. Being capable of writing or/and understanding computer languages will be a must have skill in the very near future. Communication skills over online platforms or social media platforms will play a huge role when employers are making a hiring decision. The data supports that businesses are using more online platforms than ever. I am projecting that there won't be any business travels or on-site client meetings in the near future. Exceling in different types of software, and being able to learn a new one easily, will become more important than people skills in businesses. Employers will seek for candidates, who are capable of achieving tasks in a more off-site (outside the office) environment through a deadline, and who can utilize multiple different softwares at their hand to solve business problems. As far as how the hiring process would go, we might see employers using artificial intelligence to make hiring decisions over some online platform soon. Essentially, this means that the candidates will be assessed with a more quantitative measure than ever. An evaluation measure by the AI, which will take soft and digital skills more into account.My final words are: The pandemic is still a burden to the humankind but the world will prevail. This year could be the inception of a new era in terms of how businesses run.

Do you want to know more?

List of assistant manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an assistant manager resume and required skills for an assistant manager to have include:

Paperwork
Cleanliness
Customer Service
Math
Basic Math
Payroll
Inventory Control
Cash Control
Store Operations
Food Safety
Sales Floor
Loss Prevention
Leadership
Customer Relations
Sales Associates
Cash Handling
Product Knowledge

Product Quality
Bank Deposits
POS
Inventory Management
Punctuality
Store Sales
Cash Management
Food Quality
Dollies
Customer Complaints
HR
Excellent Guest
Financial Reports
Food Preparation
Front Desk
Customer Satisfaction
Stock Shelves

Customer Inquiries
PowerPoint
Excellent Training
Retail Store
Exceptional Guest
Labor Costs
Sales Reports
Store Appearance
Leading Training
Food Cost
Stock Room
Enjoyable Dining
Cash Drawers
Computer System
Quality Customer Service

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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