WHAT DOES AN ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT DO?

Published: May 14, 2025 – The Administrative Assistant coordinates cross-departmental activities and manages daily administrative tasks with efficiency and professionalism. This role involves organizing meetings, preparing materials, and handling complex scheduling, travel planning, and event coordination. The administrative assistant also provides proactive executive-level support while maintaining smooth office operations and assisting with project management.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Administrative Assistant

1. Administrative Assistant Responsibilities

  • Communication: Communicate daily with the department chair
  • Scheduling: Maintain the department chair’s calendar, including scheduling appointments
  • Coordination: Communicate with the appropriate offices concerning needs
  • Support: Act as a resource for department students and adjuncts
  • Recruitment: Coordinate with Admissions in recruitment and direct contact with prospective students
  • Event Management: Coordinate department event advertisements, postings, and programs
  • Documentation: Assist with attendance documentation at music forums and performances
  • Scheduling: Prepare an academic course schedule
  • Contract Management: Create adjunct contracts
  • Editing: Revise the music student handbook (annually)
  • Reporting: Prepare NASM Accreditation reports and annual HEADS report

2. Administrative Assistant Functions

  • Customer Service: Professionally greet all visitors in the office.
  • Guidance: Direct and/or instruct visitors
  • Telephone Handling: Accept and field all incoming telephone calls and redirect, answer inquiries, and take messages for all staff as appropriate
  • Directory Management: Maintain internal telephone directories and ensure they are up to date
  • Mail Handling: Sort and mail employee documentation
  • File Management: Maintain and update employee files
  • Mail Distribution: Receive mail daily and distribute it to the office staff by organizing mail in the appropriate mailboxes.
  • Mail Delivery: Post and drop-off at the end of each day
  • Courier Coordination: Responsible for ensuring that all courier packages are gathered, addressed, and sent for delivery daily
  • Uniform Management: Responsible for uniform management, including issuance and returns of all uniform items
  • Payroll Support: Resetting employee payroll accounts
  • Administrative Assistance: Assisting with Security Guard Licence renewals
  • Facility Maintenance: Ensure that the entrance and reception area are clean and free of clutter daily

3. Administrative Assistant Accountabilities

  • System Integration: Primary point of contact for Salesforce integrated tools and partner system integrations
  • Data Management: Maintain contact information and new business/pipeline opportunities in Salesforce for the Endowments and Foundations business, and reconcile database information across various systems
  • Salesforce Administration: Run point on Endowments and Foundations Salesforce administrative functions, including user account maintenance, reports and dashboards, custom fields, workflows, external apps/add-ons, and other routine tasks
  • Team Support: Proactively assist team members and anticipate their needs
  • Travel Coordination: Manage travel bookings and expense reporting
  • Meeting Management: Organize and manage meeting requirements from start to finish, including coordinating schedules for internal and external attendees, technology support, and food service
  • Relationship Building: Establish effective working relationships with colleagues and external contacts
  • Administrative Support: General administrative duties including writing and editing correspondence, answering phones, calendar management, and preparation of meeting materials
  • Event Coordination: Coordinate Endowments and Foundations conference coordination and annual membership requirements

4. Administrative Assistant Job Description

  • Executive Support: Supports senior management, divisions, and committees.
  • Onboarding: Manages new hire onboarding processes.
  • Office Management: Coordinates office space and logistics.
  • Event Coordination: Assists in event planning and communication.
  • Reporting: Updates reports and presentations regularly.
  • Content Management: Maintains SharePoint and intranet sites.
  • Calendar Management: Manages calendars for internal and external meetings.
  • Travel Coordination: Arranges travel bookings.
  • Expense Reporting: Prepares expense reports in compliance with company policies.
  • Meeting Support: Records minutes in meetings.
  • Project Coordination: Organizes regular one-on-one meetings with senior managers for project prioritization.
  • Task Tracking: Provides updates on ongoing tasks.
  • Issue Resolution: Offers feedback on issues and challenges.

5. Administrative Assistant Tasks

  • Coordination: Coordinates activities for divisions and committees.
  • Onboarding Monitoring: Monitors new hires in divisions and completes setup.
  • Workspace Assignment: Assigns desks, IT equipment, and lockers for new hires.
  • Communication: Communicates weekly updates to local contacts regarding new hires.
  • Orientation Planning: Hosts and plans new hire orientation sessions.
  • Relocation Support: Supports and plans office relocations and desk assignments.
  • Event Logistics: Assists with event logistics.
  • Program Communication: Manages communications for local committees and programs.
  • Translation: Performs minor English/French translations.
  • Content Review: Reviews and updates presentations and reports.
  • Site Maintenance: Maintains SharePoint sites and Jive pages.
  • Project Participation: Participates in various projects based on availability.
  • Team Collaboration: Collaborates with team members and other support functions, ensuring coverage and support.

6. Administrative Assistant Additional Details

  • Administrative Support: Providing high-level administrative and organizational support to the Global Services leadership team (calendar, travel, expenses)
  • Calendar Management: Managing a global, dynamic calendar to meet business objectives through exceptional planning and organizational skills
  • Record Keeping: Creating and maintaining the reporting and record-keeping needed for the organization
  • Meeting Coordination: Managing leadership team, operations, and quarterly All Hands meetings, and post-meeting surveys
  • Budget Management: Managing the team budget
  • Document Preparation: Creating, augmenting, and circulating reports, presentations, worksheets, and charts using Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook or G-Suite equivalents
  • Team Collaboration: Partnering with administrative staff in the orchestration of meetings, report generation, and projects, and interacting with internal and external stakeholders
  • Office Operations: Purchasing and errands related to general office and company activity needs, including banking, office supplies, maintenance appointments, shipping, printing, etc. – tasks vary and change daily
  • File Management: Manage digital photos and graphic files on a MAC, organizing, scanning, formatting, and archiving photos.

7. Administrative Assistant Essential Functions

  • Audio Operation: Playing music from a pre-loaded system for cremation services
  • Facility Maintenance: Maintaining good housekeeping of the chapel and public access areas
  • Service Coordination: Liaising with the funeral director to ensure the smooth running of the service
  • Guest Support: Greet funeral attendees and support with any queries
  • Paperwork Management: Manage and collate paperwork
  • Confidentiality Handling: Dealing with sensitive information
  • Administrative Support: Ad hoc office support
  • Public Interaction: Dealing with enquiries from members of the public
  • Correspondence: Multiple correspondences, including drafting business and personal communications
  • Archiving: Archive of domestic quotation reply forms, summary of foreign quotation data, and assist with financial invoicing
  • Data Management: Data archiving and collation

8. Administrative Assistant Role Purpose

  • Agreement Management: Involved in the control and maintenance of GTA (General Terms of Agreement) with all customers.
  • Legal Coordination: Cooperate with internal legal and outsource translation to finalize the GTA format.
  • Data Reporting: Repair department Daily Dashboard repair data collection and report.
  • Feedback Analysis: Customer feedback information collection and analysis.
  • Data Entry: Assist the maintenance department in working and entering data according to the received engineer report and repair contract
  • Customer Claims: Claim against customers for non-warranty units, make a quotation, and upload it to the customer quotation system together with the test report.
  • Email Communication: Respond to customer emails and report repair progress
  • Unit Release Support: Assist the release person to release the units, make the release certificate and packing list, check the report, and organize.
  • Logistics Tracking: Cargo tracking after delivery of units, tracking number feedback.
  • Warranty Claims: Claim units abroad for warranty units, and make quotations.

9. Administrative Assistant General Responsibilities

  • Correspondence Management: Organizes and prepares correspondence relating to association business.
  • Administrative Support: Performs a variety of administrative assistant tasks to support the Directors in the operation of the departments
  • Meeting Preparation: Prepare meeting materials, such as agendas, printed materials, etc.
  • Schedule Management: Maintains the executive's appointment schedule by planning and scheduling meetings, conferences, teleconferences, and travel
  • Interdepartmental Coordination: Coordinating between departments and resolving day-to-day administrative and operational problems
  • Proactive Support: Anticipate administrative needs and act proactively to provide top-notch support
  • Executive Assistance: Act as an Executive Assistant working alongside the office manager, performing clerical duties
  • Calendar Management: Extensive calendar scheduling and coordination.
  • Event and Project Coordination: Event coordination and project management.

10. Administrative Assistant Job Summary

  • Administrative Support: Provide basic administrative support for multiple programs, including setting up conference/Zoom/MS Teams meetings, handling on-site meeting logistics
  • Information Management: Manage Program/Department information flow in a timely and accurate manner.
  • Calendar Management: Manage the Director’s calendars and set up meetings
  • Executive Scheduling: Manage executives’ and directors’ calendars and set up meetings
  • Travel Coordination: Manage all travel documentation and accommodation arrangements.
  • Office Management: Act as an office manager and maintain office supply inventory.
  • Communication Formatting: Format information for internal and external communication – memos, emails, presentations, reports, etc.
  • Meeting Setup: Set up meeting spaces/rooms.
  • Meeting Documentation: Take minutes and record action items
  • File Organization: Organize and maintain the office Program SharePoint filing system.
Relevant Information
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