Disorganization and poor communication cut into any business’s bottom line. Having someone with the necessary skills to create and maintain an efficient office is crucial to excellent organization and communication in the office. An office manager job description shows that this person takes on responsibilities such as preparing payroll, hiring and training new staff, setting an effective climate for electronic business, and creating organizational schema.
The exact tasks that an office manager needs to do vary from company to company. Their salary and job outlook also vary depending on industry. This article covers the above and also covers essential skills and responsibilities that an office manager has, the education and work experience required to become one, and what a typical work schedule is.
What Do Office Managers Do?
Office managers are sometimes referred to as administrative services managers. These professionals coordinate and manage all of the support aspects of a business. This involves areas such as payroll, supplies, cleaning, sending out company emails, interacting with delivery personnel, and assigning tasks to office staff. In smaller companies, an office manager job description reflects that they will likely be a jack-of-all-trades while in larger companies these professionals typically specialize in one aspect of office management.
Office managers must have excellent organization, communication, and interpersonal skills. They must be self-driven, able to identify company goals, motivational, and skilled in teamwork. A bachelor’s degree is preferred but equivalent experience can be considered for some position. The median salary for these professionals is $86,110 in 2015.
Office Manager Job Description for Resume – Responsibilities
A good office manager is often not noticeable in a company because they keep things moving without interruption. An inferior office manager is noticeable because of issues that impact the workflow of the company. An office manager job description shows that the former are able to successfully carry out the following duties:
- Identify the need for supplies and order the appropriate amount.
- Iteratively improve on existing procedures to increase efficiency, accuracy, and organization.
- Set goals and create subgoals for individual members of the business.
- Hire, train, and supervise office staff including annual reviews and giving employees concrete ways to improve.
- Work with the bookkeeping or accounting department to establish and monitor budgetary concerns.
- Intervene in potential employee conflicts to ensure a high morale and a respectful workplace.
- Keep the facilities of the business up to code with regards to OSHA and other policies.
Office Manager Required Skills
Supervisory skills. Office managers will be responsible for supervising all other staff in the office. Effective supervisors set high goals and work to develop staff in order to achieve those goals. Leadership is just one subskill in a suite of supervisory skills, but is often viewed as one of the most important.
Time management skills. Time management for an office manager means more than having good individual time management. These professionals need to know how long certain tasks take in order to create the structure for effective time management for all employees.
Organizational skills. It is absolutely essential that an office manager has sound organizational skills. They touch every aspect of a business and often set the tone for how the rest of the business interacts with various pieces of information. Beginning a chain of interaction with organization will keep the whole process more organized
Coordination skills. Office managers will be pulled in several different directions and will need to balance several tasks. Being able to coordinate and avoiding micromanaging will ensure that the office manager is completing the tasks they need to do and delegate tasks that can be delegated.
How to Become an Office Manager
A bachelor’s degree in a field such as business, supply chain management, information management, or engineering is typically required to be an office manager.
Occasionally, the right individual can have an equivalent combination of education and experience to this degree and become an office manager. Office managers are needed for any company that deals with office or administrative work. It is unlikely that a recent graduate assumes the role of an office manager. They can advance to the role.
For continuing professional development there is an optional license that can be obtained. This is administered and certified by the International Facility Management Association.
Education & Training Requirements
A bachelor’s degree is often required to be an office manager. For certain individuals, an associate’s degree is enough education. A typical major to be an office manager is in business or a management/leadership field such as supply chain management or organizational leadership. The coursework to become an office manager focuses on developing supervisory skills and developing expertise across a range of business functions like accounting.
Continuing professional development is not required for office management, but it offers a competitive advantage and can lead to advancement opportunities. There are two levels to this program offered by the Facility Management Association: the Facilities Management Professional and the Certified Facility Manager certification. The first level must be obtained prior to the second level of certification. This license needs to be reviewed every three years.
Getting a master’s degree in Business Administration can help to increase the responsibility of office managers. The advancement is easier in bigger institutions because there are more levels of middle management and those professionals can get promoted to upper management, whereas in a small company the office manager is already in an upper management position.
Work Experience
Work experience is essential to obtaining the position of office manager. This experience should show accomplishments that lead to developing skills such as managing payroll, training new personnel, and maintaining accurate records. For students who want to be office managers, a similar position can be taken within student organizations. Students can also obtain an internship or do job shadowing where they observe and learn from what an office manager does.
Because office managers are used in several different industries, the required experience can be different. Students who are interested in being an office manager should explore the job responsibilities and requirements in these industries to see where they might like to work.
Work Schedules
An office manager will typically work during the day. They almost always work full-time. While they are in the office most of the time, they can also work outside of the office meeting with companies who help them to maintain their office such as cleaning or exterminator companies.
During the day, an office manager may do things from going to company executive meetings to answer emails to approving payroll to ensuring the accuracy of business contracts. The variations in their work schedule and environment are primarily due to the type of company they work for.
Career Prospects
The job growth for an office manager is about 8%, which is the same as the average for all occupations in the United States. Even with the automation of many processes and functions, office managers are still needed to keep the operation running and ensure accuracy. Technology will change the nature of the job as menial tasks can be automated and the office manager can focus on more complex problems. Office managers who have skills in ensuring privacy and consumer confidentiality are extremely valuable in an at-risk information world.
Office managers can expect an average salary of $44,746 according to Payscale. This income ranges from $30,208 at the lower end to &71,001 at the upper end. Office managers can earn bonuses, profit sharing, and commissions depending on how successful the company they work for is in a given year. Office managers have a lot of responsibility for their level of pay, but it is a consistent paycheck. Office managers may have to work more than 40 hours a week without overtime depending on how busy they are. The quality of work/life balance is typically good for these professionals but due to the responsibility they have at work, the balance can be tipped too far in one direction.
Conclusion
Office management is an excellent career choice for someone with exceptional organizational skills who enjoyed leading a team. A college education is typically required but an individual can become an office manager with experience and a high school degree or certificate. The office manager job description shows that these professionals must enjoy working with people and be proficient with technology due to the nature of the world we live in.