Senior administrative support vs department administrator

The differences between senior administrative supports and department administrators can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a senior administrative support, becoming a department administrator takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a department administrator has an average salary of $49,768, which is higher than the $47,183 average annual salary of a senior administrative support.

The top three skills for a senior administrative support include travel arrangements, sharepoint and customer service. The most important skills for a department administrator are patient care, patients, and financial reports.

Senior administrative support vs department administrator overview

	Senior Administrative Support	Department Administrator
Yearly salary	$47,183	$49,768
Hourly rate	$22.68	$23.93
Growth rate	-8%	5%
Number of jobs	97,871	84,441
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 54%
Average age	47	43
Years of experience	6	2

What does a senior administrative support do?

As senior administrative support, you have to assist the senior managers in the administrative tasks of the company. You need to arrange and schedule meetings and perform the necessary operations to successfully conduct these meetings. You also need to manage the phone calls from the clients and be sure to be organized and give them appointments. Senior administrative support staff is also in charge of making flight and hotel reservations for your senior managers. This ensures that there will be no delays in the important meetings and administrative tasks of the company.

What does a department administrator do?

Department administrators are professionals who are responsible for performing administrative and clerical tasks for a specific department within an organization. These administrators are required to prepare financial statements for clients while evaluating revisions through feedback with stakeholders. They must work with the human resources department to recruit and identify workers for retraining and skill upgrades. Department administrators must also develop and streamline departmental policies and processes so that they can ensure efficiency, productivity, and accountability.

Senior administrative support vs department administrator salary

Senior administrative supports and department administrators have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Senior Administrative Support	Department Administrator
Average salary	$47,183	$49,768
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $84,000	Between $34,000 And $72,000
Highest paying City	-	South San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Alaska
Best paying company	-	MacArthur Foundation
Best paying industry	-	Energy

Differences between senior administrative support and department administrator education

There are a few differences between a senior administrative support and a department administrator in terms of educational background:

	Senior Administrative Support	Department Administrator
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 54%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	California State University - Bakersfield	California State University - Bakersfield

Senior administrative support vs department administrator demographics

Here are the differences between senior administrative supports' and department administrators' demographics:

	Senior Administrative Support	Department Administrator
Average age	47	43
Gender ratio	Male, 31.1% Female, 68.9%	Male, 30.3% Female, 69.7%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 18.6% Asian, 5.2% White, 59.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 8.8% White, 64.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%
LGBT Percentage	8%	9%

Differences between senior administrative support and department administrator duties and responsibilities

Senior administrative support example responsibilities.

Restructure, decentralize payroll and purchasing; achieve more productive use of headquarters staff; assume increased responsibilities without staff additions.
Assist in the support of SQL databases and other configurations such as .net or java as directed by vendor.
Create EDI, EDIFACT and XML.
Provide issue resolution within the prescribed timelines of SLA.
Configure trusted and self-sign public and private SSL certificates.
Work with staff to schedule maintenance windows for change management.

Department administrator example responsibilities.

Manage calendars, correspondence, logs, reports and maintain documentation in Prolog.
Lead implementation of local area network and upgrade of scheduling, billing and A/R software.
Manage patient records ensuring confidentiality and compliance with all HIPAA regulations.
Initiate and manage the implementation of facilities management oversight of external properties.
Direct Medicaid health plan management division activities (manage care program operations, quality improvement, and contract administration).
Verify vendor quotes and resolve invoice discrepancies.

Senior administrative support vs department administrator skills

Common senior administrative support skills

Travel Arrangements, 26%
SharePoint, 10%
Customer Service, 8%
Data Entry, 8%
Timekeeping, 7%
Defense Travel System, 6%

Common department administrator skills

Patient Care, 10%
Patients, 10%
Financial Reports, 7%
Human Resources, 6%
Payroll, 6%
Departmental Policies, 5%

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Senior Administrative Support
Senior Administrative Support vs Department Administrator

Updated January 8, 2025

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