Office specialist vs department specialist

The differences between office specialists and department specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a department specialist has an average salary of $49,764, which is higher than the $33,477 average annual salary of an office specialist.

The top three skills for an office specialist include customer service, data entry and patients. The most important skills for a department specialist are product knowledge, drive sales, and cleanliness.

Office specialist vs department specialist overview

	Office Specialist	Department Specialist
Yearly salary	$33,477	$49,764
Hourly rate	$16.09	$23.93
Growth rate	-5%	-
Number of jobs	98,760	55,038
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	47	41
Years of experience	2	-

What does an office specialist do?

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.

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.

Office specialist vs department specialist salary

Office specialists and department specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Office Specialist	Department Specialist
Average salary	$33,477	$49,764
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $43,000	Between $35,000 And $70,000
Highest paying City	Washington, DC	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Hawaii
Best paying company	Brookhaven National Laboratory	Springs Charter Schools
Best paying industry	Finance	Government

Differences between office specialist and department specialist education

There are a few differences between an office specialist and a department specialist in terms of educational background:

	Office Specialist	Department Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 44%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	-

Office specialist vs department specialist demographics

Here are the differences between office specialists' and department specialists' demographics:

	Office Specialist	Department Specialist
Average age	47	41
Gender ratio	Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7%	Male, 37.6% Female, 62.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%	Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 20.6% Asian, 7.7% White, 56.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	6%	7%

Differences between office specialist and department specialist duties and responsibilities

Office specialist example responsibilities.

Provide support for enrolling patients into health coverage programs and manage sensitive patient information to ensure accuracy and confidentiality.
Manage and maintain patients' medical records by utilizing computer applications management database processing system to ensure county compliance.
Manage operational FedEx relationship through order fulfillment, shipment tracking, and communication with parties involve in shipment transaction.
Provide assistance to office staff including preparing and proofreading memos and grants, transcribing meeting minutes for staff and answering phones.
Perform multiple bookkeeping duties including departmental payroll, print financial reports and other financial material as needed.
Communicate HIPAA compliance to staff, field and outside agencies.

Department specialist example responsibilities.

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.

Office specialist vs department specialist skills

Common office specialist skills

Customer Service, 18%
Data Entry, 10%
Patients, 9%
Office Equipment, 6%
Phone Calls, 6%
Word Processing, 4%

Common department specialist skills

Product Knowledge, 14%
Drive Sales, 11%
Cleanliness, 11%
Customer Satisfaction, 9%
Customer Service, 9%
Office Equipment, 8%

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Office Specialist
Office Specialist vs Department Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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