In any running industry, there must be an office assistant for it to run smoothly. An office assistant is an essential person in the company, and most of the times people refer to him or her as secretary. Office assistant can also be referred to as administrative assistants. Their primary role is ensuring that the office is functioning properly and the office entails a lot of work, including dealing with people as well as dealing with non-living things like computers and other electronics. All the needs in an office are similar regardless of whether the company is a medical one, a law firm, a corporation, or an educational institution. Some of the roles undertaken by an office assistant include filing records, maintaining schedules, and controlling the communication between the people who are using the office. But as an office administrator, you need to have some qualities for you to run the office effectively. If you think you have what it takes after reading this article then look for a company like C-Suite as an executive assistant headhunter, who can help you find a job in the assistant career path. This article describes some of the qualities and skills you need to have for you to be an excellent office assistant.
1. Excelled Communication Skills
When working at the office as an office assistant, you will be meeting and interacting with different people some are staff members while others are visitors from outside. It is therefore essential for you to have excellent communication skills to make the objectives of the company achievable. You will have to be helpful, cheerful, well informed, and articulate, and you should be a good listener as well. Ensure you maintain a good rapport between you and other staff members from the top executives to the casual workers. There will be routine phone calls, so you should also know how to talk with people and be humble to help the firm leverage its productivity. Not only should you have excellent verbal communication skills but also good written communication skills as you will be the ion writing memos, letters, emails, drafts for the company.
2. Good Interpersonal Skills
A good office assistant is friendly with everyone and interacts well with all members of the staff. You should be friendly because you will be the first person who will be meeting the clients and these calls for good interpersonal skills. You should be able to interact with the client friendly and give him or her warm welcome and be ready to serve him or her. You ought to be ready to offer to greet every visitor and giving them a vibrant smile as well as kind words. Your attitude should always be positive and avoid mood swings.
3. Technology Skills
Since the world is advancing and technology has taken over, an office assistant has to be skilled with technology. You should be able to do typing and using different software’s which are necessary for your office work like the zonal ocr software. You ought to stand with time and also be skilled enough to do some repairs in case of simple breakdowns of machines in the office. The different data entry and analysis software’s you will use in your company are crucial, and you need to have skills on how to use them.
4. Be Organized
A good office assistant organizes his or her work properly, and this makes it easy for retrieval of information about something. You should also be able to properly put the office things in order and be smart so that the office can look neat and organized.
5. Problem Solving Skills
Another critical skill which you need to have as an office assistant is the problem-solving skills and critical thinking. You should be able to think outside the box and be able to provide instant solutions to some simple problems and challenges you will face at the office.
Conclusion
The five are the basic skills which help you as an office administrator to run the office effectively and in turn help the company improve in its performance.