What does a department specialist do?
A department specialist drives the profitable sales growth of a company through proper planning and execution of corporate merchandise direction. Department specialists develop plans and strategies to achieve corporate sales results through action planning, consistent accountability, and effective communication. They initiate and carry out business-wide software and hardware standardization. Also, they coordinate space utilization or facility scheduling optimization for programs focused on members.
Department specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real department specialist resumes:
- Manage a high volume of patient information from authorizing diagnostic procedures and scheduling patients.
- Conduct continuous inventory evaluation via analysis of POS computer data.
- Provide account coverage on government, corporate, and mortgage-backed securities.
- Strengthen organizational visibility by leading community outreach initiatives, fulfilling roles as youth mentor and orchestrating event planning and logistics.
- Assist with scanning old patient records into EMR, other duties assign.
- Communicate all policy and procedure violations to management, prepare detailed memos outlining the issues.
Department specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Department Specialists are proficient in Product Knowledge, Drive Sales, and Cleanliness. They’re also known for soft skills such as Math skills, Persistence, and Selling skills.
We break down the percentage of Department Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Product Knowledge, 14%
Specialized in product knowledge to effectively and honestly sell merchandise to consumer.
- Drive Sales, 11%
Deliver standard operating procedure execution to help drive sales.
- Cleanliness, 11%
Recovered, replenished, and maintained cleanliness of the Men's Department.
- Customer Satisfaction, 9%
Managed non-routine calls & interactions with customers that required problem solving skills to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Customer Service, 9%
Ensured accurate and timely resolution to questions by providing excellent customer service to vendors and retailers in regard to invoice processing.
- Office Equipment, 8%
Involved with researching new office equipment and requisitioning.
Most department specialists use their skills in "product knowledge," "drive sales," and "cleanliness" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential department specialist responsibilities here:
Math skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a department specialist to have is math skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "retail sales workers must have the ability to calculate price totals, discounts, and change owed to customers." Department specialists often use math skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "use complex mathematical formulas to make eligibility determinations for medicaid and other programs. "
Persistence. Another essential skill to perform department specialist duties is persistence. Department specialists responsibilities require that "a large number of attempted sales may not be successful, so sales workers should not be discouraged easily." Department specialists also use persistence in their role according to a real resume snippet: "combine patience, determination, and persistence to troubleshoot utility department issues by contacting vendors daily. "
Selling skills. This is an important skill for department specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how department specialist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "retail sales workers must be persuasive when interacting with customers." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a department specialist: "maintained shoe sales floor/stockroom organization and cleanliness. ".
Interpersonal skills. A big part of what department specialists do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to department specialist responsibilities because "a friendly and outgoing personality is important for these workers because the job requires almost constant interaction with people." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical department specialist tasks: "provided a high level of customer service based on outstanding communication and interpersonal skills. "
Customer-service skills. A commonly-found skill in department specialist job descriptions, "customer-service skills" is essential to what department specialists do. Department specialist responsibilities rely on this skill because "retail sales workers must be responsive to the wants and needs of customers." You can also see how department specialist duties rely on customer-service skills in this resume example: "provided and serviced consistent quality customer care to both internal and external customers. "
The three companies that hire the most department specialists are:
- Rural King45 department specialists jobs
- Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.13 department specialists jobs
- General Atomics6 department specialists jobs
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Compare different department specialists
Department specialist vs. Sales person
A salesperson is in charge of ensuring that the products, goods, or services of the company get sold to customers. They are trained to market the products well, understand what the customer needs, and find the product that best fits the customer's needs. As such, the salesperson should be familiar with all of the company's products and should be able to explain the features of each. They should know how to approach customers and to close out sales. Salespersons are expected to have good communication, interpersonal, and persuasion skills.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a department specialist are more likely to require skills like "drive sales," "office equipment," "excellent time management," and "patients." On the other hand, a job as a sales person requires skills like "basic math," "phone calls," "math," and "real estate." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that sales people earn slightly differ from department specialists. In particular, sales people are 2.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a department specialist. Additionally, they're 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Department specialist vs. Sales clerk
A sales clerk is responsible for assisting customers in purchasing products, responding to customer inquiries, and providing product recommendations. Sales clerks require excellent customer service and communication skills to offer the best services to the customers and maintain good customer feedback for the business. They also check inventories, request supplies as needed, and organize product displays on the appropriate shelves. A sales clerk must have strong verbal communication skills to manage customer concerns and excellent time-management skills to perform tasks within the fast-paced work environment.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that department specialist responsibilities requires skills like "drive sales," "cleanliness," "customer satisfaction," and "office equipment." But a sales clerk might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "stock shelves," "retail sales," "sales transactions," and "store policies."
Sales clerks may earn a lower salary than department specialists, but sales clerks earn the most pay in the energy industry with an average salary of $28,784. On the other hand, department specialists receive higher pay in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $61,257.In general, sales clerks achieve similar levels of education than department specialists. They're 3.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for department specialists in the next 3-5 years?
Del Ross
Chief Revenue Officer, Hotel Effectiveness
On the operations side, smarter technology will replace old-school, "the way we have always done it" processes and programs in every area. Front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, F&B, back-office - every one of these areas will be directed and enabled by data-driven technology in ways that we could not have anticipated just a few years ago. This will make the workplace more efficient but may make individual jobs more complicated. Managers will have to be taught new ways to support and develop their associates to attract, retain, and deploy effective teams. "Simple" tasks such as weekly labor scheduling will use automated systems like Hotel Effectiveness to save time, improve productivity, and turn cost centers into profit drivers.
Department specialist vs. Associate
Associates are typically entry-level positions for employees who are taking on their first job or organizational role. They are assigned to teams or departments that are related to their skills or educational background. They usually start with smaller tasks that may not seem as impactful but are still essential to the department. Associates are trained by more tenured team members on the ins and outs of the department and the organization. As they grow with the organization, they are given more responsibilities that directly impact the results of the department's initiatives as they work towards their goals.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a department specialist is likely to be skilled in "drive sales," "customer satisfaction," "office equipment," and "excellent time management," while a typical associate is skilled in "windows," "safety standards," "stock merchandise," and "financial statements."
Associates typically earn similar educational levels compared to department specialists. Specifically, they're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 5.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Department specialist vs. Sales associate
Sales associates are responsible for promoting the company's goods or services. They are expected to provide exceptional customer service to prospective buyers. They should be familiar with all features of the company's products or services so that they can answer the customers' inquiries. Sales associates also assist customers in processing their checkouts, refunds, returns, and other needs. They should be customer-oriented, and they should have great communication skills. They should know how to sell their products or services to customers. They are considered the company's representatives on the ground.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between department specialists and sales associates, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a department specialist might have more use for skills like "drive sales," "office equipment," "excellent time management," and "patients." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of sales associates require skills like "cash handling," "retail sales," "basic math," and "math. "
The manufacturing industry tends to pay the highest salaries for sales associates, with average annual pay of $31,917. Comparatively, the highest department specialist annual salary comes from the government industry.The average resume of sales associates showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to department specialists. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 3.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.6%.Types of department specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
