How To Hire An Office Manager
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this Office Manager hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
Office Manager Recruitment Guide
What does a Office Manager do?
An Office Manager is generally responsible for ensuring the office is operating smoothly and that the administrative support team is working efficiently. They are also often responsible for supervising administrative and human resources staff.
Day to day tasks of a Office Manager
- Prepare reports, presentations, or any materials as required.
- Oversee the overall office operation.
- Attend to visitors or clients, monitor phone calls and other correspondences, and provide exceptional customer service to guests.
- Oversee, supervise, train, and coach the office staff to monitor good performance.
- Organize the office calendar and coordinate meetings or appointments scheduled for the day.
- Coordinate any travel arrangements with corresponding suppliers.
- Ensure delegation of tasks to staff members are efficient and maximum productivity is achieved.
Office Manager definition
An Office Manager’s primary responsibility is to monitor the general operations in the office and make sure that everything is running smoothly and manage any administration staff. Some of the tasks involved are attending to visitors, monitoring phone calls, monitoring office supply inventory, and general supervision of all staff members. Because of these, they require leadership and good communication skills.
HIRING PROCESS
Office Manager Hiring Process
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a Office Manager
An Office Manager must be customer-focused as he will cater to external clients and even internal ones (management, colleagues, and staff from other departments). Running the office operations smoothly will enable the other departments to perform their jobs efficiently as each one of the units in an office is interconnected with another.
- Adaptable
- Assertiveness
- Communication
Pro Tip
For managerial roles, you may receive less applications compared to entry-level positions. You may provide specific details about the skills and qualifications required so that applicants can know if they are fit. You can also mention some perks and benefits of working for your company and the importance of the role in the success of the company.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a Office Manager job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your Office Manager job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, an Office Manager must have excellent multitasking skills, but it would also be nice to have experience in basic accounting and HR processes.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a Office Manager
Create a free account today to access the full assessment and more from our library
Question 1
Assertiveness
Question Type: Text
Being assertive means being able to stand up for your own or other people’s rights in a calm and positive way, without being either aggressive or passively accepting ‘wrong’.
Assertive individuals are able to get their point across without upsetting others or becoming upset themselves.
Explain a situation you have been in where you have had to demonstrate assertiveness, how did you feel, act, what did you do?
Question 2
Communication
Question Type: Video
Describe a technical problem you dealt with at your previous company.
How did you resolve it?
Question 3
Adaptable
Question Type: Text
The organization has recently changed the way that it processes expenses which requires a new system. You don’t agree with the change but you have been allocated responsibility to implement it across the business.
Outline your process for doing this implementation.
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a Office Manager
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a Office Manager?
The US average for an Office Manager is $61,831 according to Glassdoor.com, while Salary.com reports it at $78,936. The lowest salary reported is at $42,000, and the highest is at $128,000. Some companies can offer additional pay, depending on the nature of the business, through performance or cash bonus, incentives, or profit sharing.
Office Manager Salary United States
Office Manager salaries in the United States range from $42,000 – $128,000. The average falls between $61,000 – $78,000. Salaries can vary depending on the education, years of experience, additional skills, and the location.
Source: Glassdoor.com; Salary.com
Office Manager Salary United Kingdom
Office Manager salaries in the United Kingdom range from £19,000 – £47,000 (GBP). The average falls between £25,000 – £31,000 (GBP). Salaries can vary depending on the education, years of experience, additional skills, and the location.
Source: Glassdoor.com; Payscale.com
Office Manager Salary Australia
Office Manager salaries in Australia range from $49,000 – $132,000 (AUD). The average falls between $63,000 – $85,000 (AUD). Salaries can vary depending on the education, years of experience, additional skills, and the location.
Source: Payscale.com; Talent.com
