Administration, Customer Service & Hospitality

Administrative Assistant Job Description

An Administrative Assistant keeps agreed office and team work organised through accurate records, scheduling, correspondence, document preparation, meeting support, requests, supplies, and dependable follow-up.

Adapt the template to the team supported, workload, systems, confidentiality, office presence, customer contact, and decision boundaries.

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Candidate-facing template

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Replace bracketed details, remove anything that is not genuinely required, and obtain the appropriate internal approval before advertising.

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Administrative Assistant

Location: [Office location and working arrangement]
Employment type: [Full-time, part-time, temporary, or contract]
Reports to: [Manager title]

About the role

[Company name] is looking for an Administrative Assistant to support [team or function]. You will coordinate schedules and requests, prepare accurate documents and records, organise meetings and information, respond to colleagues and external contacts, and make sure agreed administrative actions reach the right owner on time.

What you will be responsible for

Manage shared calendars, meetings, appointments, rooms, visitors, travel, or team events within agreed priorities.
Prepare, format, proofread, file, retrieve, and update correspondence, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and records.
Monitor shared inboxes or requests, provide approved information, route work correctly, and follow up unresolved actions.
Take useful meeting notes, record decisions and owners, distribute materials, and maintain action lists where required.
Process approved expenses, purchase requests, invoices, supplies, forms, or data entries with accurate coding and records.
Handle confidential employee, customer, supplier, financial, or project information using appropriate access and sharing controls.
Improve recurring administrative steps by clarifying templates, ownership, instructions, and information storage.

What success looks like

Colleagues can find current information and understand the next action without searching private messages.
Calendars and meetings reflect genuine priority, preparation, practical constraints, and clear ownership.
Documents and records are accurate, consistent, appropriately stored, and shared only with authorised people.
Routine requests move promptly while unusual, sensitive, or conflicting work reaches the right decision-maker.

Essential qualifications

Experience organising administrative work for a team, office, service, or project.
Strong written accuracy, proofreading, record-keeping, and document skills.
Confident use of office, calendar, email, spreadsheet, and collaboration software.
Ability to prioritise competing requests and communicate constraints or delays professionally.
Sound judgement with confidential information and requests outside delegated authority.
Reliable follow-up and the ability to work independently within clear procedures.

Preferred qualifications

Experience supporting a comparable department, sector, customer group, or professional environment.
Familiarity with the organisation’s document, finance, CRM, HR, project, or case systems.
Experience improving an administrative workflow, template, filing structure, or team routine.

Tools and working knowledge

Email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and collaboration platforms
Document management, shared inbox, CRM, project, finance, HR, or service systems relevant to the team
Meeting, travel, visitor, telephony, printing, and office-equipment tools

Compensation and benefits: [Add the approved hourly or salary range, currency, contracted hours, overtime basis if applicable, leave, pension or retirement, and local benefits.]

[Company name] provides an accessible recruitment process and will consider reasonable adjustments for communication, equipment, workplace, schedule, and duties in line with local requirements.

How to apply

Apply through [application method] with examples of the teams, systems, confidential work, scheduling, documents, or process improvements most relevant to this role.

Edit the complete candidate-facing description

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Administrative Assistant

Location: [Office location and working arrangement]

Employment type: [Full-time, part-time, temporary, or contract]

Reports to: [Manager title]

About the role
[Company name] is looking for an Administrative Assistant to support [team or function]. You will coordinate schedules and requests, prepare accurate documents and records, organise meetings and information, respond to colleagues and external contacts, and make sure agreed administrative actions reach the right owner on time.

What you will be responsible for
- Manage shared calendars, meetings, appointments, rooms, visitors, travel, or team events within agreed priorities.
- Prepare, format, proofread, file, retrieve, and update correspondence, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and records.
- Monitor shared inboxes or requests, provide approved information, route work correctly, and follow up unresolved actions.
- Take useful meeting notes, record decisions and owners, distribute materials, and maintain action lists where required.
- Process approved expenses, purchase requests, invoices, supplies, forms, or data entries with accurate coding and records.
- Handle confidential employee, customer, supplier, financial, or project information using appropriate access and sharing controls.
- Improve recurring administrative steps by clarifying templates, ownership, instructions, and information storage.

What success looks like
- Colleagues can find current information and understand the next action without searching private messages.
- Calendars and meetings reflect genuine priority, preparation, practical constraints, and clear ownership.
- Documents and records are accurate, consistent, appropriately stored, and shared only with authorised people.
- Routine requests move promptly while unusual, sensitive, or conflicting work reaches the right decision-maker.

Essential qualifications
- Experience organising administrative work for a team, office, service, or project.
- Strong written accuracy, proofreading, record-keeping, and document skills.
- Confident use of office, calendar, email, spreadsheet, and collaboration software.
- Ability to prioritise competing requests and communicate constraints or delays professionally.
- Sound judgement with confidential information and requests outside delegated authority.
- Reliable follow-up and the ability to work independently within clear procedures.

Preferred qualifications
- Experience supporting a comparable department, sector, customer group, or professional environment.
- Familiarity with the organisation’s document, finance, CRM, HR, project, or case systems.
- Experience improving an administrative workflow, template, filing structure, or team routine.

Tools and working knowledge
- Email, calendar, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and collaboration platforms
- Document management, shared inbox, CRM, project, finance, HR, or service systems relevant to the team
- Meeting, travel, visitor, telephony, printing, and office-equipment tools

Compensation and benefits: [Add the approved hourly or salary range, currency, contracted hours, overtime basis if applicable, leave, pension or retirement, and local benefits.]

[Company name] provides an accessible recruitment process and will consider reasonable adjustments for communication, equipment, workplace, schedule, and duties in line with local requirements.

How to apply
Apply through [application method] with examples of the teams, systems, confidential work, scheduling, documents, or process improvements most relevant to this role.

Performance expectations

What good performance looks like

Use these outcomes to replace vague activity lists with the evidence the hiring manager expects to see after the person joins.

Administrative work has clear ownership, deadline, status, storage, and escalation rather than living in one person’s memory.

Documents and records pass accuracy checks before they affect a customer, colleague, payment, or decision.

Competing requests are resolved through agreed priorities and visible trade-offs.

The assistant recognises sensitive, unusual, or unauthorised requests and pauses or escalates appropriately.

Hiring-manager intake

Questions to settle before advertising

Record specific answers so sourcing, screening, and interview decisions use the same definition of the role.

1
Which people, team, function, customers, and recurring activities will the assistant support?
2
What office presence, hours, front-desk, travel, event, or time-zone expectations apply?
3
Which calendars, inboxes, records, purchases, meetings, documents, and requests sit within scope?
4
Which information is confidential and what access, approval, retention, or sharing controls apply?
5
Which decisions can the assistant make independently and where are priorities escalated?
6
What currently goes wrong: missed actions, scheduling conflicts, document errors, unclear ownership, or fragmented information?

Evaluation criteria

Evidence to use in a Administrative Assistant scorecard

Agree the criteria before interviews begin, then score examples against the same evidence standard.

Criterion

Useful evidence

Concern to explore

Organisation

Creates a dependable system for priority, deadline, owner, status, information, dependencies, and follow-up.

Relies on memory, personal inboxes, or urgency alone to decide what happens next.

Accuracy

Checks names, dates, versions, totals, attachments, permissions, formatting, and intended recipient before completion.

Describes attention to detail as a trait but cannot explain a repeatable checking method.

Judgement

Distinguishes routine authority from sensitive, conflicting, unusual, or high-impact requests and escalates with context.

Follows any senior request without checking permission, priority, confidentiality, or consequence.

Communication

Confirms the request, sets expectations, gives concise updates, records decisions, and adapts tone to audience.

Forwards messages without context or avoids communicating when work will be late.

Structured interview

Administrative Assistant interview questions and strong signals

Ask the same core questions in the same order, then use follow-ups to understand the candidate’s individual contribution.

Tell me about a day when several people gave you conflicting priorities.

Strong answer signal

Clarifies impact and deadlines, uses agreed authority, communicates trade-offs, escalates the genuine conflict, and tracks all work.

Describe an error you found before a document or request was sent.

Strong answer signal

Explains the check, corrects source and output, considers who else is affected, and improves the process.

How do you handle confidential information requested by someone senior?

Strong answer signal

Checks identity, purpose, access, necessity, and policy, and seeks authorised guidance rather than assuming seniority grants access.

Give an example of an administrative process you improved.

Strong answer signal

Finds the recurring cause, clarifies ownership or information, tests a simple change, documents it, and shows reduced delay or error.

Related titles

Check the scope behind the title

Office Assistant — often includes more site, supplies, reception, post, facilities, and general office support.

Team Administrator — usually supports one defined team and its records, meetings, customers, or operational process.

Executive Assistant — carries higher discretion, complex calendar and stakeholder management, preparation, and support for a senior leader.

Common hiring mistakes

Problems to remove before publishing

Writing “other duties as required” so broadly that candidates cannot understand the real workload or boundaries.

Combining reception, office management, executive assistance, bookkeeping, HR, marketing, and customer service into one entry-level role.

Listing basic software without explaining the documents, records, decisions, and coordination the tools support.

Treating administrative work as low judgement when confidentiality, access, priority, and communication can carry significant risk.

Continue the hiring workflow

Related roles and recruiter resources

Related job descriptions

Executive Assistant Office Manager Receptionist Project Coordinator

Helpful recruiter resources

Recruitment Activity Management

Keep ownership, deadlines, and follow-up visible.

Recruitment Email Automation

Automate routine communication while preserving context.

Hiring Forms

Use structured forms for approvals and information capture.

Source and review notes

How this template was prepared

Language: International English
Prepared by: ATZ CRM Editorial Team
Review: ATZ CRM Recruitment Editorial Review
Last reviewed: 2026-08-04

O*NET: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants

Reference for occupation tasks, knowledge, skills, abilities, and work activities.

ESCO: occupations and skills

Reference for internationally recognised occupation and skills terminology.

Qualifications, compensation, licences, working conditions, and equal-opportunity wording must be checked for the role and location before use.

Recruiter questions

Administrative Assistant job description FAQs

What should an Administrative Assistant job description include?

State the team supported, office and hours, calendars, inboxes, documents, records, meetings, purchases, systems, confidential information, customer contact, authority, and expected improvements.

What is the difference between an Administrative Assistant and an Executive Assistant?

An Administrative Assistant usually supports a team or function. An Executive Assistant often manages complex priorities, discretion, preparation, and relationships for one or more senior leaders.

Which skills matter most for an Administrative Assistant?

Prioritisation, accuracy, written communication, follow-up, confidentiality, system use, document quality, and judgement about when to act or escalate are usually more useful than a long software list.