What does an office clerical assistant do?
Office clerical assistants are professionals who are responsible for performing a variety of clerical tasks within an organization's office. These assistants must provide office assistance functions such as responding to emails, filing papers, and preparing schedules while handling customers at the front desk. They are required to use automated word processing equipment to produce correspondence, forms, or reports. Clerical assistants must also answer high profile telephone calls and forward the messages to the appropriate person.
Office clerical assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real office clerical assistant resumes:
- Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
- Prepare payroll summary and submit to accountant for direct deposit.
- Provide efficient and professional telephone services in challenging mental health office while upholding confidentiality under HIPAA standards.
- Charge entry on EMR program software HCS Interactant.
- Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Office clerical assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Office Clerical Assistants are proficient in Data Entry, Customer Service, and Patients. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Customer-service skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Office Clerical Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Data Entry, 20%
Performed data entry operations and report generation and printing.
- Customer Service, 20%
Facilitated daily administrative functions including customer service, Registered Patients filed Physician's reports, operating fax and copying machines.
- Patients, 12%
Provided timely and professional service to patients in all areas of responsibility.
- Word Processing, 9%
Performed office and clerical duties including phone concierge, word processing, layout creation, and graphic and design work.
- Office Equipment, 5%
Performed accurate use of office equipment including filing of important documents and operating copy and fax machines.
- Windows, 4%
Use of MS Excel and Word on Windows NT; use of fax and copier machine.
Most office clerical assistants use their skills in "data entry," "customer service," and "patients" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential office clerical assistant responsibilities here:
Detail oriented. One of the key soft skills for an office clerical assistant to have is detail oriented. You can see how this relates to what office clerical assistants do because "general office clerks perform many clerical tasks that require attention to detail, such as preparing bills." Additionally, an office clerical assistant resume shows how office clerical assistants use detail oriented: "screened and routed telephone calls to staff, taking detailed messages as needed. "
Customer-service skills. Another essential skill to perform office clerical assistant duties is customer-service skills. Office clerical assistants responsibilities require that "general office clerks often provide general information to company staff, customers, or the public." Office clerical assistants also use customer-service skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "light data entry work on office computer data base while assisting office manager to accept proper representatives for prospective customers. "
Organizational skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of office clerical assistants is organizational skills. This skill is critical to many everyday office clerical assistant duties, as "general office clerks file and retrieve records." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "organized several annual events, answered phones, and conveyed messages executed extensive organizational and administrative tasks, including database management"
The three companies that hire the most office clerical assistants are:
- Altria2 office clerical assistants jobs
- Kindred at Home2 office clerical assistants jobs
- Curo Health Services2 office clerical assistants jobs
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Compare different office clerical assistants
Office clerical assistant vs. Student office worker
Also called an office assistant, an office aide is someone whose responsibility focuses on secretarial and administrative tasks in health practices, schools, businesses, or any other institution. Office aides help with logistical and clerical needs like copying files, curating schedules, and answering phones. They manage and organize files, receive and direct visitors, create presentations, and answer emails. The skills they need include computer and email use, filing documents, answering multiline phone systems, and typing.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, office clerical assistant responsibilities require skills like "patients," "windows," "office procedures," and "payroll." Meanwhile a typical student office worker has skills in areas such as "facebook," "phone calls," "financial aid," and "database." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Student office workers tend to reach similar levels of education than office clerical assistants. In fact, student office workers are 1.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Office clerical assistant vs. Office aide
An office worker is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the daily operations of the business. Office workers assist in receiving calls to respond to the clients' inquiries and concerns, as well as welcoming visitors, verifying their appointments, and leading them to the appropriate personnel and department for their business needs. They also do data processing, sorting mail, and filing documents for easy retrieval and reference, especially during meetings and company activities.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real office clerical assistant resumes. While office clerical assistant responsibilities can utilize skills like "patients," "windows," "office procedures," and "payroll," office aides use skills like "phone calls," "financial aid," "run errands," and "transferring calls."
Office aides earn a higher average salary than office clerical assistants. But office aides earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $30,366. Additionally, office clerical assistants earn the highest salaries in the government with average pay of $29,870 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Office aides tend to reach similar levels of education than office clerical assistants. In fact, they're 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Office clerical assistant vs. Office worker
An administrative office assistant is responsible for performing administrative duties to assist in daily management operations. These duties include taking calls and responding to client and customers' inquiries and concerns, scheduling meetings and conferences, organizing files and submitting required documents, sorting invoices for release, processing travel arrangements, receiving emails, forwarding reports to the appropriate department, and coordinating with company's events. An administrative assistant must be detail-oriented, as well as having excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills to perform duties even under minimal supervision.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an office clerical assistant is likely to be skilled in "patients," "office procedures," "provide clerical support," and "hippa," while a typical office worker is skilled in "computer programs," "credit card," "computer software," and "purchase orders."
Office workers earn the highest salary when working in the education industry, where they receive an average salary of $40,267. Comparatively, office clerical assistants have the highest earning potential in the government industry, with an average salary of $29,870.Most office workers achieve a similar degree level compared to office clerical assistants. For example, they're 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Office clerical assistant vs. Administrative office assistant
Types of office clerical assistant
Updated January 8, 2025
