How to assess office managers

G&A TEAM

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The following exercises help you assess the skills of

Office Manager candidates during your hiring process.
Feel free to modify any Office Manager skills assessment
for your needs.

What do office managers do?

Office managers oversee workspaces, ensuring an
efficient and productive work environment for your team.
For this reason, they are often called happiness managers
or vibe managers. They mostly work independently but
occasionally consult with senior executives and provide
administrative support. They’re the keepers of your
company office’s keys, credit card, supply cabinet and any
other resources employees need to do their jobs. They
also manage the General & Administrative (G&A)
department budget.

Office managers have a wide range of responsibilities,

from liaising with vendors (e.g. facility management,
catering) to booking travel, planning activities and
preparing reports. Because of all these duties, they must
know your operational and administrative procedures
inside and out and possess the following soft skills:

 Organizational skills: Office managers need to juggle

many tasks, like organizing meetings and planning in-
house or off-site activities. Strong organizational
skills are critical for completing all these tasks
properly.
 Communication skills: Office managers must be
excellent communicators as they must liaise with
staff, suppliers, clients and visitors. Both verbal and
written eloquence are important and the ability to
build rapport helps office managers work more
effectively.
 Problem solving skills: Office managers will face
several unforeseen issues during the day. It is
important that they can think quick without panicking
and find the most mutually satisfying solution.
 Time management skills: Office managers need to
hand in accurate and timely reports and run errands.
 For these reasons, they should be able to plan their
day and schedule their to-do list properly.
 Software use skills: Office managers use a wide range
of software to complete important duties, like
managing budgets, preparing letters and
presentations and coordinating with the IT
department on office equipment. This means they
must be tech-savvy and quick to learn using new
software.

Ways to test administrative assistant skills in

interviews
To test the skills of office managers, use questions and
exercises inspired from real-life scenarios that could
come up in the day-to-day work of office managers. Ask
candidates to provide an answer or solution and a short
explanation of their thinking process. Most of the
questions don’t have one right answer, but how
candidates approach each problem matters. Here are a
few exercises to test the most important office manager
skills:

1. Organizational skills assessment

Exercise 1

An overseas business partner is coming to your office for

a meeting with your CEO. This partner has never met your
CEO and has never been to the city or your office. Please
write a sample meeting confirmation email you would
send them. You can include all the information that you
believe they need to have a pleasant stay. What would you
add if your CEO instructed you to go the extra mile for
their arrangements?

What to look for: Candidates should show proactiveness

by sending an email including accurate and complete
information (e.g. proper spellings and links), suggesting
the easiest transportation routes, best restaurants and
noteworthy sightseeing and entertainment options. Ideal
candidates would ask this business partner if they have
any dietary specifications (e.g. vegetarian, no sugar diet)
or if they need special accommodations. Strong
candidates would go the extra mile and suggest including
a calendar invitation that includes a link to your office
address and contact details.

Red flags: Inaccurate or incomplete information, like the

wrong time zones and lack of useful links, is a red flag.
Also, candidates who would neglect to open a dialogue by
asking about the partner’s needs may not be well-suited
for this position.

Exercise 2

Imagine you have the following tasks to complete today.

Explain how you would prioritize them and why:

 Reply to an employee in the company’s messaging

app who is asking you about the conference tickets
she needs to have today (since the conference is
tomorrow).
 Restock the office’s medical kit.
  Welcome the marketing candidate for their face-to-
face interview.
 Book tickets and hotel for six employees going to an
important and popular conference in Amsterdam next
week – there are not many seats left.
 Book tickets/hotel for the CEO’s business trip next
week.
 Seek three offers for our Christmas party, which is
taking place on the 23rd and is a rather busy day for
corporate events in the specific venues we are
targeting.
 Order business cards for a VP who is leaving next
week to a sales conference and needs to have them
ready in three days.
 Order marketing collateral and two roll-up banners
which need to be printed and shipped by next week
for an event we are sponsoring.

What to look for: An experienced office manager will know

what criteria are more important. For example, the
medical kit should be near the top of the list, since safety
comes first. Great candidates should demonstrate the
ability to prioritize tasks based on urgency too. For
example, they should book the conference trip before the
CEO’s trip, since tickets and accommodation related to a
well-known conference tend to disappear very quickly.

Red flags: A lack of prioritization skills should immediately

disqualify a candidate. Also, trying to do everything at the
same time or seeming to want to “please the boss” before
anyone else are bad omens, as are being
unaccommodating or panicking.
2. Communication skills assessment

Exercise 1

Imagine it’s your first day with us and our CEO receives an
email from a vendor who wants to meet and present their
services. They mention they have been referred by a
professional contact. You don’t know how close this
contact is to your CEO but you believe your VP of Sales
could meet the vendor in the CEO’s place. However, both
your CEO and your VP of Sales are on a business trip and
not reachable. How would you handle this? Please include
the text of your potential email(s).

What to look for: Here you should check first for diplomacy
and politeness. A competent office manager wouldn’t go
directly to the CEO but they would try to determine who is
the next suitable person to address this issue. Look for
candidates who wouldn’t give out too much information –
like disclosing the fact that both the CEO and the VP of
Sales are away. Candidates should ask the appropriate
questions to help the vendor to the extent they can.
Depending on the vendors’ answers, candidate should
provide correct guidance on how, when and whom to
contact.

Red flags: A good office manager must be assertive and

discreet. Candidates who resort to dismissive answers,
like “sorry, I don’t know, they’re all away,” or give out too
much information on their executives’ trip details, purpose
or returning dates, may not be qualified for the role.

Exercise 2
Next Thursday you’re celebrating your company’s 4th
birthday. Your company has a few too many employees to
be able to talk over dinner so people have suggested
drinks and light snacks. Make a suggestion for a place and
time and explain what special preparations you’d make.

What to look for: A competent office manager will show

creativity and proactiveness. They will show they
understand the concept of the event (whether corporate or
more informal), mention that they would chase the best
offers from vendors, correctly calculate the costs
(including unexpected over-budgeting), draft the invitation
and send transportation options and routes.

Red flags: Over-budgeting happens often, but your office

manager candidate should show they are willing to put in
the work to get the best offers and negotiate. Another red
flag would be putting too much of a personal touch on the
event (e.g. only playing country music because that’s the
office manager’s preference.) A corporate event must be
well-balanced in terms of music, food, location and theme

3. Problem solving skills

Exercise

Some people in the office have complained that they don’t

have enough healthy options for snacks. How would you
handle this issue and how would you develop suggestions
for healthier snacks?

What to look for: An experienced office manager would do

some research before making decisions. They should poll
colleagues by sending out a survey, research snacks that
have ingredients that could help during working hours
(energy, concentration, stress-relief) and make an effort to
accommodate most needs. Thorough research of vendors
will also result in the best financial decision as well.

Red flags: Office manager candidates who would opt for

buying the most expensive or popular snacks, or buying
everyone what they ask for, might not possess enough
negotiation skills or assertiveness.

4. Time management skills assessment

Exercise

Our CEO has to cancel a meeting with a visitor in the last

minute. The guest is a very busy person and you know it’ll
take more than one working day to get a reply from their
secretary and, due to a time zone difference, you may get
a tentative reply. You need to reschedule quickly and you
only have tentative slots from your CEO. Tell us how you
would handle this and feel free to include the potential
email(s) you would send.

What to look for: This exercise reveals an office manager’s

ability to be flexible, punctual, think quickly and follow up.
They should make sure they check all possible
communication channels in order to get the message
delivered in a timely manner.

Red flags: Candidates who appear stressed out with the

question and say they would send more emails than
necessary wouldn’t handle this situation well. Also,
neglecting to follow up is a red flag.

5. Software use skills assessment

Exercise 1

You are in Athens and need to arrange a meeting between

your CEO who is in Boston and a business partner in San
Francisco. Please draft the Google Calendar invitation and
take a screenshot.

What to look for: Good candidates for this role would take
into account the different time zones and schedule
appropriately. They should also mention they are including
the correct location links and email addresses (including
the executives’ personal assistants).

Red flags: Failing to pay attention to time zones is a red

flag. Creating an email with incorrect information (e.g.
links or email addresses) and forgetting to include PAs,
are also problematic.

Exercise 2

The formula =SUM(B4:F4) in cell G4 is copied down the

Total column. If I delete the values in the range B4:F11,
how will this affect the formulas in the Total column?
What to look for: There’s one correct answer to this
question. Each total amount of each product in column G
will be reduced by the respective amount in column B.

This Office Manager skills assessment was written

by  Eleni Kostopoulou, Workable’s Office Manager.

Office Manager job description

This Office Manager job description template is
optimized for posting in online job boards or careers
pages. It is easy to customize for your company. Post now
on job boards.

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 Office Manager responsibilities include:
 Scheduling meetings and appointments within the
office
 Organizing the office layout and ordering stationery
and equipment
 Maintaining the office condition and arranging
necessary repairs

Hiring an Office Manager? Sign up for  Workable's 15-day

free trial  to post this job and hire better, faster.

Job brief
We are looking for an Office manager to organize and
coordinate administration duties and office procedures.
Your role is to create and maintain a pleasant work
environment, ensuring high levels of organizational
effectiveness, communication and safety.

What does an Office Manager do?

 Office manager duties and responsibilities include
scheduling meetings and appointments, making office
supplies arrangements, greeting visitors and providing
general administrative support to our employees. Previous
experience as a Front office manager or Office
administrator would be an advantage. A successful Office
manager should also have experience with a variety of
office software (email tools, spreadsheets and databases)
and be able to accurately handle administrative duties.

Ultimately, the Office manager should be able to ensure

the smooth running of the office and help to improve
company procedures and day-to-day operation.

Responsibilities
 Serve as the point person for office manager duties
including:

 Maintenance

 Mailing

 Supplies

 Equipment

 Bills

 Errands

 Shopping
 Schedule meetings and appointments
 Organize the office layout and order stationery and
equipment
 Maintain the office condition and arrange necessary
repairs
 Partner with HR to update and maintain office policies as
necessary
 Organize office operations and procedures
 Coordinate with IT department on all office equipment
 Ensure that all items are invoiced and paid on time
 Manage contract and price negotiations with office
vendors, service providers and office lease
 Manage office G&A budget, ensure accurate and timely
reporting
 Provide general support to visitors
 Assist in the onboarding process for new hires
 Address employees queries regarding office management
issues (e.g. stationery, Hardware and travel
arrangements)
 Liaise with facility management vendors, including
cleaning, catering and security services
 Plan in-house or off-site activities, like parties,
celebrations and conferences

Requirements
 Proven experience as an Office manager, Front office
manager or Administrative assistant
 Knowledge of office administrator responsibilities,
systems and procedures
 Proficiency in MS Office (MS Excel and MS Outlook, in
particular)
 Hands on experience with office machines (e.g. fax
machines and printers)
 Familiarity with email scheduling tools, like Email
Scheduler and Boomerang
 Excellent time management skills and ability to multi-
task and prioritize work
 Attention to detail and problem solving skills
 Excellent written and verbal communication skills
 Strong organizational and planning skills in a fast-paced
environment
 A creative mind with an ability to suggest improvements
 High School degree; additional qualification as an
Administrative assistant or Secretary will be a plus